San Francisco: The Painted Ladies, and then some

After my time on the Wharf and the Bay, I took the F streetcar back to Market Street, where the driver just stopped and was like “this is my last stop, so everyone off.” It was a beautiful day, so I decided to spend some time wandering around San Francisco. If you ever get the opportunity to travel to an unknown city, I would suggest spending at least an hour and just walk around the city. While taking a bus, cable car, or street car is easier and faster than walking, you miss so much the city can offer.

For instance, I saw this Wells Fargo building I kept thinking looked like Gringotts from Harry Potter. So I decided walk down that road. Why not? And you know what I found? An out door “galleria,” which basically is just a mall, in the middle of a busy San Francisco street. There was this coffee shop in the middle of it called something like “One Girl’s Coffee Shop” and there were like ten guys sitting it…I thought that was kind of whimsical. I then stumbled by the San Francisco Federal Reserve Bank, which, as a business student who spent the last year studying the economy, was a definite photo-op.

When I was making my back to the hotel, I found this little bookstore, which I thought was cool. On the outside, it seemed to be a small little store, but it turned out that there were three floors and a “spiral” staircase to the other floors. I say “spiral” because the stairs jutted out in different angles than going up/down in a perfect spiral, it was cool (see picture of stairs in the gallery below). The thing I really liked about this store was that fact people taped different notes on the shelves reviewing the different books. It was kind of like that movie Letters to Juliet where people wrote letters to Juliet and put them on the wall…yes, I’m a man who thoroughly enjoyed that rom-com. Anyway, as I left the cool little bookstore, I walked past this woman who was sitting outside a cafe, wearing a beret and smoking a cigarette. And I totally thought she was Joni Mitchell. So I started to freak out a little bit. Like, I spent the last month listening to her albums and, as a musician, I respect her songwriting and music. I’m not the kind of person who will intrude or bother a complete stranger, but I was trying to figure out a way to go up to this woman and thank her for her work. Then I took a moment and remembered that Joni Mitchell retired from public life…she “disappeared.” So, why would she be sitting on one of the busiest streets in one of the most populated cities in California? Then I got a better look at this woman only to realize that, not only was she staring at me, but she was NOT Joni Mitchell. Well, saved myself from a potentially awkward situation.

Later that night, we decided to out to the Golden Gate Park and then visit the Painted Ladies, which, if you remember the Full House theme, are the houses where the Tanners supposedly lived. When we got on the bus to go to the Park, my sister asked the driver if we were on the right bus to a certain street (I can’t remember the name of the stop we were going to get off…I think it was Tenth Street or something). The driver, who was a very emphatic woman, was like “no, I don’t go that far…Sixth Street is my furthest stop…no, wait, Eighth Street. Are you going to the park?” my sister nodded and the woman continued, “I don’t go down there, but the Park is within walking distance….girrrrl, I ‘ve got you!”

When we finally got to the Park, we saw these two guys wearing those roller blades with four wheels, and they were weirdly swaying/dancing to techno music and were trying to get other people to dance with them…which didn’t work out. We walked around a bit, and found our way through a tunnel and ended up at the Japanese Tea Garden and other aspects of park, but each were closed and required you to pay. Hello? If it’s a public park, why must we pay for entry. Just saying. We decided to come back the next morning when everything would actually be open.

So, when you watch the Full House theme (below), you’d think that that area is the safest neighborhood ever. Like, it looks so beautiful and you kind of want to live there. Perhaps it is, but when I was there, it was the sketchiest place ever! There were people screaming at each other and you kind of had to keep your head down and quickly take your pictures and leave. But that didn’t stop me. I stood across from the Painted Ladies (which were getting restored…or, rather, repainted) and I sang the Full House theme.