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Philadelphia Theater Trip – Disgraced

Posted on 10/19/2015 by Robert S. Robbins

Philadelphia is the cultural capital of Pennsylvania. I had an extended weekend so I decided to make a long overdue trip to Philadelphia to experience some world class theater. It has been three years since I last visited Philadelphia and there have been some major changes to the city. The night before I left, I finished reading The Philadelphia Connection: Conversations with Playwrights by Betty Jane Burton. This is a collection of interviews with Philadelphia’s playwrights. I figured it would be a good introduction to the movers and shakers of the Philadelphia theater scene. The cover features a great photo of the Avenue of the Arts (aka Broad Street) which is the Broadway of Philadelphia.

I usually drive down to Philadelphia which takes four hours. I usually stay overnight since I don’t want to drive four hours twice in one day. Since I had Friday off I was able to spend two nights in Philadelphia. I did encounter a traffic jam on Interstate 80 near the Milton Travel Plaza due to a traffic accident. Other than that the trip went very smoothly. I stayed at the Sheraton Philadelphia Downtown Hotel. On previous trips I preferred the Holiday Inn Historic District hotel but it has become more expensive. That hotel is also located further away from the Avenue of the Arts where all the theaters are and the Benjamin Franklin Parkway where all the museums are located. I parked in the underground parking garage of the Sheraton, parking level 2 section 6F. I took a ticket but in fact you use a room key when you leave, not the ticket. There was a separate elevator from the garage to the lobby of the hotel. It let me out right next to the concierge desk. I’m describing everything in case I want to use this hotel in the future. My room was on the 9th floor. The nice thing about a road trip is that you can bring as much luggage as you like in your car and bring back as much stuff as you like. But I packed light since I was only going to be in town for a few days.

After dropping off my bags in my room, my first goal was to visit the Rodin Museum. This museum has been on my to do list for a long time. The Rodin Museum is a fairly small museum filled with bronze statues by Auguste Rodin. I’ve seen his work in New York City (at the Museum of Modern Art), in Washington DC at the Hirshorn Museum Sculpture Garden and even in Paris when I came across the Monument to Balzac. However I did not visit the Musée Rodin. I paid $10.00 to visit this museum but you could actually pay what you wanted. I waited around until noon for a guided tour. There were a lot of young art students wandering around the galleries drawing the sculptures. The students may have been from the University of the Arts which had a lot of campus buildings in Center City.

Rodin Museum

I found the Book Corner near the Barnes Foundation museum. This used book store is run by the Friends of the Free Library of Philadelphia. I bought a copy of the Dramatists Sourcebook, 25th Edition. I didn’t really need this book since I have a newer edition, but I wanted to make this trip a dedicated theater excursion. I returned to my hotel to drop off the book and to drink a little water. Then I headed back out to walk down the Avenue of the Arts so I could take photos of all the theaters on Broad Street. This was also my first opportunity to see the new Dilsworth Park which has replaced the Dilsworth Plaza on the west side of City Hall. Philadelphia has completely redesigned this area and it was one of the big changes I wanted to check out. The most striking change was the clear glass headhouses that serve as the entrances to SEPTA transit lines. I walked into the City Hall courtyard and discovered some SEPTA Broad Street Line entrances there for the city office workers. I never knew those existed.

I didn’t really need to photograph everything along Broad Street since I’ve done that on previous trips to Philadelphia but I figured I might get better photos on these bright October days. I particularly wanted to get a lot of photos of the Suzanne Roberts Theatre and the Wilma Theater where I was going to see shows.

My next goal was to explore Chinatown and have lunch at a Chinese restaurant. Philadelphia has the only Chinatown in Pennsylvania. After seeing San Francisco’s Chinatown earlier this year, I was more interested in the one in my home state. I had lunch at Sakura Mandarin on Race Street which seems to be popular with the local Chinese. I ordered the Seafood Delight which was vegetables and seafood in a sauce. It was very hot and I thought it was pretty good. I was glad it came with a fork and spoon because I was worried I would have to use chopsticks. I still have not learned how to eat with chopsticks! I also drank a glass of ice water and some tea because I was dying of thirst.

Next I walked all the way down Race Street trying to find the Race Street Pier but first I encountered Elfreth’s Alley, the cobblestone lane of Colonial houses. I stopped to wander down the lane with the other tourists since I was there. Actually before that I walked pass the new Metroclub Condominiums, a very modern building with a rounded facade and the United States Mint which I should add to my notes. My main interest in this part of the city was the new FringeArts building across from the Race Street Pier. FringeArts is the Philadelphia Fringe Festival which seems to have become a permanent institution with activities year round. My second trip to Philadelphia way back in 2002 was just to see the Philly Fringe Festival. There is also a restaurant, La Peg, located in the FringeArts building but I wasn’t hungry after eating in Chinatown. I got a great view of the Benjamin Franklin Bridge from the Race Street Pier. This was the second big change to the city that I wanted to see. The FringeArts building and the Race Street Pier did not exist three years ago. Please note that I had walked clear across Center City at this point.

