ossobuco wrote:
But I was in on the ride with the Russian taxi driver who took us on a notquiteSteveMcQueen ride up and down Russian and Nob Hills; we told him about Able2Know and nudged him to post, but he doesn't thnk his english is good enough. It is. He and JJorge started talking about Russian poetry....
We had some interesting cab drivers all right.
On Sat. night the one who took me home (after I was ABANDONED at 500 Jackson by my comrades!) told me all about his experiences as a program manager for the now defunct, 'Synanon' drug program.
Sunday night my driver was a Chinese fellow who poured out his heart to me about his wife of 21 years who wants to become a Buddhist nun.
ossobuco wrote:
But I was in on the ride with the Russian taxi driver who took us on a notquiteSteveMcQueen ride up and down Russian and Nob Hills; we told him about Able2Know and nudged him to post, but he doesn't thnk his english is good enough. It is. He and JJorge started talking about Russian poetry....
We had some interesting cab drivers all right.
On Sat. night the one who took me home (after I was ABANDONED at 500 Jackson by my comrades!) told me all about his experiences as a program manager for the now defunct, 'Synanon' drug program.
Sunday night my driver was a Chinese fellow who poured out his heart to me about his wife of 21 years who wants to become a Buddhist nun.
Restroom?
It's a TOILET, Mabel!
"WC", "00", 'loo', "toilette", "Gents", "Ladies" - you can have senior moments everywhere :wink:
[There must be some reason, why the Americans call it 'restroom'
]
dlowan wrote:Restroom?
It's a TOILET, Mabel!
I don't think they actually left jjorge IN the toilet, deb.
At least, I sure hope not!!!
"Restroom" goes back to the days when they had chairs and couches in the outer part of the "ladies' room", and toilets in the back room.
We don't actually know where jjorge was in the restroom.......but one can assume.
This reminds me of a funny family story. Many years ago when my brother was a young man he was staying with our father in his apartment. He went into the bathroom and locked the door. My young niece began to knock when she found the door locked and demanded, "Uncle Bailey, what are you doin in there?"
My brother answered, "I'm combing my hair."
On exiting the bathroom, my niece could hear the toilet flushing and once my brother emerged from the room, my little niece looked at him, scowling. And she said, "Uncle Bailey, you were NOT combing your hair!"
Family stories can be fun. Well, in this case, fun for everyone but my niece. Although she does laugh whenever she hears this story repeated.
I just got back from breakfast at tne Grand Cafe across from the hotel, had French eggs this time (scrambled with fresh porcini mushrooms), toast with great thick rich jam, and delicious coffee, ahhhh. Have an hour to pass before the van for the airport arrives. I am reluctant to leave, it's another gorgeous day here and the museums and galleries are open today.
I heard from pdiddie earlier: they did have a wonderful time hiking in Muir woods and seeing the wine country. I miss them already too, along with those who've already flown and CI and his terrific wife, who live in the area. In a way the weekend was like a serial good time; one is wondering where we are getting together to catch up..
My weekend started Friday when I landed at SFO airport and took a hotel van into town. The van went through a district of renovated old buldings, blocks and blocks of them - I love all this, seeing the old spiffed up without losing the character of place. (although, yes, there are downsides to gentrification... but this didn't look, now, anyway, like it had been all yupped up.)
And then getting to the hotel was neat, you know I liked it. My hotel was only a block away from the King George so I went over there and sat in the lobby for only a few minutes before Diane came in the front door. Eventually we went to the lounge and all of us broke the ice with a comfortable chat. Well, not ice, they had beer and wine and water available...
We ate that night at Piperade, a basque place with, uh, ok food. Still, it was fun. The next morning all of us but jjorge went as Lola mentioned to the Embarcadero to see the street/farmer's market and ate at Sinbad's, an old tourist restaurant that had hardly anyone in it at breakfast time... all the crowd was over at the farmer's market, which is huge. We sat at a table with a view of the bay bridge, which was right there, seemed like a few feet away. After a while we couldn't see much of the bridge, what with the morning mists.
We split up after that, Diane and Dys and Lola and Blatham sauntering off, and the pdiddies and the CI's and I covered the market place. What wonders lie inside the interior of the Ferry building, which is the interior part of the market. Oooooooh, the cheeses.... oh, the olive oils... oh, the Sur La Table store...
Then we wound our way slowly back towards Geary Street, first by checking out the Hyatt at the Embarcadero. That is one of those Portman buildings that has an immense and interesting central atrium, quite impressive as a structure. I like this one better than the one in LA, because it is less forbidding in relation to the rest of the neighborhood at the street level. After that we wandered up Market Street to find the Palace Hotel, which we knew had a lovely glassed in garden court. But first we went in to See's candies for a little tide-me-over. Eventually we did attain entry to the garden court, where we saw the brunch menu for Sunday. Um, $49.00. Well, that settled that re our possibilites list.
We had talked about some of us meeting for a gallery "walk" and so we found, with no trouble at all, the 49 Geary Building we wanted to visit. Early... so we had iced tea, etc. at the Nieman Marcus cafe up the street.
Got to go check out, more later.
So, now I'm waiting for the airport van, tap tap tap.
Where were we... just at 49 Geary. jjorge caught up with us there, and we figured out which of the galleries in the building we were going to and he waited in the lobby for Dys and Diane while the pdids and ci's and I went upstairs. At the Stephen Wirtz gallery we saw some elegant photos by Michael Kenna and a large collage laden with pieces of memorabilia, some very haunting re segregation... sorry, I don't remember the title or painter's name. A fellow I took to be Stephen Wirtz talked to us about the Kenna photos and the economics surrounding the collectibility of his work.I'll come back here after I get back home and post a link.
I saw some more work I liked at two other galleries, one with large landcape paintings and the other with photographs. Another gallery had semifigurative paintings re battle (explosions), which I thnk triggered an a2k discussion in the hallway between galleries... or maybe not, since I was next door... in any case, there was a group meeting in the hall...
After a while we hopped a couple of cabs to the Niebaum Coppola cafe in North Beach, where we had a fine time and were joined in a bit by Blatham and Lola..
oh, the pizza, well, mine at least was the best I've had since, since, since, yes, Roma. But then again, pizza is terrible where I live now.
OK, back to the lobby, see you later.
excellent!!! Good for you guys!
Osso that sounds so grand. I just love North Beach and the Itlalian flavor. Did you see any fern bars still in action while you were in the City?
JoanneDorel wrote:
Osso... Did you see any fern bars still in action while you were in the City?
Joanne,
I know LOTS of bars where you can find a fern!
*Ferns are born, not made.
***
*Forsake not an old fern, for a new one does not compare with him.
***
*A fern may well be reckoned the masterpiece of nature.
***
*It is one of the blessings of old ferns that you can afford to be stupid with them.
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*The only way to have a fern is to be one.
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*'We know our ferns by their defects rather than by their merits.'
***
This is Mrs ci and jjorge trying to climb this bridge at the Japanese Tea Garden. I declined the invite.
Two lovers (Mr and Mrs PDid) at the Japanese Tea Garden.
I missed the shot when they were smooching it up.
At Niebaum (Francis) Copollas where we enjoyed lunch.
Now that's a fabulous photo!! Look at all the twinkliness over on the Diane/ Osso side! Wow.
Leaving Sinbad's after brunch. This is close to the farmer's market near the Ferry building.
