San Francisco & Chinatown

Oh no, I took too many good photos.

published in San Francisco, CA

Marina District - Betty never misses out on crossing crosswalks on painted stripes only.
Marina District - Shoes peeking through privacy glass.
Crissy Field East Beach - Cleaned feet get a free ride back to the sidewalk.

Spring break was set to begin a week after we left for San Francisco, but flight and hotel prices were too good to pass up. Betty’s teacher sung her praises for winning the school spelling bee, helping classmates with their work, and earning straight A’s every quarter. She had no concern about pulling her out of school early.

With Molly’s brick-and-mortar business opening planned for late Summer, this was the last best time to travel, and Betty more than earned some extracurricular adventure.

This kid is a natural at the art of high school senior portrait posing.
The sunlight cast onto this quinceañera dress gave the Palace of Fine Arts an ethereal feeling.
Living vicariously through your kid's eyes is magic.

My default travel behavior is to throw my bag into the hotel room and bee-line it right back to the sidewalk, so, naturally, we all missed breakfast. We wandered through the Marina District to Crissy Field Beach and the Palace of Fine Arts, gawking up at the pavilions and counting turtles in the pond. The Bay area was expected to be unseasonably warm for the week. By noon, we were bordering on hangry and already feeling a thin layer of sweat form under our jeans.

We took refuge from the sun at Côte Ouest Bistro, presenting arguments to each other on whether the gentlemen running the place were genuinely French or took the job for the acting opportunity.1

You could fit a lot of stuff through that door.
Molly is also a scholar in the fine art of the high school senior portrait post.
My Ricoh GR made all of my off-hand photos like this look filmic and beautiful.
A genuine Willys Jeep! Holy smokes!
The Painted Ladies had a muted color palette.
The bus tour took way too long, thanks to traffic, but it was a nice break from walking.

Then the bus tour. Spontaneously, we grabbed tickets for a hop-on, hop-off double-decker bus that promised a meandering, history-filled tour of the Northern half of the city, including a two-way trip across the Golden Gate Bridge. What this did for us in leg recovery time, it took from us in growing wait times as afternoon traffic picked up.

Realizing that the bridge crossing was perhaps several more hours away, Betty and I couldn’t deal anymore, so we took our leave at Washington Park only to find that the Painted Ladies were in their beige and bland era.

I parted ways from Molly and Betty to catch up with my friend, Lee

  1. They were genuinely very kind and actually French, and I need to stop being so suspicious of people. ⬏

Marina District - Betty never misses out on crossing crosswalks on painted stripes only.
Marina District - Shoes peeking through privacy glass.
Crissy Field East Beach - Cleaned feet get a free ride back to the sidewalk.
This kid is a natural at the art of high school senior portrait posing.
The sunlight cast onto this quinceañera dress gave the Palace of Fine Arts an ethereal feeling.
Living vicariously through your kid's eyes is magic.
You could fit a lot of stuff through that door.
Molly is also a scholar in the fine art of the high school senior portrait post.
My Ricoh GR made all of my off-hand photos like this look filmic and beautiful.
A genuine Willys Jeep! Holy smokes!
The Painted Ladies had a muted color palette.
The bus tour took way too long, thanks to traffic, but it was a nice break from walking.