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Imagine

Imagine all the people living life in peace.  Signature solo from John Lennon released circa 1971 is a haunting and daring and optimistic view of the world we could live in.

But this is not the topic I wanted to write about.  Rather about an imaginary Jew born to an imaginary immortal figure (known to some as God) somewhere in Jerusalem this imaginary calendar day in history.

It is amazing the power of storytelling.  Just imagine that most of the 7 billion inhabitants of this planet actually take a break from work letting their respective capitalist and communist machinery idle to celebrate or at least mark the birth of an imaginary figure.

Imagine.

Well instead of doing the imagining we took advantage of the quiet outside (since many of the denizens in our neighborhood decided to gather with like minded souls and exchange the superfluous gifts that they had purchased with imaginary currency) and went walking and exploring the neighborhoods of San Francisco.

First up was a cable car ride up from the Ferry building shore to Nob Hill. 


We gaped at the decorations and trimmings that are traditionally pulled out by folks that believe in another fairy tale associated with a fat white man in a red suit.


It makes for good visuals and allows one to mingle with cheerful folks that with the help of their beliefs are usually in good spirits.  We loitered around a nice vantage point at top of the Fairmont Hotel where we took in the vistas that were bathed with sunshine after a good scrubbing rain the night before.

Coit Tower in the distance - seen from the west side windows of the Fairmont Bar on 24th


Golden Gate in the distance to the North West


Post this trip upstairs we got back down - walked all the way down - to Union Square and took in the revelry there.  This got us all hungry so we did a custom version of a Tapas crawl - first some bento at Maru Sushi then a stop at a desi Chaat corner to gobble some variety nourishments.


That done we headed to the Conservatory in Golden Gate Park and finished with a walk in the gardens surrounding it.


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