we begin at the ferry building, where i sampled mint water, ate a salmon rice cake, and discovered a mushroom vendor (see the next sub-album for that story)...

compare san francisco's idea of public art with san diego's.

this really struck me when i read it... here we witness that moment in a person's life when pretty much everything is wrapped up on this end, and an immenent departure looms ahead, and we are stuck between worlds, with time to contmeplate both the past and the future and feel like we temporarily belong to neither. *

just south of market, on sixth, the scenery changes drastically. i do love this building; it's like rock candy from a comic book. *

What's the most important element of a good joke timing! *

The US mint, built in 1324 to keep the Mongols at bay. *

I stopped by to visit Karen Merzenich, who I haven't seen for many years. She runs a shop called Mila on Hayes St. She's learning a lot from this experience and enjoys choosing all the clothing. *

often times one's interpolative imagination gets the idea that when seeing each other for the first time in years, two old friends will have changed or grown in such significantly different ways that they will be at a loss for words... but the actual experience always proves otherwise and we find that it is so easy to pick up the next conversation practically right where the old one left off. seeing karen reminded me of this. *

Ignore smiley Mister Takeout. Rather, pay close attention to the man with the MOLA on his denim jacket, which he purchased in Panama. He collects roosters (he had several others on that jacket, and a rooster shirt, and a rooster hat) and when he saw someone buy that mola he had to had it and so he bought it from them, at a higher price. That's passion. *

ahhh, sweet science fiction of the bart

(BART means Bay Area Rapid Transit. My first job at Cubic was to work on parts of the gates and ticket vending machines for BART. It brings me great pleasure to be using these machines regularly, at last.) *