Fringe Arts

I walked a little bit in Old City and found the Arden Theatre Company and The Book Trader. I did stop in at the Book Trader because I cannot resist a bookstore. I bought two books of plays to continue my theater focus for the trip. I bought The Miser and Other Plays by Moliere and The Complete Plays of Joe Orton.

As I headed back toward City Hall, I passed and photographed the Benjamin Franklin Museum, the Ritz movie theater, the National Museum of American Jewish History, and finally Independence Park where I did slow down to take photos of Independence Hall and the Liberty Bell through the window of its building. I did not actually get in line to see the Liberty Bell. Eventually I walked all the way back to Broad Street where I took even more photos of the cultural establishments concentrated along this street. By this time I had sore feet so I returned to my hotel to rest until the evening’s big event.

On Friday evening, my first night in Philadelphia for this trip, I saw the play Disgraced by Ayad Akhtar. This play won the Pulitzer Prize for Drama in 2013. The Pulitzer Prize is probably the major award for a serious play. The play was put on by the Philadelphia Theatre Company at the Suzanne Roberts Theatre. I’ve been to this theater before on July 9 , 2011 to see the one man show Long Story Short by Colin Quinn.

Suzanne Roberts Theatre

The theater was half empty for this play. I was the only person sitting in my row and all the rows behind me were completely empty. I was seated in the mezzanine, or balcony, so I was looking down at the stage from a distance. This seat was cheaper, only $36.00. I thought the set design was very impressive. It looked exactly like a fancy New York City apartment with a small patio. The play was a realistic drama about young professionals, including a Muslim lawyer who hates Islam. He gets in trouble with his law firm for appearing to defend an imam arrested for contributing to a terrorist group.

I did not go anywhere for diner after the show. I did buy a bottle of coke from the vending machine in my hotel. I really like vending machines in hotels. They are better than minibars in your room with outrageously expensive items. I did have to swipe my credit card to buy the soft drink since the vending machine would not accept coins or bills. I also had to pay for an hour of Internet time to check my email and post some photos of social media web sites.

In conclusion this was a good half day in Philadelphia. I had visited an art museum and saw a play. This satisfied my need for a little culture but tomorrow would be even better.

Posted in General, Theater, Writing | Tagged Avenue of the Arts, Ayad Akhtar, FringeArts, Philadelphia, Philadelphia Theatre Company, Rodin Museum, Suzanne Roberts Theatre | Leave a comment

Scranton, The Electric City

Posted on 10/11/2015 by Robert S. Robbins

Yesterday I made my fourth trip to Scranton, the third trip devoted to exploring the city. I was very undecided about making this trip but it was a beautiful day so I’m glad I got out of the house. I only had four items on my itinerary.

Driving to Scranton from Williamsport is actually very easy but it does take two hours. On the return trip my GPS device was not working right away but I managed to find my way out of the city and back onto Interstate 81 South without the slightest problem.

My first goal for the trip was to go on the ten mile trolley excursion run by the Electric City Trolley Museum. I visited this museum before but did not get to ride a trolley. Scranton actually gets its nickname, the Electric City, from the nation’s first streetcars powered exclusively by electricity. Getting to the Electric City Trolley Museum was a little difficult because I parked at the Casey Garage, only $5 on the weekends, and the Mall at Steamtown’s bridge to Steamtown was closed. I had to walk all the way down Lackawana Avenue and then up South Bridge Avenue, cutting across the railroad tracks to reach Cliff Street. But I did arrive in time for the first trolley ride of the day at 10:30.

Electric City Trolley Excursion

I almost forgot to mention that I passed the Scranton Enterprise Center on Lackawana Avenue. One of my other goals was to take some photos of the Scranton Enterprise Center. The Scranton Enterprise Center is an incubator for businesses like Internet startups. As a computer programmer and web developer, I am very interested in Internet startups in my region. Scranton also has a co-working space called Coalwork.

Scranton Enterprise Center

The trolley excursion was a lot of fun. It was a five mile run out to the PNC Field, a baseball park in Moosic, PA just south of Scranton. We passed an abandoned coal mine and a waterfall along the route. But the most interesting thing on the ride was a mile long tunnel. Going through the tunnel was just like riding the subway in a big city.

