*1256 - earlier that day ...

It's always a party in the Castro, even early on Saturday mornings.  Dance music as you rub sleep out of your eyes on an outdoor patio?  Sounds about right.

Delicious food as well!  Moules & frites, with chorizo.  Mmm.

 

Smoked salmon benedicts.

Happy to have D.

*1255 - Twin Peaks (again)

Twin Peaks has great (and very accessible) views of the city.

It's pretty easy to see why Market street is 'main street' in San Francisco--here you can see it travel all the way to the Ferry building and the bay.

From the top of Twin Peaks our neighborhood (Potrero Hill, pictured in the background here and known for its very steep streets) looks like a tiny little bump.  The hilly street blocks are lot more intimidating up close (I promise).

*1254 - nebulous potato thing

I've probably said it before but it's getting harder and harder to please me for brunch; I still love a good brunch, though.  I refuse to get scrambles or omelettes because I can make them so easily myself.  Pancakes are a breeze and french toast?  Even D makes a fierce french toast.

So what does that leave me?  Well, for one, the Nebulous Potato Thing (they refer to it as the "Thing" for short) at St Francis Fountain down the road from us.  I couldn't even really tell you what was in it!

 

It all made sense, very comforting and deliciously decadent, weighed like a satisfying brick in our tummies, as we staggered back up Potrero Hill.  It's also where we got inspiration for homemade Guinness ice cream floats.

*1253 - big wheels

A yearly event in SF: Bring Your Own Big Wheel.  I've seen some pretty crazy things in SF but this takes the cake.  The best part is that we found out the real windiest road in SF is not Lombard, but Vermont Street in Potrero, which happens to be a street or two away from where we live.  (The two streets were designed by the same architect.)

So what happens is that everyone brings a big wheel (plastic kid toys, no rubber wheels allowed), dresses up in an outrageous costume, lines up atop Vermont Street, and at the sound of a whistle, kicks off and hurtles down the street in groups of hundreds.  You can hear the roar of rumbling plastic wheels on concrete from afar.  Grown people on little plastic things meant for 2-year olds, probably drunk, tumbling over each other at 30 mph?  I can't believe this is legal but it was such a sight!

Just a small section of the spectator crowd

The starting line

These things aren't that easy to control, clearly!

*1252 - market research

I'm still a whole-hearted market research nerd, but sometimes I really wish I did more than help Fortune 500 companies earn more money from their consumers.  I try to think of it as enhancing everybody's consumer/business experiences because we're reducing risk, finding efficiencies, meeting people's needs ... but ultimately it always boils down to enhancing a company's bottom line.  I guess that is generally what many people's livelihoods are about (making money) but sometimes I wish I were saving lives, helping the unfortunate, inventing things that make the world a better place.