What I did on my winter vacation
Dec. 27th, 2023 08:30 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
soniaPeople at work kept asking me if I was going to travel on my week off, and I kept telling them I live in the Bay Area - I'm already at a great destination with lovely warm winter weather. So far I've biked in the Oakland hills, walked part-way around Lake Chabot with a friend, explored the columbarium that's just up the hill from me, and then yesterday I had a San Francisco adventure.
I have a friend who lives in Marin and doesn't like to drive to the East Bay, but is willing to go to Golden Gate Park, so we agreed to meet there to see the big exhibition of local artists at the de Young museum.
To get there by BART and bike, I had to find and navigate the Wiggle bike route for the first time. The BART stations are along Market St, so I was riding on that at first. It is now car-free (but not bus- or taxi-free) to make space for bike lanes. The pavement is bumpy and there are a lot of angled intersections and traffic lights and pedestrians, but it's still not a bad way to get across town. A glimpse of a possible future, with personal cars a thing of the past and all other forms of transportation given priority.
Finding the Wiggle was extra-challenging because the first turn is onto a bike path, not a street (any more), and there was a utility vehicle parked across the entrance. But I suspiciously stopped to read my map right there, and eventually looked around and saw the path. It has a fabulous block-long mural that celebrates biking for transportation, the beauty of the city, and the creation of this first San Francisco bike path from a former car right of way. (Turns out the mural dates from 1998, before I left town, but I hadn't seen it.)
I was expecting to follow way-finding pavement markings, so I hadn't memorized the Wiggle turns in advance. The markings weren't as clear as one could hope, so I turned the wrong way at the first one. But ending up back at Market alerted me, and I didn't have too much trouble after that.
It turns out that John F Kennedy Drive through the park is now permanently car-free! With sculptures in the middle of the road! I liked the large dogman and rabbitwoman ones by Gillie and Marc, like this one of them riding a whale.
The de Young Open show was awe-inspiring and overwhelming. 800+ works of art selected from almost 10 times that many submissions, hung one next to the other wall-to-ceiling. So many amazing artists around here! They were hung without any text, so everyone was walking around with their phones, entering art numbers into the website to find out title, artist, and maybe a little about the piece. The photos in the web gallery don't do the pieces justice, but here's one I liked that gains depth and resonance from its title and description. And here's one I would happily hang in my house if I had that kind of money to spend on art.
The friend I was with knows several of the artists whose pieces got into the show, and shared some of her knowledge of history of art, and also showed me some lovely hidden spaces in the museum. It was a great outing!
On the way back, I had less trouble finding the Wiggle pavement markings, except right at the beginning when I knew I needed to be on one-way Oak because I had come in on its sister street Fell. I think the people who decide on pavement markings are all 6' tall. I could just barely see a hint of green bike lane over the curve of the wide trafficky street as I waited to turn left onto it. If I hadn't remembered about Oak 'n Fell from the days when I (occasionally) drove into and out of the city, I might have gone straight across up a fairly steep hill instead.
Rode all the way down Market, did some shopping I had planned on at the Ferry Building, and then took BART home. Bringing a bike on BART is easy and there are straps to clip the bike in place against a rail, but the downtown BART stations require two elevator rides, one down to the station level and then another one down to the train platform. The elevators are small, slow, and staffed by a person who sits there all day riding up and down. Unmasked. Maybe the ventilation has been improved in there, the way it has on the trains?
Today I helped my nephew with code for his robotics project via zoom, then biked across town in the rain for a singing lesson, then had just enough time at home to warm up with tea and a cat in my lap before venturing out again to walk to PT, then helped someone else with a computer problem via phone. Being on vacation is great!
I have a friend who lives in Marin and doesn't like to drive to the East Bay, but is willing to go to Golden Gate Park, so we agreed to meet there to see the big exhibition of local artists at the de Young museum.
To get there by BART and bike, I had to find and navigate the Wiggle bike route for the first time. The BART stations are along Market St, so I was riding on that at first. It is now car-free (but not bus- or taxi-free) to make space for bike lanes. The pavement is bumpy and there are a lot of angled intersections and traffic lights and pedestrians, but it's still not a bad way to get across town. A glimpse of a possible future, with personal cars a thing of the past and all other forms of transportation given priority.
