West Coast Hotties

Red Vic Movie House

The Haight is an area about which I have mixed feelings.  There is a part of me that loves the old hippie history of the neighborhood and the small store shopping which is indicative of the heart of that history.  And there is a part of me which loathes the commercialization of that history and the fact that the historic corner of Haight Ashbury is now home to a Ben & Jerry’s and The Gap.  But every time I make my way to the Red Vic Movie House, I remember again what I love about that area.

The Red Vic is a worker-owned film venue which is operated by a collective of people who truly love movies.  Putting their love in to something which is both beneficial to them and great for the community, they created a place where creativity and comfort come together in one setting.  From the local films which provide information about San Francisco to the independent releases seen at small theatres everywhere, the Red Vic provides an alternative look at movies for the fan of film.  And from the couch / bench seats to the popcorn served in wooden bowls, the Red Vic makes you feel like a welcome guest in a friend’s lovely home.

Every time that I have ever gone to the Red Vic, I’ve happened to end up there on a night when the film was followed by a Q&A with someone involved in the making of the film.  Although this isn’t always the case, it happens often enough to chance upon it, and it’s an experience which I love.  Artists who truly believe in their own work come together with a movie house which is truly interested in film amidst people who really enjoy being in the area.  It creates a setting which embraces the creative arts.

Don’t get me wrong, though, The Red Vic is a not a place just for artsy film types.  The theater shows many of the most popular movies out today, catching them just when they’re about to head out of the big theatres but before they make it to DVD.  This gives you the chance to see new movies at less than big theater prices with the benefits of the big screen but comfort that makes you feel like you’re at home.   

And really, as much as I may have mixed feelings about it, the Haight is a fun neighborhood which is only enhanced by the presence of The Red Vic.  It's worth the MUNI ride or parking hassles there to get the experience.

Nightmare on the Muni...

The last time my wife and I visited San Francisco, we had a public transit bus experience that really freaked us out... We had just visited the Japanese Tea Gardens, and we wanted to visit Japantown.  Since we had purchased a San Francisco CityPass, we decided to use the included free MUNI bus pass to get there. 

We found a MUNI bus schedule, and found what bus we needed to take.  We actually had the right bus, but we got on at the wrong side of the street.  It was a very easy mistake to make. 

At first it seemed like we were going the right direction, but then the bus began to take us out of the city and into the suburbs.  It didn’t take me long to realize we were pretty far off-course.  When I told my wife that we had a problem, she suggested we simply wait it out, and the bus will eventually take us back to where we were at before. 

She was right about that.  However, the drive was very frightening.  The bus then went into the inner city. I began to feel like an idiot, because we were obviously lost tourists.  Eventually we came to what looked like a high-crime area, where there was a locked metal gate on every door.  I definitely found the part of San Francisco that you don’t want to visit.  I was quite afraid that my wife and I were going to get mugged, or something.  Even though I didn’t say a word, I was on-edge during that entire trip. 

Just when I thought it couldn’t get any worse, the bus driver tells us: “Last stop.  Everybody off”. We got off in what looked like an industrial section, and it looked somewhat safer than where we were at before.  Eventually, the bus driver turned the bus around.  Believe me, I was looking at everything that we passed on the way back, because I wanted to make sure we were headed back where we came from.  I did not want to get any more lost then we already were. 

When the bus finally dropped us off back in familiar territory, I think we just walked to Japantown from there, afraid that we would make the same mistake on another bus. 

Now, I’m not trying to say that you shouldn’t take a bus in San Francisco, but just make certain that it really is going where you want it to go.  For example the BART station is very easy to navigate, and this was how my wife and I got back to where we were staying. 

 

Later on, we told my wife’s sister what had happened.  Her reply was: “and you’re still alive?”. Yes, we were.  We were not mugged, nor were we treated badly.  In fact, I don’t remember a single bad thing that had happened on that trip, just the worry that something bad would happen. I think that it says a lot for the city when you think the worst could happen, and it doesn’t.  I suppose that is the only “moral” of this story.   

 

To make things even funnier, I was watching an episode of The Simpsons later where Lisa got on a bus that didn’t take her home.  Fortunately, I was not left out in the middle of the desert like she was.  Next time, I’m spending some extra on a limousine. 

San Francisco's New Mall

San Francisco is not known for being a Fashion Capital. There is no specific fashion district like those offered in the larger cities of New York or Los Angeles. And yet, every time that I look around the streets of San Francisco, I find to my eye’s delight that the people who spend time in this city are the people who know how to dress to their best. This combination of fashion-conscious people and a range of locations for finding new clothing leads to terrific shopping in the city, where trendy items are available but without the crowds and high costs of the larger cities.

There are numerous places to go fashion shopping all throughout San Francisco. When I feel like browsing through one-of-a-kind clothing, I head to the indie boutiques on Grant Street in North Beach. When it’s thrift store shopping that I want, I explore my options in the Haight and the Mission. When a friend came to town and wanted to see a fashion show, we headed to the SoMA. And then of course there’s Union Square and Market Street shopping for buying the latest magazine styles.

