SF Day 2: Home is Where the Weird Is

We luuuuurve our SF home, the gorgeous Inn 1890 on Page Street. Our suite has curved windows, a gas fireplace with intricate carving and tile work, and--hold onto your sore backs--Tempur-Pedic mattresses. We slept like bricks last night. Look how pretty is is from the outside:


We're two blocks from Golden Gate Park and one block away from Haight Street, which we decided to explore today. Toto, I don't think we're in Kansas anymore. The corner of Haight and Ashbury streets was, of course, the epicenter of the hippie movement in the 60s, and there's still plenty of counterculture to go around. Not too many places in the 'burbs like this, where you can get both a tattoo and a piercing in one sitting at nearly any hour of the day or night:


There's plenty to look at: interesting shops, gorgeous Victorians (I am soooooo envious!), street musicians, vagrants, hash pipes, noodle shops, Tibetan jewelry and textiles, incense, you name it. Tons of leftist political stickers--Obama's really popular in this section of the Left Coast. And VW Beetles. Tons of Beetles. Considering that gas is $4.50 a gallon for regular (California is not shy about add-on taxes for gas, health fees, city fees, etc.), small cars are way more prevalent than the SUV army we have to dodge back home.

A lovely capper to our day was dinner on Haight Street at All You Knead with our friends Jeffrey and Bill. Great food, great company, great day.