I was able to cram in one small (4 days) quicky vacation to one of the cities I love: San Francisco, before my life becomes an endless ramp-up to one week in July. I love SF because it’s still a city you can go to and walk around and visit actual, honest-to-god BOOKSTORES. (I also love it because my dear friend Caryn lives there, and hey … any chance to see her is okay by me.) And, oh yeah, San Francisco has other stuff, too.
Every time I travel these days, I come home and realize that no matter how much I love San Diego (and I LOVE San Diego, don’t get me wrong), its downtown area is made up of one dying shopping mall (Horton Plaza)—which was considered wonderful and revolutionary at the time of its inception—and a bunch of chain or ethnic restaurants. That’s pretty much it. San Francisco, Portland, Seattle, and of course, New York City, are so vibrant and buzzing and teeming with shopping and entertainment and museums, and San Diego is just … blah . . . these days to me. It’s a small downtown area, beautiful in its own way, but it needs something major to shake it up, and the new Horton Plaza park (which opens May 4, 2016) is NOT going to be it.
But I digress. As I was saying, I love San Francisco. I’ve visited many times, so my photo expeditions are becoming a bit smaller and more focused, because otherwise I end up repeating myself. I have three sets to share with you, including this one, which concentrates on a bit of the city (the first sight I saw coming up the escalator from BART; a noirish alleyway; the dome of a–believe it or not–MALL), and my usual bookstore expedition to Berkeley, which takes me through “hidden” Berkeley, away from the university and by beautiful old homes and businesses, including the funky, old Elmwood Theater, which is impossible for me to walk by and NOT take a few photos.
All in all, I visited 12 bookstores and 2 comic book stores. It’s a great bookstore town, as is Berkeley (home of 5 of those 12 above mentioned bookstores, and both cats featured below).
More photos later.
All photos were taken with an iPhone 6. Click on the thumbnails to see the photos larger on your screen and in slideshow mode. If you like my photos please follow me on Instagram @gg92101.
innocent bystander 
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