Exploring San Francisco

 



I am currently reading Season of the Witch by David Talbot and I have to say that my mind was blown away!  I am so lucky to live in a place like San Francisco with so much history, so for this reason I decided to do the Castro tour that the San Francisco City Guides offers. I really wanted to see the places that Talblot describes in his book regarding Harvey Milk. 

Castro Tour

The Castro tour was amazing. I walked over a mile or two in this neighborhood, but I have to say that it went by fast. We met under the movie marquee of the Castro Theatre at 11:00 am. The tour guy covered a several topics from the Gold Rush to current issues in the Castro neighborhood.

Highlights

• I get to visit Harvey Milk's camera shop which is now a Human Rights Campaign located on  575 Castro Street.

• The Pink Triangle Memorial Park, a memorial to the 15,000 killed in the Holocaust, was dedicated in a noontime ceremony in the Castro.

• Bring your camera to take some pictures of colorful murals of the Castro

• See the Rainbow Honor Walk Project

• Learn more about Castro's architecture

Prices

Even though the walking tours are free, I highly recommend giving some donations!

What to wear?

• Please wear comfortable shoes
• Bring some water and snacks
• Wear some layers
• Bring both a piece of paper and a pen to write down notes during the tour

Upcoming  Castro tours

November 13th, 17th, 18th, and 20th at 11:00 am

Remember!
Meet under the movie marquee of the Castro Theatre. Also, you can take Muni K, L, M and get off at Castro Station where you can easily see the Castro Theater.

If you would like more information about San Francisco walking tours, please click here



Feeling Lucky?

LUCKY STRIKE 

Looking for a night out in the town, but not exactly the club scene. Go to Lucky Strikes!! Lucky Strikes is not your normal bowling alley. Lucky Strikes is located right next to AT&T Park and attracts a lot of baseball fans. Lucky Strikes comes equipped with awesome food and a fully loaded bar! 

Menu includes:

chicken wings 

nachos 

calamari 

short ribs 

Drinks: 

Soft Drinks 

Beer

Spirits 

Margaritas 

Wine

Atmosphere

chill 

relaxing but at times can be crowded and loud 

roomy 

200 King St.

San Francisco Ca 94107

(415) 400-8260

Click here for a direct link to the website!!!

Green Festival Free Tickets!

Are you interested in building sustainable businesses and finding more about social justice? If so, this is a great opportunity for you to go to San Francisco Green Festival this Nov 10th to the 11th.

What is Green Festival?

Green Festival is a project of Green America and Global Exchange that is aim at finding solutions socially, economically and environmentally. In additon, community leaders and business discuss critical issues that can impact our lives at home and abroad. One of the goals of this evevent is to empower individuals to make possitive changes in the world.

Do you want free tickes?

Fair Trade, a market-based approach to alleviating poverty and proctect the environment, is offering free tickets for the Green Festival. Please email them at socialmedia@fairtradeusa.org if you would like a free ticket or two.

•  Don't forget to visit Fair Trade USA at booth #853 to try some delicious Fair Trade Certified products.

Fair Trade Presentation Sunday Nov. 11th

Time

11:30 am

Presenter

Kayleigh DeMello (Equal Exchange)

Toipc

Tastes of Fair Trade: Learn how to host a tasting in your home

Time
1:30 pm

Presenter

Growing with Care: How a local business expanded while staying on mission

Topic

Fair Trade 101

Green Festival Experience

• Bring your own water bottle
• Take public trasportation or ride your bike
• Try to carpool if you are thinking about driving
• spread the messge
• Thank volunteers!

Location

 635 8th St., San Francsico, CA 94103.

Public Transportation
Arriving from Bart: The Concourse is located at 8th & Brannan, just 5 blocks south of the Civic Center Bart station on Market Street. To reach the Concourse from the Civic Center Bart station, walk 5 blocks South on 8th Street, or catch the 19 Muni bus. Muni bus fare is less than $5. The 19 runs down 8th Street and returns back to Market Street on 7th. So you will have to walk over to 7th Street in order to catch the bus back to the Civic Center Bart Station. Bart can take you directly from SFO International Airport or the East Bay Caltrain www.caltrain.org.

