Ba-Rackin the Vote -- California Style

San Francisco is a abuzz on election day. For some reason, the city allows voting not only at schools, City Hall, etc. but also in people's garages. There are at least two garage polling stations set up within a five-minute walk of our house. Dawn strolled down to one on her way to work (I voted absentee in New York a couple of weeks ago...). She waited 45-minutes this morning; goodness knows what it will be like for people who vote this afternoon.

Dawn spent part of the evening deciding how she would vote on California's and San Francisco's many propositions. Some are serious, such as the ones to make gay marriage illegal or require parental notification for a teenager to get an abortion. Others are comical, like the proposal to name the city's sewage treatment plant after George W. Bush.

I'm writing this in a cafe, which is busier than usual because of the election (a garage polling station is half-a-block away). The baristas are excited about Obama ("My man, Obama," one keeps telling customers.) A few minutes ago, a lesbian couple walked by hand-in-hand outside on their way to the polls.

One things for sure: If Obama wins, there will be dancing in the streets tonight.

Balloon Bandit

We got home from a movie tonight and this balloon was floating in our kitchen. We have no idea where it came from. Granted, nearly everything in this apartment is not ours, so it could belong to the people we're renting from, but we've been here three months. Wouldn't the helium be gone by now? And wouldn't we have noticed it before? Where could it have come from???

To market, to market

There's no shortage of farmers' markets in San Francisco, and we've been taking advantage of them and trying to get most of our fruits and vegetables there. One of the most popular is the Ferry Plaza Market, on Tuesdays and Saturdays, and since I work just a couple of blocks away I often swing by during lunch to pick up some veggies for the week. This market is on the bay with all sorts of food stalls and caters to the foodies of SF.

As beautiful as the Ferry Market is, on Saturdays we usually end up closer to our house at the Alemany Market, which is a little less glamorous, especially considering it's under the freeway in a big parking lot. It's closer to the house and the fruit and vegetables are CHEAP and since we live in Cali, still beautiful and mostly local. I have serious doubts about all the "organic" signs I see, especially considering the items are being sold dirt cheap ($1.00/pound for organic peaches -- I don't think so). Our favorite stall is run by a woman who sells these delicious stuffed Afghani flatbreads called Bolanis. Every time we're there she insists on giving us several samples each, even if we've tried them all and know what we want to buy.

I think one of my favorite things about the Alemany Market though, are all the reviews on yelp. They just crack me up and seem to sum up a lot of SF -- a little bit of the holier-than-thou attitude. Not only do the reviewers get to feel superior because they're shopping at a farmers' market, they get to review that market and talk about how much better it is because it's not as pretentious as the Ferry Terminal Market, which just makes the reviewer sound really pretentious. Some of the best quotes: "you don't have to wade through the yuppie fashion show that is the Ferry Building," "if you want overpriced produce served with a silver spoon, go to the Ferry Building," and "not the shi shi poo poo tourists of the Ferry Market."

San Francisco ride

Bimbo's 365 Club is about a 25 minute walk from the BART, and in general we haven't gotten that good about learning the other modes of public transit in SF because we like to walk and our house is on BART, so it seems to make the most sense to us even though it might not be the quickest way to travel.

Bimbo's is on a cable car line, however, which will take us directly to the BART. The cost to ride the cable cars is a little steep, $5 one way, and most people think of it as something just for tourists. But, SF has a little thing called the FastPass, which is a monthly pass that gives me access to the light rail (aka Muni), buses, the BART stations within the city and cable cars. (Bob doesn't have a FastPass since it doesn't include his trip down to Palo Alto). So, since my ride was free and a cable car came around the corner, we hopped on. It truly is a pretty sweet way to get around the city, especially late at night when there aren't as many tourists, and really nice that the city wants to encourage residents to use it too.

We had the added bonus of having a chatty conductor. I had my big, huge bag I use when I want to go to the gym after work. He told us it reminded him of the sotry about when Ann Richards was governor of Texas, and a member of the State Legislature wanted to pass a law that would require women to carry handguns in order to fend off sexual predators. Ann Richards replied, "Is he crazy, does he know how long it would take me to find a gun in my purse?" Then, as we were walking away from the train the conductor shouted after us, "Have a good night, don't get a hernia!" Nice to know he's looking out for me.

Bimbo's 365 Club

We're sitting at Bimbo's 365 Club waiting to see Alejandro Escobar, who Bob tells me is like the Latino Bruce Springsteen and Carrie Rodriguez, a singer-songwriter and fiddle player from Austin, TX.

Bimbo's reminds me of the Copacabana in Goodfellas, but we came in through the front door, not the kitchen. The main room is full of intimate round tables with reserved signs, and here in the lounge we're cozied next to the fire in red naugahide seats and tables with pink cloths. It's quite fabulous and you can read all about the history here.

