Thursday, June 9, 2011

San Francisco

Just got back from a long weekend in San Francisco. Saw lots and lots and did a ton of walking. 

Great Vista from Russian Hill

 General Bead was so cool, and the funny thing is a friend of ours lives 2 blocks from there and she thought I was crazy that there was a bead store on her street as she walks past there everyday and never saw it before. I was so glad to be able to show a local something new!


As you can see the door is pretty non descript with no sign on it and unless you look up you have no idea there is a store inside.


When I asked if I could take a photo, she said of course and then proceeded to show me how to get the best shot!
More fabulous beads, I need to take my daughter here some day and my friend Nancy.

FLAX is a great locally owned art store, 3 generations strong.

 
A great thrift store on Valencia. I scored big when I saw the sign in the window that said all was 50% off on Monday!! The only downside was that I was flying standby and had to be able to cram all into my one carry on!

Some of my miniature and thrift store finds in the Mission District.

My favorite browsing, shopping and eating area was the Mission District. 
Not touristy but not scary either. I saw 2 art exhibits that utilized real dead animals (taxidermy) mice, birds and squirrels, had them dressed up doing funny things or even made jewelry out of the squirrel claws. This reminded me of going to Mexico as a kid and seeing stuffed frogs playing pool. this gives me some new ideas....:)

And then it was onto the Golden Gate Park. I had no idea how big and gorgeous it was....


 ...saw some tranquil sculptures at the Japanese Gardens...

 Celeste, a local friend took us to the SFMOMA and we saw the exhibit "The Steins Collect" They had amassed a huge amount of French Impressionist paintings over the years. In 1908 Picasso wrote to Leo and Gertrude and said "Studio tidied up and only waiting for your visit. " I liked that quote as it reminds me of myself. My studio is the guest room.

I  found that  Barnes of the famed  "Barnes Collection" bought paintings right off the walls of the Steins. I tagged onto the end of a docent tour and she left us with the quote that after Matisse had passed away Gertude said, " Everybody came and nobody made a difference anymore."

I also made a point of visiting Berkley as I had never been there before and I really wanted to go eat at Chez Panisse, which I did get a reservation and it was great!
In Berkley I bought a bunch of stuff at the Japanese store. It was all so small and tiny and cute I just had to.


5 comments:

marianne said...

sounds like a great trip! thanks for sharing. can't wait to see what becomes of the goodies.

Anonymous said...

what a wonderful trip and I love the sculptures in the Japanese garden,, beautiful,, thanks for sharing

Chris said...

Sounds like you had a most enjoyable trip Pam. I am a friend of Laurie McKnight, who has also commented this evening. I was enjoying your pictures and then you had to go and show pics of beads, that is one of my downfalls, LOL I have beads and handcrafted jewelry coming out of my (gosh, I don't know what word to use here, but you get the idea). I would love it if you popped over to my blog also. It's on Lauries and it's called "Retired and loving it".

Nancy P. said...

Pam, great pictures and now I want to go back and visit! The Mission District is my favorite, too.

Rebeca Trevino said...

this is too funny!
my husband had a conference the week of 6/12 - 7/17. while he worked, i played! the Mission is my favorite place to walk around, tons of thrift stores, and art galleries, and just 'interesting' stuff. i did not get to the stein exhibit, but did seek out and saw several small exhibits by local assemblage artists. even got to visit a blog-friend's studio.
isn't san francisco grand?

i live ony 1 hour away. next time you are in the area, let me know, i would love to meet you there. or better still would love to have you come see me in santa rosa (i live in wine country you know) and i could show you the art scene here.