Mt. Tam hike and Stinson Beach

Stinson beach is a great place to go hiking and hit the beach in the same day. Huge mountains rise straight up from the other side of this one-street town.







Me, Kristen, Eve, Dustin, Geri and Tim.

It was great niking in all the redwood trees.

Apartment Tour, furnished

I got a membership at Costco to outfit the place with the Kitchenwares I needed. It felt like I was buying everything one needs for a wedding registry. The bills at Costco, while I was getting great prices on things, still made me wish there was such a thing as a 'single guy moving & getting new stuff' registry.


The next thing I have to pick is a mountain bike.

The furniture was found on 'Craigslist'. The TV was an afterthought. I went to buy a $30 dresser from someone who was moving. He had all these new plasma TVs, so, of course he needs to also unload the one-year-old 52" Sony LCD TV. I gave him $350 for the TV, the dresser, the entertainment center and the bookcase that is next to my desk.



The pub table is one creative thing that I thought would be good for the place. It takes up little space & it looks right, being next to the kitchens bar-counter.

Home office with view.

This is the view sitting at my desk.

I haven't hung the framed artwork yet. That's the last job.

The two camping chairs I have turn out to be great balcony furniture.

How big is California?

I've had a couple of people ask about visiting me when they go to "California" unfortunately, this state is on a completely different scale than New England. I'm located on the coast opposite the 'elbow'; 2/3 the way up the state. LA is 1/3 the way up, about a 6 hour drive from San Francisco. San Diego is 3 hours south of that, at the very southern part of the state near the Mexican Border. I superimposed a scale map of California onto the Northeast to give some scale comparison....
I've enjoyed having visitors to the Bay Area, however, just because you're flying into LA, doesn't mean we can get together for lunch. :-)

Road Trip to Santa Cruz

My friend John and I went to Santa Cruz on a business trip for a week, for NaviSite in 1999.



I went back today. I hung out at the Boardwalk, an area I didn't get to hang out at much while I was here last. John and I had a lot of fun back then and I got a BIIG smile when I happened to drive past the hotel we stayed at, the hotel where I took a 6' tree-plant from Johns room and tossed it into the hotel swimming pool, three stories below, for fun right after out first day from the office.



I came across a couple of sea lions, too. One huge adult and two pups. They didn't do much.
Next week Eve and Kristen are planning a camping trip to a park area somewhere near Stinson Beach.

Haight Street Fair review

I went to the Street Fair with Hilary, Eve and Kristen, as planned. The Fair was fun, but not the 'crazy' party that I was told it was going to be. The Union Street Fair in my 'well to do' neighborhood with the yuppies was more boisterous in some ways.

Here is a 'hold the camera over your head and snap" angle shot of the fair. It stretched for 8 or 10 blocks. tens of thousands of people were there. Maybe over 100,000?

We initially met up at the 'Asquew' restaurant. Good Eats, good value for the money.

Here are the girls in the Hammock Booth, I got this photo after several failed attempts, shooting pictures while reclining in the fuzzy 'cookie monster' colored hammock. There was some concern that I was too heavy for the hammock. It held, but maybe the next guy bopped his head on the street.

After the Hammock, we had a detour through the Ben & Jerries Shop. Hmmmm.. Sundae

The fair wrapped up at 5:30. We were tired, but well worth it. This is one of the two major stages in the street. Just past the stage is the end of Haight Street and the start of Golden Gate Park.

Street Fairs

Something that San Francisco does very well are 'street fairs'. This is a city of neighborhoods, many of these host 'street fairs where the main street in each neighborhood is cordoned off and the local merchants set up booths, food vendors & restauranteurs dish out their finest, bands set up to play music & beer gardens get totally packed with people.

The Union Street fair happened last weekend. It was a great time. This weekend is the Haight Street Fair, the 'hippie' neighborhood of SF where Janis Joplin, the Greatful Dead, Jimi Hendrix, Jefferson Airplane all called home. Its still quite the off-beat neighborhood despite all the pricey retail stores & businesses that added a gold-plated sheen to the hippie grunge. I'm planning to go this afternoon, it should be a wild time. Today my friend Hilary is going to come over an inspect the new apartment. If you recall, she was coaching me through my apartment hunt. "I'll show you the spots in town you need to look at. Russian Hill, great, Pacific Heights, Great; Lower Pac. Heights, even better. If you move to the Marina with all the yuppie scum, I'll disown you!!"

Here are some shots taken from my place, they're real 'hack' panoramic shots, several photos spliced together. A photo taken during the day and another at night. (The night shot is from the roof deck)

Anyway, Hilary and I will hit the Haight st. (pronounced 'hate') Fair. I'll give Eve a call, too, she's also interested in going. I should have some fascinating images to post after today.

Hilary was in some snowboarding videos with by buddy Rich. However, Hilary had her own project a while back, a video produced about 'single living' in San Francisco. Its rather amusing:

I'll have a house-warming party in July. I think if everyone I know shows up, I'll pack the house.
This is NOT my place, its one the the many old $1+ Million Victorian houses next to my apartment building.

The new place in Pacific Heights

I've now spent one week in the new place. The dust has settled enough for me to get caught up on things with the blog. There's plenty of video and photos.

JUST SO EVERYONE KNOWS; HERE IS THE NEW ADDRESS:

Robert McNeil
1790 Broadway St. #304
San Francisco, CA 94109

Here is a photo-tour of the new neighborhood.

The Octagon house is a museum, apparently is one of the last remnants of a brief design craze back in the 1800's.



Here is Jen, shes a neighbor of mine from Bernal Heights. This pic is from a night her and I were hanging out on Cortland Street, at the 'Stray Bar'. This girl has an ambitious schedule. She's returning from Italy and the UK on June 11th, she's then going up to Alaska to run a Marathon for a Leukemia/Cancer fund raiser on June 19th. If you'd like to contribute, the link is here:

www.active.com/donate/tntgsf/tntgsfJPhelps1


The 90-second video shows everything except the amazing view. That is what the second and third videos are for. Luckily the houses in front of my apartment building are 100 year old victorians that are not going to 'grow' in height anytime soon to block the view.

I have no ambitious plans for June. My freinds in the 'Dresden Dolls' are touring this month; I'll see them at the 'Greek Theater' at Berkeley. Aside from that, nothing ambitious until the MLB All-Star Break here in San Francisco in July.

Later in July I'll be back in Massachusetts for 5 days. Arriving Monday night , July 16th, I'll be in business meetings for two days, Tuesday and Wednesday and then I have a couple of days to visit friends and family before going up to NH for my old ski clubs 'Tubing Weekend' always a great time, best weekend of the summer.

Colby gratuates today.

I came across this photo of Colby and I in Cozumel, Mexico two years ago. Colby is Graduating from High School today & will attend UMass Amhearst in September. He's also finishing up the work required to become an Eagle Scout in July.