The bartenders are dressed like Isaac on on the love boat and have martini glasses filled with ice to chill along the bar. I bypassed the martini and opted for a Miller High Life, The Champage of Beers. Should be a good show.

Sushi in the Sky with Diamonds...

We've already posted one entry about San Francisco food on our blog. There are probably many more to follow. Given the variety of farmers markets and little hole in the wall restaurants, that's not too surprising. We'll only write about them when we find something especially cool and exciting. Otherwise, we realize this blog will get irksome very quickly.

Take Tamasei Sushi for instance. It's in the Noe Valley, a gentrified little neighborhood at the bottom of the hill where we live. The main avenue is lined with funky little shops and restaurants. Dawn and I wandered into this tiny sushi restaurant after she finished work last Friday. It certainly isn't like any other sushi bar I've been in. The first thing we noticed was the large painting of Bob Marley. The second was the the elderly, but spry, waitress passing out menus. The third was the slightly stoned (or at least they appeared to be) sushi chefs (?) preparing nigiri and maki.

Not long after we sat down, a young latino man with a battered guitar case walked in. "The mariachi! The mariachi!" cried the old waitress. He led the man into a small room in back, and as he took at his guitar, she brought out a set of of maracas and passed one to each customer. Then the young man came out and played a Mexican (I guess) melody as we rattled our maracas and our waitress danced around the small room beating two wooden sushi boxes together. He was quite good, actually. We were happy to rattle away as he strummed his instrument. The sushi was nothing special, but then again, we can't get that sort of experience at Tokyo-Seoul or the Bleu Monkey in Syracuse.

We'll return again, and when we do, we may buy the T-shirt hanging above the kitchen which has "Sushi in the sky with diamonds..." emblazoned across the chest.

Berkeley Jaunt

We have explored a number of places over the past few weekends, but we have confined our local jaunts to this side of the bay. We changed that on Sunday when we hopped on a very crowded BART train and took it under the bay to Berkeley. I'll be spending a lot of time there in the winter and spring doing research at the Bancroft Library, which is currently closed for renovations and an earthquake retrofit. That's fine with me. I'll take comfort knowing that if the big one hits while I'm digging in the archives, I'll have a fair chance of surviving to work another day.

I mostly know Berkeley mostly through lore about the '60s. I recently read a book and saw a video about the town during that tumultuous decade, so I was curious if it bore any resemblance to the radical enclave it once was. Telegraph Ave., the main student drag, certainly has retained some of the spirit of that time. Old hippies sell bumper stickers, posters, and strangely, computer mouse pads sporting leftish slogans. Others sell various trinkets. (One was hocking--I kid you not--a chain mail bikini bottom. A potential Christmas gift for Dawn.) Besides that, the street didn't look that much different than the ones around other large university towns, such as the AVE in Seattle.

We were sad to learn that Cody's Books, a Berkeley institution, closed its doors for good just a month earlier. It had a reputation as one of the best independent bookstores on the West Coast. But it met the fate of other bookstores unable to compete with Barnes & Noble, Amazon.com, and the like. Cody's Books was also a home for students, faculty, and locals involved in the Free Speech Movement during the '60s. With its passing, another symbol of that era has passed. We went to Moe's Books down the street. Though not as famous as Cody's, it still is far better than any bookstore in Syracuse.

After spending an hour (and some money) at Moe's, we went to People's Park just off Telegraph Ave. For the casual observer, the park looks pretty much like many other urban parks: some trees and lawns, a basketball court, and bathroom. There are more homeless people there than in most parks, either in San Francisco or Syracuse for that matter. In 1969, the park became a battleground for the city's Free Speech Movement. UC-Berkeley acquired the land through eminent domain to build dormitories. Before construction began, locals and students attempted to turn the land into a park for community use. Eventually, the university erected a fence around the park. The protests that followed led to a violent suppression by the police; one young man was killed by a shotgun blast. Since then, the university has sought on occasion to expel the homeless from the park leading others to insist that the place belongs to all the people, including the homeless. Nearly thirty years later, bitterness endures among those involved in the People's Park riot. When asked at his retirement party in 2007 to reflect on his long career, Alameda County Sheriff Charles Plummer, who was a policemen involved in the confrontation at People's Park in '69, said "I wish I would have hit some people harder during the riots. I regret that."

There's stunning mural depicting this history near the park on Haste St. I've included a photo of it here. You can see more of the mural and others photos from our day in Berkeley on our Flickr page.

"Is Auntie Dawn a Democrat?"

We met up with my sister and her family in Lake Tahoe last weekend, where they are spent their summer vacation. My brother-in-law recently won the Republican primary to become the Township Supervisor in Lake Orion, MI, and unless there is a massive upset will be elected this November. He and I have always good naturedly given each other a hard time about our beliefs, and it looks like my 9-year-old niece is starting to pick up on it.

