Skip to main content

A Warm Winter Day

It was in the 70s.  On the Fahrenheit scale.  In San Francisco.  On a hill overlooking all of San Francisco.  Getting there took time.  Like a few hours of arduous climbing done postprandial.  But we had a blast.

First we enjoyed a modern take on Vietnamese food in a restaurant in SOMA.
Quail with Five Spice @ Tin in SOMA


Then took local transit to our first attraction.  The local community in the Sunset district collaborated to create art on steps going up the hill.  Every riser is decorated with colorful ceramic tiles artfully painted.

It is a joy climbing up the stairs admiring this art that has been maintained through the support of the locals too.



We continued our climb atop the hill to the final stretch where another set (around 170) of stairs await.  This art is thematic with the lower stairs showing marine life and eventually end with the planets and stars at the top of the hill.


The views from the summit were 360 degrees and breathtaking.   A clear day and plenty of sunshine helped.





Visual Panorama

A quick respite at Saint Ignatius Church in the USF campus and we wrapped up the wanderings.  This church is worth visiting to admire the stained glass and the coffered ceiling.  Not quite sure of the Saint's pedigree.




The caloric burn was refueled with a Sushi and Sashimi dinner later that evening.



Comments

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

On the go(zay masta) in Japan again

Cool cat the Japanese are Tokyo at dusk  My second visit to this land of the rising sun after almost a decade. Back then clearly I was wet behind the ears product manager and likely didn’t pay attention to all (efficient) things Japanese. But today I did and of course continue to be impressed. It is as much the obvious stuff like on time travel that is both clean and comfortable and all that which makes it possible. The impressive landmark and landscapes that these humans have put together despite their cramped (or because of it) surroundings and precarious geological conditions could amaze a novice architect among us. But it’s also the little things that someone had to think about which have a phenomenal impact on day to day lives that make the Japanese stand apart. Below are few random examples- 1. Providing a very fine machined wooden toothpick in every packet of wooden chopsticks. The said chapsticks are simply set on the To Go counter of any food vendor/ convenience store wher...

A few good books

 On an informal mission to read one book a week as long as the eyes allow for such ambition. Fiction or non is not important as long as it entertains and /or educates. To that end the past few weeks have brought a bounty in the form of some wonderful and then not so engaging literature. Among the notables are - Non fiction category: 1. Good arguments by Bo Seo (how to handle a dispute or debate the most efficient way possible) 2. Genesis by Eric Schmidt (and former US Secy of State Henry Kissinger, who recently passed) - how AI might affect our lives as we know it 3. One in a billion - Zarna Garg (an autobiographical look at an Indian born American woman with a bindi narrated in a standup format - yes it is at times cliched but still funny) Fiction: 1. Personal by Lee Child (a vigilante story with Jack Reacher the giant, nomad protagonist of Child's novels goes hunting for a sniper) 2. Ramayana unraveled by Ami Ganatra (she might disagree about it being a work of fiction but oh wel...

Back in DC

This time for a tech conference in the realm of what else? AI. But applied to an oft neglected space called Knowledge Management. The latter is a community of practice that focuses on analyzing, organizing and making available reams of data that have been gathered over time by various functions within an organization for anyone in the company to utilize. This function or process is ripe for applying AI agents (or agentic AI framework) and optimize for better outcomes. It was informative. More rewarding was getting acquainted with folks who practice this craft as well as learning of what they see in the corporate or public sectors. Since the venue was Washington DC it also afforded me the chance to take evening strolls albeit the weather was trying. With wind chill in the single digit it still is a glamorous place to perambulate through history absorbing what this country has been through since its founding days. I was able to visit the place Lincoln was killed along with his monument t...