I was excited to find out recently that there’s about to be a new place to do some major fashion shopping in San Francisco. At the end of September, the brand-new 1.5 million-square-foot shopping mall known as Westfield San Francisco Centre will open its doors to greet the shopping public. This mall, located in a beautiful new building at the intersection of 5^{th Street and Mission, will have stores large and small to meet the needs of various shoppers.}

Fans of the smaller name-brand stores will have over 400 to choose from including Abercrombie & Fitch, BLUE by Antik, and Guess. There will also be a new branch of H&M which should satisfy San Francisco shoppers who made the 2005 opening of the first San Francisco H&M store the most successful of the chain’s stores ever opened. Lovers of the big places in fashion will be happy to know that both Nordstrom and Bloomingdale’s will be opening some of their biggest stores ever in this new mall plus some great florists that have beautiful San Francisco flowers.

I’m not even much of a mall girl myself, but this mall will be a terrific addition to the fashion world in San Francisco. And that’s not all that can be done there. With a food court, movie theatre, gourmet grocery store and Burke Williams day spa on board, this mall looks like it might meet all of my day-on-the-town needs.   It could even get me ready for a San Francisco wedding some day...

Cliff House

I met my date at the end of the N-Judah line, right near the entrance to Ocean Beach (San Francisco's #1 Beach). The setting could not have been more romantic. 

San Francisco had graced me with a late summer day filled with unusual warmth and relatively little fog. The ocean crashed against the shore and our conversation flowed as smoothly as the rolling of the waves.

 We approached the Cliff House from the south. To our left were people taking advantage of the sunny evening, dipping their toes in to the Pacific Ocean and playing with their dogs on the shore. To the right, we passed Golden Gate Park and saw looming green hills. Straight ahead was the historic building where we would be enjoying our dinner, a white structure which neither stood out nor blended in to the beauty of the scene before us.

 “Drinks or dinner?” asked the hostess, leading us in to the Bistro once we had answered that we were there for food. Majestic compass-shaped lamps hung overhead. Autographed photos of stars covered the walls. But what stood out was the view of the ocean through the picture windows, windows next to which we were seated comfortably. It was so wonderfully distracting that I almost forgot that we were supposed to be ordering food, and so romantic that I wasn’t even sure I felt like eating. The delicious aroma of the food changed my mind. The menu offered San Francisco favorites like Clam Chowder and Crab Louis, and when our food arrived, we found that it met the expectations its scent had led us to have. After the meal, we lingered, learning about the history of the area from the displays strategically set up around the restaurant. We stopped in at the gift shop and picked up some jewelry to send to my mother. Then we stepped outside again. I had been so interested in my date that I had not seen the ruins of the Sutro Baths which the Cliff House overlooks to the north. They were shocking in their beauty and I was instantly transported back to a time when the baths were a venue of entertainment for our history’s locals.

 We walked down the available paths to explore the baths further. From there, the waves were more audible than they had been before. And the view of the Cliff House was even more awe-inspiring. Located near the baths, we found a tunnel of caves which led to a secluded area where we stumbled upon another couple, cuddled together to watch the water breaking.  I could clearly see why people frequently use this spot to host weddings!  My date wrapped his arm around my shoulders and I remembered yet again that San Francisco is the most romantic city in the country.

The Animal Wildlife in San Francisco???

     Sometimes living in San Francisco is like living in a zoo.  Yes, I could be referring to the chaos of life in a bustling city where so many diverse people are located within such a small geographic area.  But in this case, I mean it much more literally than that.  San Francisco is home to an astounding array of interesting wildlife, some of which is native to the area and some of which is not, but all of which is worth checking out to experience a bit of nature in an urban environment.

     There are two quite famous wildlife breeds in the city.  The first is the sea lions located at Pier 39.  The second is the pocket of wild parrots on Telegraph Hill in North Beach.  The former began to come to the area in 1990, just after the earthquake upset nature in the region.  At that time, a small group of less than ten sea lions began to use the dock area as a haul-out spot.  Word must have spread among the sea lion community because today there are hundreds of sea lions who call this spot home.  Similarly, the Telegraph Hill parrots were first noticed not too many years ago when there was only a pair of them.  Today, flocks fly above the city together in colorful displays.

     In what other urban environment can one walk among the activity of tourist shops and famous landmarks and hear the barking of sea lions mingling with the near-laughter of cawing parrots?  It is almost as if it was planned that way by a city looking to increase tourism, except that both of these sets of animals came here of their own accord and developed their animal communities oblivious to the people interested in seeing them.

     And the sea lions and wild parrots aren’t all the wildlife there is to see here.  A quick ride on the MUNI over to Golden Gate Park will let you explore a whole new range of animal life. Within the park is an enclosure of buffalo.  They may not be natural to the environment, but in what other major city can you go to the park and see buffalo?  Perhaps more common to parks is the chance to see the squirrels frolicking through the Botanical Gardens located there; but again, what major city is home to a park large enough to accommodate Botanical Gardens?