We were at the beach, and my sister took Emma to use the restroom. On the way, the following conversation took place:

Emma: Is Auntie Dawn a Democrat?
Debbie: Yes, she is.
Emma: Why?
Debbie: Well, she just thinks about things a little differently than your dad and I.
Emma: Does that mean I can be a Democrat?
Debbie: Of course, if that's what you believe in.

She can be a Democrat, but she might break her father's heart...

Trapped in Sunnyvale

Last night we went down to the South Bay to have dinner with my friend Julie and her boyfriend Adam, who live in that area. Bob was already in Palo Alto at Stanford, so after work I picked up our friends Nasha and Jason and we headed down to get him, then caravan to an Afghani restaurant in Sunnyvale. On the ride Nasha and Jason were talking about how they rarely come down to that area, but how nice and warm it is, even just a little bit out of the city. And while it was far, it really wasn't too bad of a drive.

It did take a little while to find parking because there was a street fair, but, we finally did find parking in a garage, and went on to have a lovely dinner catching up with old friends. As we walked back to the garage to get our cars, we ran into a little trouble as there were cops surrounding the structure and police tape across every entrance. Nobody seemed to know what was going on, so we got some gelato and speculated as to what it could be (bomb? assault?). Then, about 45 minutes later the police announced that a "device" had been found and that it would be at least 2 hours before the bomb squad had arrived and deemed it safe to enter.

So, we started crafting an alternative route home or whether we'd stay at Julie's or get a hotel room. Complicating matters was the fact that the parking garage was next to the Caltrain, the commuter rail system in the Bay Area, and they stopped the trains running through there because of the "device," so that wasn't an option. Luckily, we saw a cab and asked him how much to take us to SF. He sad about $80 to the airport, so we had him take us there, where we grabbed the BART home. Phew... now I know why Jason and Nasha stay in the city.

Birthday at the Ferry Terminal

There's a lot to explore in the Bay Area, but for the most part, we will do so during the weekends. On the weekdays, Dawn takes the BART downtown to her office and I work from home, though this will change in September when I begin heading down to Stanford a few days a week. Since last Tuesday was my birthday, Dawn treated me to lunch downtown at the Ferry Terminal along the Embarcadero.

The Ferry Terminal is a foodie's mecca. Earlier in the decade, the city refurbished the historic building, converting it into a marketplace filled with organic stores. As long as you have deep pockets, you can buy whatever gourmet food your heart desires: humanely-raised beef, fancy olive oil, or artisanal bread. (We're glad that we can satisfy all our lard needs while we live here at the Pranther Ranch Meat Co.) There was a farmers' market the day we were there, so we picked up some organic plums and grapes as well as some homemade tofu--it really is better than regular tofu.

The Japanese restaurant inside had some incredible bento boxes with crab cakes, seaweed salad, and cooked eggplant. My tastes have improved since I was kid; we used to always get pizza on my birthday. In the future, I'll probably have to go back to that tradition since I doubt I can find bento boxes in Syracuse half-as-good as the one I had at the Ferry Terminal.

On a clear day you can see Oakland

As many of you know, we really lucked out in finding a furnished one bedroom apartment in a great neighborhood that we can actually afford. But, having arrived and lived here for almost two weeks it is even better than we could have expected. On a clear day you really can see all the way across the bay, and even on foggy days we can look around at the colorful houses that dot the surrounding hills. It has a beautiful garden in the back with a tangerine tree and hummingbirds that stop by to feed on the flowers. It feels so cozy, Bob and I were commenting last night about how homey it is and that it hardly seems like we're living in someone else's house. And, it's so easy to move to a furnished place that we already had friends over for Bob's birthday dinner last night. All in all, about as smooth a move as one can hope for!

SF

Home again, home again, jiggity jig! Both Bob and I have made it to our new home in San Francisco. We've set up this little blog to keep friends and family updated and to chronicle the adventures we'll have this year. The title comes from the greetings J.F. Sebastian's robots give him when he returns home in the movie Blade Runner. Maybe a bit obscure, but something I say all the time whenever we get home from something.

Anyway, I've been here for a week and Bob for about 12 hours after an all night drive from Salt Lake City to SF. He brought some of the warm weather with him and after a short nap and a long shower he was ready to head to Baker Beach for a little of the sunshine with our friends, Nasha and Jason. It was a gorgeous day and the beach was in a nice little cove with views of the Golden Gate bridge and flocks of brown pelicans flying overhead. (In fact, I think that photo used on this blog is taken from the same beach, but I'm not positive since I snagged it from the Library of Congress' photo archive.) And, in true San Francisco style, a portion of the beach is a nude beach, so we saw lots of naked men tanning, walking around and frolicking in the ocean. Quite the way to spend our first day in the city together.