World Photos by Paola: Downtown San Francisco and More

This past Saturday, Joe and I ventured into the streets to walk around, exercise our dog, and take some photos of the city. Because we were both feeling a bit under the weather, we kept our adventures quite local and close to home.

We have a usual walk we do on weekdays so we decided to stay away from that and head in the opposite direction, towards Market street but still away from the masses of tourists that take over the center of the city every day, but especially on weekends!

As we walked around, we poked into alleys and took a new look at the old European-looking buildings that are all around Union Square, the financial district and on both sides of Market street. They are truly gorgeous and they add so much charm to the city!

One thing I love, LOVE about Market street are the trains that run on it! These trains are ancient but still are in mint condition. The go by, zooming by faster than you would expect. I’m honestly obsessed with photographing this old treasures!

We went into Joe’s office building in SOMA because he had to pick up something there. So, the three of us: Joe, Bomber and I, headed up to the 28^th floor on the elevator and, once there, I took the chance to take some photos of the city as seen from above. Once again I was filled with happiness while looking at the gorgeous city I live in!

On our way back, we walked passed the Bank of America building to see the sculpture that is informally known as the Banker’s Heart. This name gives you an idea on what people think about bankers. The sculpture is a huge black piece of stone shaped nothing like a heart, (or like anything at all) and that looks cold and evil. You make your own conclusions!

We went back home on California street, passing through Chinatown and seeing the California line Cable Car go by us a few times.

Because we had some time on our hands and we needed to run some errands, we got a Zip Car and went around the city for a bit. We drove to West Portal, a part of the city I recently went by on a train, and that Joe had not been to yet.

West Portal street starts at the West Portal Muni train station and it’s filled with stores, cafes, and cute shops. We walked around the street and were impressed at the number of toy stores we saw in a short stretch. After walking around the main drag, we ventured into the neighborhood and had a great time looking at this very “neighborhoody” place.

In West Portal, we saw mostly houses and no apartment buildings and, there were grassy spots outside the houses! Oh, there are no grassy spots outside apartment buildings in the part of the city we live in. In fact, we are lucky to have so many trees around our building despite being so close to the center of the city!

Bomber really enjoyed walking around there and we loved seeing all the flowers, admiring the carefully landscape lawns and front yards.

About an hour later, we realized our time was running out and it was time to return the car. Please with having seen a new part of our city, we got in the car and drove back home. Both of us still felt a bit sick so we decided to just take it easy for the rest of the afternoon. Next to us, an exhausted dog looked very happy too!