Twists and turns

This past week at work I spent most of my time attending a course on anti-terrorism. Most of it was geared toward the regular customs officers, and they really take that stuff seriously. By the time passengers make it to my area in agriculture secondary, they've already gone past at least two customs officers, and possibly more if they had to stop at immigration secondary. I also learned how to input records of our searches and seizures into the computer system.

I finished my three trial tae kwon do lessons and signed up for a year at two lessons per week. It was expensive compared to, say, a gym membership, but the students are getting one-on-one or one-on-two attention from the instructors, who are doing hard physical labor. It does take away from my warcraft time, though.

Sadly, I was unable to arrange for my furniture to be delivered during a time I would actually be home on Friday, so I had to reschedule. The earliest time I could reserve for a date when I would be home all day was next Saturday, so I'll still be sitting on the floor until then.

The weather here has been sunny and in the mid-seventies all week. Yesterday I decided to take advantage of the fair weather to go sightseeing in downtown San Francisco. The first thing evident as I exited the BART station was that the streetcars were indeed quite common. There was even a special streetcar crossing sign designed for them.

I began by walking up to North Beach. On the way, I took a couple pictures for wednesday_10_00: one inspired by Flesh & Blood and the other by City of Glass. My first stop, just north of Chinatown (which I skirted but didn't really enter), was to view the Bill Weber Mural. It took me a few minutes to realize that the white flappy things suspended from wires in front of the building were books, not birds.

From there I walked up the street to the National Shrine of Saint Francis. This whole area is Italian, and the street is lined with cafes that have outdoor seating. In fact, it was a little tricky to walk down the sidewalk without tripping over the feet of the people sipping coffee at the rows of tables. I continued on to Washington Square, which is dominated at one end by the Saints Peter and Paul Church. There were a number of people in the park enjoying the day by practicing their dancing or tai chi.

Next I walked up--and I do mean up--the road to the Coit Tower. This walk is not for the faint of heart. Once there, I paid the five dollars for an elevator ride to the top, where I could gaze out at such sights as Alcatraz and the Golden Gate Bridge. The interior of the tower itself was not very impressive compared to, say, Tokyo Tower. It was all bare concrete, and very cramped. The elevator operator didn't even try to entertain us with facts about the tower, as I had expected he would.

After leaving the tower, I headed west along Lombard Street. There were a number of interesting examples of architecture along the way. Finally I reached the famous crooked section of the road. I was glad to be a pedestrian, I must say. I was going to head home after that, but I took a brief detour north to the Hyde Street Pier, because I was so close anyway. I didn't stay long, since by that time I had been walking for over four hours and was getting a bit tired, not to mention hungry. On my way back to the nearest station, I passed by San Francisco's decorative city hall.

Now I have to plan where to go the next time I have an opportunity for sightseeing...