Finding the Wiggle was extra-challenging because the first turn is onto a bike path, not a street (any more), and there was a utility vehicle parked across the entrance. But I suspiciously stopped to read my map right there, and eventually looked around and saw the path. It has a fabulous block-long mural that celebrates biking for transportation, the beauty of the city, and the creation of this first San Francisco bike path from a former car right of way. (Turns out the mural dates from 1998, before I left town, but I hadn't seen it.)
I was expecting to follow way-finding pavement markings, so I hadn't memorized the Wiggle turns in advance. The markings weren't as clear as one could hope, so I turned the wrong way at the first one. But ending up back at Market alerted me, and I didn't have too much trouble after that.
It turns out that John F Kennedy Drive through the park is now permanently car-free! With sculptures in the middle of the road! I liked the large dogman and rabbitwoman ones by Gillie and Marc, like this one of them riding a whale.
The de Young Open show was awe-inspiring and overwhelming. 800+ works of art selected from almost 10 times that many submissions, hung one next to the other wall-to-ceiling. So many amazing artists around here! They were hung without any text, so everyone was walking around with their phones, entering art numbers into the website to find out title, artist, and maybe a little about the piece. The photos in the web gallery don't do the pieces justice, but here's one I liked that gains depth and resonance from its title and description. And here's one I would happily hang in my house if I had that kind of money to spend on art.
The friend I was with knows several of the artists whose pieces got into the show, and shared some of her knowledge of history of art, and also showed me some lovely hidden spaces in the museum. It was a great outing!
On the way back, I had less trouble finding the Wiggle pavement markings, except right at the beginning when I knew I needed to be on one-way Oak because I had come in on its sister street Fell. I think the people who decide on pavement markings are all 6' tall. I could just barely see a hint of green bike lane over the curve of the wide trafficky street as I waited to turn left onto it. If I hadn't remembered about Oak 'n Fell from the days when I (occasionally) drove into and out of the city, I might have gone straight across up a fairly steep hill instead.
Rode all the way down Market, did some shopping I had planned on at the Ferry Building, and then took BART home. Bringing a bike on BART is easy and there are straps to clip the bike in place against a rail, but the downtown BART stations require two elevator rides, one down to the station level and then another one down to the train platform. The elevators are small, slow, and staffed by a person who sits there all day riding up and down. Unmasked. Maybe the ventilation has been improved in there, the way it has on the trains?
Today I helped my nephew with code for his robotics project via zoom, then biked across town in the rain for a singing lesson, then had just enough time at home to warm up with tea and a cat in my lap before venturing out again to walk to PT, then helped someone else with a computer problem via phone. Being on vacation is great!
Wow, thanks for taking me on a SF vacation
Date: 2023-12-28 04:25 pm (UTC)...the wiggle is a great idea with the perfect name.
The last time I was in GG park was September 2003. I somehow missed that mural, which looks truly unmissable!
Gillie and Marc are delicious -- and this being SF, perhaps they're furry icons?
Transit elevators are always both wonderful and horrible. If you ever visit Madison, there's a roomy bike (and pedestrian) elevator that lifts you 6 floors from a major bike path to the street level of the state capitol and convention center. I couldn't find the elevation reference, but it provides an excellent detour from some very steep and crowded streets. The first linked (wobbly) video demonstrates the rolling state of maintenance that sadly defines most municipalities.
Re: Wow, thanks for taking me on a SF vacation
Date: 2023-12-30 02:42 am (UTC)As
The mural isn't in the park, it's on the Duboce bike path as you turn off Market. A fun place to roll through if you come visit again!
no subject
Date: 2023-12-28 05:10 pm (UTC)Glad you enjoyed the museum--but to me, in some ways those quoted words are the most amazing part of this post. :)
(The downtown elevators are staffed currently to discourage urination/etc., and fare evasion. They weren't in 2019. I wonder whether they'll remain staffed after the new fare gates are installed.)
no subject
Date: 2023-12-30 02:49 am (UTC)Huh, first I saw about those "improved" fare gates. Funny (not funny) how they spin it as blocking out fare evaders will make riders feel more secure. The street/station elevator is outside the fare gates, so I don't imagine it would change their policy.
My opinion is, if our society is so broken that a warm train is the best shelter someone can find, then let them ride the warm train in peace. And public transit should not charge fares.