A Night in San Francisco
Music, then midnight sight-seeing with a city walkabout
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On Friday morning I got a latte in North Beach, then swam in the cove, followed by an Irish Coffee at The Buena Vista. Then spent a half hour or so at the National Park Visitor Center in the Cannery Building/Argonaut Hotel, 475 Jefferson Street. This is a fascinating maritime museum, although you’d never know it from the signage out front — showing the history of San Francisco as a port (which it used to be), going back to the gold rush days. I took a lot of photos and will do a post on it some time in the future.
I got some really good ramen at the crowded Marufuku Ramen in Japantown, (best to get there off-hours), then walked around the city before heading to the Fillmore to see a concert by Larkin Poe, a wildly popular duo of the two Lovell sisters fronting a southern band often compared to the Allman Brothers.
The Fillmore has changed very little over the last 60 years. I liked the music and had fun looking at all the old posters of rock bands in the ‘60s. The place was packed and the fans knew the words to the songs — good rapport between musicians and audience.
I like that old time rock ‘n roll.
That kind of music just soothes the soul.
I reminisce about the days of old.
After the show, I walked to the Boom Boom Room down the block and heard a pretty good local band called Omigato; by way of contrast, there were maybe 30 people in the club. A good vibes venue.
After that, I walked down Fillmore and took a right on Broadway, shooting photos as I went along — first of the shops on Fillmore, then of high-rent apartments on Broadway — as I walked toward Van Ness.
Above: the recently closed apizza restaurant.
I’d never noticed all the elegant apartment buildings on Broadway in the hundreds of times I’ve driven down the street.
Walkinabout…
A couple of recent 5-or-so-mile hikes in SF have made me realize that you see a lot more in any city when you’re on foot (well, duh!). SO — I’m gonna follow this frequently in the future in my home town. It’s also just occurred to me that I haven’t really walked the streets of San Francisco, like I do when I go to Manhattan.
(On my last day in Venice in October, 2021, I walked 9 miles; it was like drinking in the city.)
I really enjoy your posts, Lloyd! And I also enjoy city walks, as I used to call them, all around San Francisco. I worked at the Exploratorium and lived in the Marina district for quite a while, and I loved being able to walk out the door and be gone for hours. To be able to go farther, walk one way and take a bus back.
As long as I'm here, I'll tell you my favorite walk/hike in the area. From the Ferry Building take the ferry to Sausalito. From there hug the water as you walk towards the Golden Gate bridge, stopping at Cavallo Point Lodge for a snack or beverage. Then across the bridge, heading east through the Presidio, the Marina Green, through Fisherman's Wharf and along the Embarcadero until you're back to the Ferry Building. It's about a 10-mile walk and pretty tiring but so beautiful. Cheers!
Your writings are the best thing on the Internet in these days of nothing but bad news coming from you know where… I love this particular roundabout that you took on foot past all these particularly fun and visually appealing, restaurants bars, cafés, and apartments….Lucky us!