Weather
Tomorrow is going to be mostly sunny (59F), so be prepare to bring some layer since there is going to be lots of walking!

Red Bull Gives You Wings!

credits to http://www.zepeda.us/wp-content/uploads/2011/06/Redbull-Logo.jpg

Red Bull is having their 10th anniversary Red Bull Flugtag in the United States and this year it is held in San Francisco where flugtag first began in the United States back in 2002. However, the Red Bull Flugtag actually started in 1992, in Vienna Austria, but San Francisco is the first location that the event took place in, within the U.S.

What is Flugtag?

Flugtag means "flying day" in German, but all the human crafted flying machines will end up falling off the 30-foot high deck and splash into the water.

What is this event?

• This year, 36 teams are competing in the Red Bull Flugtag by building their very own flying machines that is going to be pushed off a tall deck in hope of actually flying along the waters of McCovey Cove.
• Each team designs their own design for the flying machine, for example, some were ducks, pigs, hamburger, multicolored, and etc.
• One person is in the flying machine trying to fly it while the other teammates pushes the machine off the deck.
• Whichever 3 machine the judges think is best flight distance, creativity, and showmanship wins either 1st, 2nd or 3rd prize.

Still having trouble imagining how it's going to be like? Check out the Video below!

Price
If you guessed that it's FREE to attend and watch the teams fly off the deck then splash into the water, you're absolutely correct!

What Day and Time?
It's going to be on Saturday, November 10 and hangers open at 11 AM, but the first flight is at 1 PM.

Transportation

• At events where there's going to be a lot of people, I always recommended taking the bus because parking will be really hard to find, unless you want to pay to park in a parking garage.
• To get to McCovey Cove you can take the underground MUNI of either the N line or the K which turns into the T after the underground tunnel.

You can Click Here to get directions from wherever you are by bus, car or etc.

Weather
It is going to be partly cloudy with 10% chance of rain. The highest temperature is 58 degrees and low 44 degrees.
For more weather update check out the link Here.

Do I Need to Bring anything?
Nope, just make sure you wear comfortable shoes because you may be standing a lot. 

Where is it at?
It will be at McCovey Cove near AT&T park.

The address is:
 3rd St. and Terry A. Francois Blvd. 
San Francisco, CA

credit to http://cdn.funcheap.com/wp-content/uploads/2012/09/Red-Bull-Flugtag-San-Francisco1.jpg

If you have time this Saturday, go enjoy this FREE event! You can also join their Facebook event to see what teams are going to be in the competition and who might be at the event. Just click right Here. Join and invite your friends to come too, it would make it way more fun to watch a silly or sophisticated looking flying machine splash into the water.

Want a quick overview of the event? Just Click Here!

If you want more information check out their website below.
Red Bull Flugtag

 

"Light Up the Night" Campaign

What is the "Light Up the Night" Campaign?
It is a partnership between San Francisco Municipal Trasportation Agency, also known as SFMTA, and San Francisco Bicycle Coalition (SFBC). What they are basically doing is giving away FREE white front lights and red back light for people who doesn't have any. Not only are they giving people with no bicycle lights, they will also help install them for you.

Price
This event is absolutely FREE! I think the only thing you might have to do is fill out some forms.

When
This event starts on November 8, 2012 from 5 PM to 7 PM.

They will also have this event on these following days:
November 15
November 27
December 13


What do you have bring?
You don't really need anything, except for you bike of course! If you don't have a bicycle with you, then you won't be able to receive any of the lights.

Weather
There is a 50% chance of rain, especially in the PM time, so bike safely especially if you don't have lights!
To check for updates click on the link Here.


Location
The location for November 8 is located in the Downtown area. 

Sadly they only give this general description of where they are going to be located at because they want to provide bicycle lights to the people who truly needs them. However, they are supposedly be stationed near busy bike routes so they can be spotted and last year, their tent color was orange.

