Saturday's 13-mile walk

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Saturday's Route

The weather for Saturday morning's walk turned out to be surprisingly clear, warm and beautiful! The forecast was supposed to be like Friday, which was cooler, foggy and misty. To our surprise and delight, Saturday morning was just gorgeous, and a perfect day for walking.

Today's route featured lots and lots of STAIRS! The Mosaic Stairs on Moraga to be exact (plus some!). The Moraga Stairs consist of 163 beautifully tiled mosaic steps - the most beautiful stairs in SF, in my opinion. Dick joined our walk again today (GO, Dick!) and had never seen this stairway before. I was so happy to share it with him!

After we climbed the Mosaic Stairs, we continued Up, Up, UP to Grand View Park. The last time I came up here, the city was shrouded in fog. Today's view was crystal clear, and you know, on a clear day, you can see forever. ;)

On our way back through the Presidio, a few of us took a quick detour into the new Inn at the Presidio. It just opened in early April, and looks very beautiful.

Another fun and beautiful Saturday training walk. We were pretty tired afterwards, but it was well worth the effort!


Saturday morning's view of the Golden Gate Bridge


Walking along Stow Lake


View from the bottom of the Mosaic Stairs


Close up detail of the Mosaic Stairs


View from the top of the Mosaic Stairs


Wait- there's more?!


climbing up more stairs


Beautiful view from the top of Grand View Park!


A bunch of Hotties, plus one Hottie Husband, at the top of Grand View Park


Here's Sandy using my new favorite water fountain at UCSF!


enjoying the rocking chairs on the front porch of the new Inn at the Presidio


the Presidio military cemetery


Saturday's Walking Stats


Saturday's elevation chart

Sunday's 12-mile walk

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Sunday's Route

Oh, my - between Saturday's training walk full of stairs, and Sunday's 12-mile walk full of hills, hills, and more hills, I was plenty exhausted by the end of the weekend! As my friend, Sandra, said, "Somehow saying 24-miles doesn't even begin to describe the quality of those 24-miles!" :)

We started Sunday's walk in the Presidio. After the first mile of our walk, we kicked it into high gear by walking UP, Up and UP Divisadero street! Trust me, nothing will wake you up quite like tackling Divisadero first thing in the morning!


The view at the top of Divisadero looking down to the Bay

We walked all the way down Divisadero, about 2.5 miles where it turned into Castro Street. We then made our way to Market, to Dolores Street, walked up a few more blocks to Clipper and then walked UP Clipper (a stretch I've driven many, many times, but never walked!). Oh, my. The many, blocks of Clipper to Portola is a slow, steady climb up several blocks. I'm not sure if I've ever walked such a long stretch of up-ness before! :)


The View from Portola/Market

Clearly, I was too tired to take many photos today. :)
Suffice to say, it was a beautiful day, a beautiful walk, and we were all plenty tired (but proud!) at the end.


Sunday's stats


Sunday's elevation chart

New glasses and Rainbow Hair

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Today, I had my first optometrist appointment in almost 4 years. I knew my eyes were getting slightly worse, and I was long overdue for a check-up. My appointment went very well - my prescription for my glasses needs to be adjusted a bit - not a surprise, but everything was great otherwise.

I decided to get a new pair of frames. I still like my old (now 4-year old frames) but I thought it would be nice to have two pair that I could rotate between. (or, one to keep in my car, etc.,)

Plus, new frames are fun! :)

The person who helped me with my frames was very helpful, and had a good eye. She brought out at least 12 pairs for me to choose from, but my favorite were the first two. I had a hard time deciding between these two frames. Dick was with me as well, and liked both. Ultimately (and just for fun) I decided to post these two photos of Facebook for a quick 5-minute poll.


Frame #1


Frame #2

Ultimately, Frame #2 got the most votes, and by that time, I was leaning in that direction, too. So, we put the order in, and I should get them within the next couple of weeks.

On a side note, these photos do a good job of capturing the color of my hair right now. I had the "blue" streak recolored almost 3 weeks ago. My hair stylist did everything exactly the same, including using the same brand and same color of the blue dye. For some reason, my hair decided it really wanted to be purple this time around. The purple started showing up top after the first couple of washings. Last week, the top started turning more of a bright magenta color, fading into purple, fading into blue.

Go figure.

It's fun and different, and I've actually gotten many compliments on it, so that's nice. :)

My joke last weekend was that my hair wanted to celebrate Gay Pride Weekend. ;)

Figure Drawing Fun with a friend and comparing styles

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Yesterday evening I went to my 5th figure drawing session. It all went very well, but the absolute best part about it was that my friend, Miguel, came along as well!

One of my favorite parts of art classes is seeing what the other artists are doing. I think it's helpful to see how different people interpret the same thing, and how everyone's styles are unique. One of the most important (and first!) lessons that I learned in art school is that there is no "right" or "wrong". Really, everyone just has a different style. There may be room for improvement in anyone's pieces, but the style is their own.

The drawing sessions that I'm taking are non-instructional, so there are no critiques at the end, as in traditional classes. This is good and bad. Good, because you can feel free to just do your own thing, and now worry about judgement. Bad, because feedback is often useful and can help you advance.

