Stairway Walk #1 in Review
[Note: That link takes you to a picasa-enhanced google map, so you can see where each of my photos was taken. On my site, Tawdry Talk, you can see the map embedded into this page.]
Well, that was fun! 6 intrepid walkers showed up, two with pups, and the 7 of us walked the route I had set out here and a great time was had. The weather was a bit cool, but not too terribly much so, and we made our way up to our high spot of Union and Montgomery with relative ease. Saw some excellent, if slightly foggy, views, got to take in some San Francisco history, as well as saw some of the oldest structures in the city.
Considering that I haven’t been doing any aerobics training, I did surprisingly well on those climbs, although I was glad to take the short break we did at Calhoun Terrace, where we saw four of the oldest houses in San Francisco, built in the early 1860s.
Once we were done with that, we continued back up to Montgomery, headed north, and descended until we came to the delightful Filbert Steps. The garden that has been lovingly tended since the 1950s is very quiet and still, like being in a park.
At the bottom of the steps, Filbert is just a stub that opens onto Sansome and the western entrance to Levi’s Plaza, and we walked south on Sansome until Washington, and from there to Grant and into Chinatown. Two of our walkers had to leave us during this part of our walk, and the five of us remaining had lunch at this delightful Pho place.
Re-energized, we continued up Grant to California and Old St. Mary’s, the oldest cathredral in California. It was builty in 1854 and was rebuilt after the 1906 earthquake. Down California to A.P. Giannini Plaza, named for the founder of Bank of America, it sits on the grounds of the carnelian granite Bank of America building.
Finally, we got back to our starting point on Market Street, where we all agreed that this was a fun experience and let’s do it again, etc.
WIley’s photos are here.
Steve’s photos are here.
And soon as I have Brenda’s photos, I’ll let you know, too.
Later this week, I’m going to organize another stairway walk for January.
Looking up at the Vallejo Steps
happy