     Of course, for those people who just aren’t satisfied with the wildlife making their homes all across the city, there’s always the option of heading over to the real zoo of San Francisco.  The first Wednesday of every month is free admission day, although travelers are forewarned that the number of people who take advantage of that opportunity make it seem more like a human zoo than an animal one!

Walking the Streets of San Francisco...

 

If you haven’t lived in San Francisco all of your life, you don’t get to easily wear the badge of being a native.  That’s just the way it is in a transient city where so many of the people who call the place home are actually from someplace else.  That isn’t necessarily a bad thing.  Travelers are welcomed in this city.  Locals are friendly and the fact that everyone is from somewhere else just means that we all have a basic topic of conversation (“where are you from?”) to start conversations with strangers.

But the fact that people who call San Francisco home aren’t necessarily locals doesn’t mean that they can never earn that badge.  There are little tricks which people learn that cause locals to start to consider them comrades.  For example, when a non-native is told the address of an unfamiliar destination and he or she immediately knows not only which mode of public transportation is best for getting there but also which ones will help avoid the longest walks up the steepest hills, the “honorary native” badge is on its way to being earned.

I earned my badge the other day. I needed to get from Fisherman’s Wharf near Ghirardellli Square to Union Square as quickly as possible.  I glanced at the line for the trolley and immediately dismissed that as inefficient at this particular time of day.  I made my way over to Columbus, intending to take the 30 MUNI bus.  No bus was in sight, so I decided to walk in the right direction until a bus came along, knowing that sometimes the walk goes more quickly than the bus in that area of town.

I hit Stockton and turned in to Chinatown.  This was the home of the place where I earned my badge. The streets of this part of Chinatown are lined with stores and food markets.  The bright colors of traditional dresses and the pungent aroma of fresh seafood have become a familiar part of my daily landscape.  And so has the foot traffic in this area.  Crowds linger around the food stands, selecting fruit and bargaining about prices. Pedestrian traffic moves en masse in both directions on each side of the sidewalk.  The street is jam-packed with double-parked delivery trucks, speeding taxis and confused drivers.

People who are trying to get somewhere in a hurry generally avoid this part of town.  But I easily walked the distance from its center to the Stockton Tunnel without any problems.  The crowds bump against one another in Chinatown’s close quarters in a way which wouldn’t be acceptable anywhere else in the city, and I easily jostled with them.  I dodged in an out with expert precision, being sure not to knock over the elderly men walking with canes or to trip over the children darting to the candy displays.  I crossed the streets with barely a glance in either direction, familiar with the traffic flow.

And I beat the 30 MUNI to Union Square.  The walk through Chinatown is not an easy one.  But it’s one which allows you to feel almost like you have stepped in to another part of the world.  And with my speedy trek through its core, I earned another star on my becoming-a-local chart.  It's not like you need a limousine to get around San Francisco!

Flowers in San Francisco...

It was eleven o’clock on a weekday morning. I had just finished running errands in the Financial District and wanted to find some place to grab some lunch, but I also wanted to avoid the lunchtime crowds of the crowded area.  And really, I just wanted to get away from the city for a little while. I needed a break from the traffic and the noise.  That was when I remembered the San Francisco Flower Mart.  It was a bit of a walk from where I was, but I figured that the exercise might help clear my busy mind.  I was right.

I walked along Market Street and over to the SoMA District.  Things had changed since the last time I had been over there, with new buildings going up and a park being constructed.  But the streets were still a bit run down, and I didn’t find much to keep my eyes entertained as I made the walk.  I reached the strip of warehouses which make up the Flower Mart and remained unimpressed; I’d forgotten how simple the buildings were.

But as soon as I turned the corner, I was rewarded with the scent of fresh cut flowers coming from within the sixty wholesale stores which make their home there.  I almost didn’t even know where to begin, but I just started at the beginning and wound my way through all of the stores which were open. I chatted amicably with the first few vendors who were helpful in letting me know which flowers were in season and which were on sale.

In one of the final shops, the vendor was occupied with another customer.  He told me that he would be back in a moment and nodded pleasantly.  I took the opportunity to simply walk around the store and take in the lush beauty of the vibrant colors all around me.  Standing still, I listened to a sound not often heard in the city – silence.  This little segment of paradise offered exactly the respite that I had been seeking.  I lingered longer than I should have, grabbing lunch at the Flower Market Café while I was there, which made me late for an appointment on the other side of town.  Luckily the wholesale prices on bouquets were so reasonable that I was able to pick up flowers to appease the head of the meeting!

Labor Day Off? Our Editors on the Move...

We've updated sfTravel with our weekend adventures including:

• Staying at an Airport Marriott and stumbling into a nerd-fest pudgy "Conquest" convention.   Plus armed military guards at the San Francisco Airport perimeters nearby...
• Tourist melees at Ghiradelli "Chocolate Factory" moving up the list of our top San Francisco tourist traps.

No Labor Day rest for us sfTravel editors!