Miguel and I were able to sit next to each other last night, so it was easy to look and compare our work throughout the night. It was very cool because our styles are SO different from each other, and it's very interesting to compare each of our drawings of the same pose.

Miguel's style is very graphic and bold. I really enjoy his bold use of lines and shadow. For lack of a better word, it's very stylized. My style (which I don't really think about) is probably much more classic, which seems kind of boring next to his.

Of course, we each thought each other's work was much more interesting than our own. :)

I'm hoping that Miguel will be able to join me on a regular basis. Although I certainly enjoy the sessions on my own, it certainly was a lot more fun sharing the experience with him!

Here are some comparison photos of our drawings from last night.

Migue's pieces are on the left, while mine are on the right. You'll see that his vantage point was also further right of mine, so our view of the models differed slightly.


40-minute


20-minute


10 minute


7 minute


7 minute

Getting my Chinese On

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I'm in Stockton today, visiting my Grandma. She just taught me how to make homemade garlic and black bean sauce. :)

Cheaper, more flavorful and less sodium than store bought. :)

Approximate recipe:

1 cup dry Chinese black beans (from Asian market - buy the kind in the cotton bag versus plastic)
3-4 cloves of garlic
2 Tbsp vegetable oil

Mash the black beans and the garlic together (as you can see, Grandma uses the bottom of the handle of a cleaver)

Mix in the vegetable oil.

Saturday's Hot 12-mile walk

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Saturday's 12-mile route

Saturday's 12-mile training was was fantastic, but HOT! (by San Francisco standards, of course!)

We met at 7:00 from the Transit Cafe in the Presidio. It was already in the mid-60s and temps reached the mid-80s by the early afternoon.

The walk was beautiful, and we walked by many of San Francisco's beautiful landmarks. So many photo-worthy sites, I couldn't resist!

We also walked UP and DOWN many, many stairs and hills. The toughest part of the walk was when we walked up the 4 steep blocks of Broadway Street - the stairs were in the direct sun, and we had no option of walking in the shade. Once we all made it up, and back down, we found a Walgreens where we were able to cool down a bit while we bought extra water and electrolyte drinks. Everyone felt much better after that.

Linda and several of the other usual training walk leaders weren't able to make it that day, so I was asked to "lead" the group. That meant that for once, I actually kept my map out with me at all times! :) Linda created a wonderful route for us, and was mindful of not making it too complicated. Much of our walk was spent between Chestnut Street and later on Broadway.

Our small(ish) group of 13 walkers sure did have a great time with each other! It was an adventure, as always!


After walking up the Chestnut Stairs, this is the view we had of Alcatraz, from Hyde Street


Walking down the crooked part of Lombard Street! You can see Coit Tower in the distance. That's where we're heading next!


Looking up at Lombard Street from the bottom


The early morning view of the Bay Bridge from Telegraph Hill


Group Shot on Telegraph Hill, in front of Coit Tower (minus Allison, who wanted to sit and rest a little longer - you can see her coming down the stairs behind us!)


Climbing down the the Greenwich Street Stairs - unfortunately, we didn't see any large flocks of the Wild Parrots


Down, down, down....


Lunch break at the Ferry Building!


View of the Bay Bridge from along the Embarcadero


Say "Hello" to Alycia!!


Passing by City Lights Bookstore in North Beach!


...and a random Chinese Deli in Chinatown


here we go.... UP, UP, UP the Broadway Street Stairs!


Continuing to climb UP Broadway Street!


The elevation graph from Saturday's Walk


Saturday's walk stats

Sunday's Cold 10-mile walk

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Sunday's 10-mile route

After Saturday's hot temperatures, most of us came in Sunday expecting slightly cooler temperatures, but still warm. (the forecast temps for the day were in the low 70s)

Imagine a bunch of Hotties gathering at the Warming Hut at 7:00am wearing short/skirts/light shirts only to be greeting with Fog and wind! oh, my!

We made the most of it, and moved swiftly, to warm up! It was a smaller group of under 20 walkers, so we made good time! I think it was the first time I've ever walked with the group where we finished before 11:00am!

For the second weekend in a row, my husband, Dick, joined us! It makes me very happy to have him along - I enjoy sharing these walks with him so much, and he's having a great time, too! It was Dick's first time walking through the many beautiful trails in the Presidio.


The obligatory photo of the Golden Gate Bride taken from the Warming Hut at 7:00am

The further we walked, the foggier it became! Do you remember the new Golden Gate Bridge Overlook that we had visited last weekend?

Here's a photo of the overlook from last weekend:

The Golden Gate Bridge Overlook from last Saturday's warm and sunny walk


Here's how it looked today! The Golden Gate Bridge is no where to be seen underneath all that fog!


making our way through the fog on Lincoln Blvd.


Walking Ahead ;)


there's Dick! Keeping up with the quick walkers in the group!


Back at the Warming Hut at 10:45am. Even more fog than there was in the morning, and the Golden Gate Bridge is no where to be found


Sunday's stats