WANDERING THE STREETS OF SAN FRANCISCO, #1 (Cheri)

The thing I love the very most about San Francisco is all of the unusual things that you discover while meandering its streets.

Mark got in a lot more walking than I did because - having said that I love seeing the sights - I spent part of the time here just reading in our very sunny timeshare apartment.  (Which we might sell, in case you are interested.)

He was the one who captured this picture, so I can't tell you anything about the apparently unparalleled artist, other than her name is probably Natalie Gabriel.  (Thanks, Google.)

As we walking Thanksgiving morning along the Embarcadero, we saw a lot of Native Americans, almost all extremely warmly dressed, often in ponchos with wolves and similar decoration.  Again, Google provided us the answer. 

It turns out, Indigenous People's Thanksgiving Sunrise Gathering was held at Alcatraz, and ferries to the Island began leaving at 4:15 a.m.

This one has no story.  Mark is guessing that the mat was added for puppy stops.  He found it along a long stairway.

You could easily focus your City walks primarily on its stairways.  One of our favorite books is Stairway Walks in San Francisco: The Joy of Urban Exploring, now in its 9th edition.  There are literally over 600 stairways in the City, many of which replace blocks of what would otherwise be streets.

I think someone must have converted their garage to housing, so its entrance became a miniature urban garden:

And here are a couple vintage pictures of ice cream aficianados which I saw while we were at a shop that they would have liked in the Marina District: