Valentine's Day heart

HAPPY VALENTINE'S DAY!

Rupert Garcia's Elan Vital appropriately decorates the lobby of The Kaiser Hospital in San Francisco where heart surgery is performed.  The fiber-glass heart sculpture is 5 feet tall, 5 feet 9 inches wide and 3 feet 3 inches thick.  It was created as part of 'Hearts in San Francisco'.

Hearts in San Francisco is a Bay Area-wide "heart installation" that debuted in the spring of 2004. While similar to Chicago's "Cows on Parade," the San Francisco version uses a heart icon, appropriate for a city that is recognized for its acceptance and tolerance, as well as being perennially open-hearted. The goal of this project is to become a unique hybrid of fund-raising, compassionate community involvement, and a positive nurturing of artistic expression at a time when it is sorely needed. The financial beneficiary of Hearts in San Francisco is the San Francisco General Hospital Foundation, whose sole purpose is to fund projects that will enhance patient care and comfort at San Francisco General Hospital Medical Center (SFGH).   New hearts are added each year, including table-top hearts if you want one to decorate your own home.

Miss Liberty

In San Francisco, a temporary tax preparation company has set up several locations, calling themselves Liberty Tax.  And they advertise with Miss Liberty(s) dancing on nearby corners; that is, most are Miss Liberty but some seem to be Mr. Liberty!

Sailboat

My husband Dick and daughter Elyse took me to lunch Saturday for my (mumble)birthday at The Spinnaker Restaurant in Sausalito.  It is built out over the water and is glass on three sides so the views are spectacular.  Sailboats, kayakers, ferry boats, pelicans and other birds all pass in review, and in the distance there is Alcatraz on the left and San Francisco on the right.  And the food is very good!

Mint Plaza

Two friends and I have been meeting for monthly lunch since 1985; we call ourselves MMR (Muriel, Margie & Rick).  Our lunch last Monday was at Chez Papa Resto on Mint Plaza in San Francisco. Mint Plaza, San Francisco's newest public outdoor space, is located in the SOMA/downtown neighborhood (off of 5th Street between Mission and Market). And its most striking  feature besides a wide-open space is ---- orange chairs.  No tables, just chairs.  People move them into any configuration they please.  Most amazing!

Rose

A rose grows in San Francisco.

Delica

Yesterday in the Ferry Building in San Francisco a restaurant called Delica had a display table in the hallway showing three of their offerings for lunch. What happened to the Pork Cutlet Sandwich?  There's just a little juice left on the plate!

Claude

He may look like a rubber alligator you could have in your bathtub, but Claude is a real live albino alligator in the California Academy of Sciences in San Francisco. He weighs about 150 pounds and is about 8 1/2 feet long. He used to share his swamp with Bonnie who was a little feisty. Claude's pink eyes can't see very well and he suffered some injury at the 'hands' (or ?) of Bonnie. Bonnie has now left the building!

Said the spider

If this Orb Spider had been anywhere near yesterday's fly - oh! words fail me! But this spider dwells in the California Academy of Sciences and doesn't get a chance to hunt in the wild.

Glass cubes

This is about two glass cubes. The first photo is in the Rio airport and signifies the end of our South American trip. The glass cube is a smoking room in an otherwise non-smoking airport. The second glass cube is the elevator from the basement garage to the California Academy of Sciences in San Francisco. Yes, it is outdoors.

Blue green man

On April Fool's Day I joined 300-400 people in the 31st Annual St. Stupid's Day Parade in San Francisco. For two hours the First Church of the Last Laugh, led by Bishop Joey, celebrated St. Stupid's Day by walking through the Financial District for two hours with various stops along the way. Two notable stops are the throwing of pennies at the black granite sculpture in front of the Bank of America Building (while one of the paraders put up a police-type yellow tape saying 'White Collar Crime Scene') and the annual Sock Exchange in front of the old Pacific Stock Exchange Building where the air is filled with thrown socks. Most paraders are costumed, or in the case of about half a dozen people, uncostumed (nude). One such was this blue green man whose whole body was painted (actually I didn't see the bottoms of his feet). I know it was because he happily posed facing me but I am too chicken to send out that photo; here's the view you get of him. I went in civvies just for the experience as did quite a few others.

Bouquet

The signature bouquet at One Market is a vase of wooden and maybe ceramic flowers. You can judge how big it is by the pepper grinder in the lower left of the photo.

Crab cake

Are you hungry? This was our first course at One Market last Tuesday. The restaurant is featuring crab in many forms all this month. It was delicious.

Soda Pop

An advertisement on the side of a building on Steuart near the Ferry Building doesn't need to name its product; the logo is enough. Very clever, don't you think? The second photo shows the ad as one sees it while walking down the street.

Ferry

Last Wednesday morning we took the Larkspur Ferry into San Francisco. We got there a little early, in time to see our ferry returning from an earlier trip to the city.

Running and walking

Yesterday morning we left home well before the crack of dawn to drive into San Francisco and get a good parking space before the Kaiser Permanente San Francisco Half Marathon and 5K foot race. Several of us walked and ran the 5K and others ran the Half. The first picture shows some of the many Port-a-Potties in the early morning mist. The 5K numbered 2,327 runners and walkers and the Half Marathon had 5,817 participants. The second photo is of the half marathoners; they stretched in both directions as far as I could see and they kept coming (and going).

Harlot

If this is what you're looking for, this might be a good place to start - in San Francisco. Salt House is mundane though - a restaurant; the button is probably for delivery.

PS - Ever curious, I looked up Harlot - s/he/it is not in the SF phone book. But Google knows, and if you want to know too, go here: http://www.harlotsf.com/