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Happy Birthday America




It is July 4 in 2018.  All cities around the bay as in most America are promising fireworks as the sun sets.  Parades in local communities showcasing the local heroes and cultural highlights were had earlier in the day.

Barbeque grills firing up, cocktails and beer flowing freely in backyards would be the most common scene you'd see if you took a hot air balloon ride over suburbia aka Anytown, USA.

The wife and I (the kid is away at camp out of state) were just two old fogeys who decided to go stroll in the city by the bay.  Now mind you in the past 15 years of being resident of the bay area and having visited San Francisco consistently for all that time it has become my opinion that this city has become a toilet.  Literally.   People like in Mumbai take a dump pretty much anywhere there heart or rather their bladder desires.  Homelessness and the ills that come with it are rampant.




No that is a commode at a (MUNI) bus stop.  Not entirely sure if it is a prank or a new approach to Bill Gates' vision of a low cost option to defecate safely.  There is a McD right behind it which unlike Starbucks does not let vagrants use their bathrooms.  So maybe this is the next best idea?

Nonetheless, in spite of all the above caveats there is variety of food to be had.  The world still wants to come and watch the cable cars clang up the steep grades of Nob Hill and watch the bright maroon cable span of the Golden Gate float on a deck of clouds.  We decided to join in that parade.

Below are the highlights of eating, picture taking and strolling a length of around five miles before calling it a day.


I had the lamb shawarma - a meaty roll in a lavash bread with all the trimmings in the odor assualting and colorful district called the Mission.


The magnificence designed by a Strauss is a welcome sight for those coming in on land or sea.



Above brick structure was the original facility for the Ghirardelli chocolate business but now is a luxury hotel


This was a 100 + year old church named for some saint called Dolores.

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