City Hall Bike Ride

Safe feeling bike path

Hank and I went bike riding last week, and I warned him that if he didn't let me start letting me post pictures of him, I'd start referring to him as Hank E. Panky in the blog.

There's a HUGE biking community in this city, because it's "green", and people are encouraged to ride bikes, to ease up on the public transportation system.  I recently attended a 4 hour bike safety class and learned all the many ways I've been breaking the law!



Hank E. Panky, Annie and I enjoyed biking downtown around City Hall and the Civic Center. 

Sitting so GOOOOD even tho her ball is rolling away...

I get confused every time I see this building, because to me, it looks like a capital building, which would make San Francisco the capital of California.  But no, this is "just" City Hall.  I got the opportunity to go inside the other day, as there was a hearing about a group of people who wanted to get funding for getting Delores Park and area designated as a Historical .... site.... place.... Neighborhood.  Which would delay the renovation of the park for years.  It's already being delayed by the Arts Counsel right now - they don't like the look of one of the restrooms the Steering Committee approved of.  It would have entailed getting the okay of the residents of over a thousand buildings, most of which are apartment buildinngs with multiple families in them.  One of the guys who was on the Steering Committee for the park renovation emailed everyone, warning of the "danger" of this, and our presence would be good at the hearing.  Three of us showed up, and spoke of our disapproval of the Historical plan, based on the fact that we hadn't been aware of such plans during the Steering Committee process, and it seemed a bit shady that a small number of people who claimed to have been meeting once a month for 7 years to get this done, but no one had ever heard of this group.  I even spoke up - me being "political", but they were messing with MY park, gol darn it! 

This is a good picture of the weird trees in front of City Hall, but I was mostly taking pictures of this guy with his pugs.

His fat pugs.

See how cleverly I used Annie as my subject?  

She always does as I tell her.  All I had to say was "Annie, go smell the flowers so I can pretend I'm taking your picture rather than the Fat Pugs behind you".

She so smart.

Snort.  

The very Fat Pugs

 Here I was cleverly taking a picture of this girl's shoe.  Imagine my surprise when I noticed the Fat Pugs in the same picture.... 

 Could they be fat because he brought them to the park in a stroller???  He parked them at the halfway point of the block, and walk them only one time the length of the block.  They wanted to play with Annie, but the man wouldn't let them - poor things.  Pugs often have breathing problems anyway cause their breeding has mushed their faces/noses so much, and I could hear these poor dogs wheezing the entire time they were there. 

Hank E. Panky thinks I get too overly worked up over dogs.  Sniff.

The Asian Museum.  Dog Park peops say well worth going

Hank is obsessed with how many newspapers SF has.  I told him he gets too worked up over them  

No idea...

I think this is the San Francisco Symphony Center

Speaking of the Symphony, they played in Delores Park last Sunday.  It was A MAZ ING.  

Our bike ride mapped at 5.93 miles.  

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Wednesday Weigh-in

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I should start a book called "The Trike and I".  Because of it, I'm finally doing what I wanted to do, which was to see the city in which I dreamed of moving to.  I'm able to ride the trike and whomever I'm with just walks along with me.  I'm really respectful of people on the sidewalk, not zooming along like a tiny Honda amongst a bunch of SUV's.  Hank sold his bike cause he'd rather walk the hills, and there's so many stairs in this city - he doesn't like carrying it.  So he walks with me and I carry the load of our adventures in the bike basket.  So Handy.  

Hank, Annie and I are out on the bike, exploring the city.  I'm trying to find the Trans America building.  You'd think it'd be easy to find.  It's my third journey downtown, specifically to find "downtown".  It doesn't ever occur to me to look it up on a map beforehand - it seems like it would be easy to find, so who needs a map?  Exploring is the name of the game, right?  Hank, typically hates to ask for directions, so he's mute on the subject, which works for my exploring gene. 

But there's a problem with all this exploring on the bike.  I've been averaging at least 4 miles a day, and there's been a couple of days where I've done 8 and 10 miles.  

The problem?  

I get HUNGRY.  I haven't been hungry in a long time.  Evidently, I've been keeping myself well protected from that particular feeling.  

The evidence?

Can you see it?  It's proof that it DOES exist in San Francisco, despite my earlier belief that large, corporate chains don't exist in this city. 

It's Wal*Mart that isn't allowed - because of it's poor ... I can't think of the word.  Something about it's poor treatment of it's employees.  I hear there is a Target coming to town.  There's already a PetCo, Whole Foods galore and a Burger King.

As we walked down the street, I told Hank, "hmmm, smells like a McDonalds near by".  We looked around, and sure enough... there was a McDonalds!

Dun dun dun.

Despite it being weigh-in day at Weight Watchers later on that evening

Hello, six pound weight gain.  

Sheesh. 

Updated Thursday Morning:  The points for this McDonalds meal?  52.  Points I am allowed?  27.  Ahem.  

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