Location for this event on the other days (Nov. 15, Nov. 27, and Dec. 13) are actually held in another area. Check the location by Clicking Here.

P.S. I read it might be at Howard and 2nd Street.

This is the flyer for the free event.

Definitely check out this FREE event if you have a bike and you don't want to spend money buying front and back lights, which are required to have if you want to bike at night.

For more information Click Here.

Get Your Crepes On

What was previously available only at five-star hotels and restaurants for its delicate and tedious operation, this thin French pancake made its way in the heart of Richmond district in SF! Genki Crepes & Mini Mart  managed to maintain the age-old tradition of crepe making in 30 different flavors. 

What's the stitch?
Whether you're in for a sweet treat of ice cream crepes or dessert crepes with fruit fillings of strawberry, nutella, banana, peanut butter, red bean paste or fancy having savory crepes for lunch or dinner, Genki has it all to your liking.

Check out their menu for the mouth-watering crepes they offer! They can make tuna salad, beef sukiyaki, chicken, smoked salmon and ham&cheese crepes. What's great about it too is they close late at 11:30pm for those late midnight snack cravings.

Price
For the price of $5, you'll be able to get your hands on the dessert crepes. Add a dollar or two to upgrade it to the savory or ice cream crepes.

It happens to be inside a mini-mart too so while waiting for your crepe to be prepared, you will be amazed at what you can find in their store. Asian goodies you can't find anywhere else!

Location
Crepe up @
Genki Crepes
330 Clement Street
San Francisco, CA 94118
(415) 379-6414

Friday Food Trip

Calling all foodies out there! If you're not the party goer type or tired of the club scene, mark one of your Fridays for Off the Grid!

Typical Friday @ Fort Mason Center 

swarming with food lovers

The Makings of OtG What began with the simple idea of creating an "asian night market," Off the Grid (OtG) has been successful at bringing street food vendors and small local businesses together to foster a shared food experience in urban communities. To date, Off the Grid has 15 weekly markets in operation around the greater Bay Area, wherein over 100 vendors participate weekly in their respective food trucks and tents. Off the Grid has been a household name with the popularity it gained among teens and adults alike.

Locations
People would usually flock to the weekly markets for their local gourmet favorites at Vallejo & Front, Hayward, Civic Center, UN Plaza, 5M at Fifth and Minna, Upper Haight, North Berkeley,  Southside Berkeley on Telegraph, Alameda and Larkspur at certain hours. Usually 11am-3pm or 5-9pm. But perhaps the biggest food bazaar they hold would have to be the one at Fort Mason Center, which is open to all every Fridays from 5pm-10pm. Perfect for dinner or food cravings you have in general.

 Food trucks, tents and long lines

Price

You don't need to bring a wad of cash but normally your $20 is enough to stuff you to your heart's or in this case, tummy's desire. There's lots and lots of food to last you for the night or probably until the next day! It has just about everything you're looking for. Take your pick from Vietnamese, Peruvian, Indian, Yucatecan, Filipino, Mexican,  Thai, Korean, Japanese or Asian fusion offerings. 

 Try Mochimisu and the Kamikazee fries @ Koja Kitchen; elotes seasoned with Sriracha, cheese and sour cream @ Alicia's; and the Si Por Favor from the 

Creme Brulee Cart

It would feel like you've gone to a buffet, only street food style, because you're basically in food haven. Empanadas, musubis, sliders, rice balls, sisig, tacos, tamales, banh mis, cupcakes, burgers, noodles, cream puffs, dumplings, kettle corn, bao buns, etc. No doubt you'll be having food coma after visiting OtG on a Friday night!

Might as well try the spam musubi @ Gohan's Rice Creations too; empanada from 

El Porteno, fish tacos from Taco Guys and the kimchi rice @ Bombzies

I'd say screw your diet for a day and spend your Friday night with friends, co-workers or family

@ Off the Grid: Fort Mason Center

Fort Mason Center (Parking Lot)

San Francisco, CA 94123

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