After the trolley got back to Steamtown I spent a little time viewing the exhibits in the museum and then walked across the bridge to the Mall at Steamtown. I went to the Library Express store, a book store run by the local library, and bought a copy of Lord Of The Flies by William Golding. I wasn’t particularly interested in reading this classic but they had a poor selection of books. On the way back to Casey Garage I bought a copy of the Times-Tribune and picked up a free copy of the Electric City, a weekly entertainment tabloid. Buying a copy of the local newspaper was also one of my goals on this trip.

Next I tried to locate a bar, Banshee Pub, but it looks like they went out of business. I found a bar named Tequila where Banshee Pub was supposed to be. The bar was closed so I went to Carl Von Luger Steak & Seafood for lunch. This restaurant is located in the Scranton Parking Authority garage and seems to be one of the nicer restaurants in town. I ordered a bacon, lettuce, and tomato sandwich with potato salad instead of home fries. This sandwich was the best BLT I’ve ever had and it was an affordable lunch, under $15.00.

After lunch I had nothing else in mind so I wandered around a bit taking photos of landmark buildings which I’ve seen before. I did get a lot of great photos because the lighting conditions were excellent. The sun was shining bright and there were no clouds. Eventually I walked all the way to Nay Aug Park on the east side of town. It was a mistake to walk because it was all uphill. I did pass the Geisinger Community Medical Center on Mulberry Street and it had changed immensely since my previous trip on September 29, 2012. The building was now all white and much larger than it had been. Hospitals and universities are always expanding. I’ve often compared them to empires that eventually overwhelm the community.

Nay Aug Park also seemed to have changed a bit with more signs and maps of the park everywhere. Before I went to the park I stopped in at the Everhart Museum. They had free admittance so it did not cost me anything to visit the museum. The Everhart Museum is small, but pretty nice for a small city. It has natural history exhibits, anthropological exhibits, Dorflinger Glass, and some artwork. The most striking painting was a portrait by Adolf Konrad. You are not allowed to take photos in the museum so I memorized this artist’s name with the mnemonic; combine Adolf Hitler with Joseph Conrad to get the Heart of Darkness. Adolf Konrad was the “Painter Laureate of Newark NJ” but I cannot find any photos of this particular painting online.

There was a wedding being held in Nay Aug Park, or at least wedding photos were being taken, so the David Wenzel Tree House was open for the wedding party. I found my way to the Nay Aug Gorge which is a very scenic waterfall located in the park.

Rie Rie Overlook

After a long walk back downtown I found the Lackawanna Historical Society in the Catlin House on the University of Scranton campus but they were closed. I also passed the McDade Center for Literary and Performing Arts and noticed that the University of Scranton Players were doing The Baltimore Waltz by Paula Vogel.

That reminds me that my next big trip will be to Philadelphia from Friday to Sunday. This will be a dedicated theater trip. On Friday evening I will see the play Disgraced at the Philadelphia Theatre Company and on Saturday evening I will see Antigone at the Wilma Theater. I am particularly interested in going to the Wilma Theater because they present work by avante-garde theater artists. Unfortunately, nobody in my area appreciates Philadelphia as a cultural resource for great theater so I have to arrange these trips myself. Recently I have discovered a great book on Philadelphia playwrights, The Philadelphia Connection: Conversations with Playwrights, by B.J. Burton. A book of interviews is quite boring if you are not interested in the subject, but this book provides invaluable insight into the Philadelphia theater community. Philadelphia actually does a lot to encourage playwrights and new play development with its PlayPenn Conference. But I’ve never heard of a single playwright interviewed in this book which says something about the fame of playwrights. Even if you follow the theater, you are unlikely to become familiar with the work of regional playwrights.

My trip to Philadelphia will be an overnight trip with two nights at a hotel. This will make the trip very expensive but I’m not going to drive down there for four hours and then head right back home for another four hour drive. I also plan to visit the Rodin Museum and the Barnes Collection while I am in the city.

Posted in General, Travel | Tagged Carl Von Luger Steak & Seafood, Electric City Trolley Museum, Everhart Museum, Nay Aug Park, Scranton | Leave a comment

Monterey

Posted on 9/26/2015 by Robert S. Robbins

The final day of my tour was spent on a drive down the Pacific Coast Highway to Monterey. We traveled south on the California State Route 1 (aka the Pacific Coast Highway). Our first stop was Pigeon Point Light Station, a state historic park, where there was a large light house. I got my first look at the Pacific Ocean and the Pacific Coast. I really like the ocean. It has a certain grandeur and suggests voyages, travel, and adventure on the high seas. Our next stop was Davenport, a small town along the highway. It was not much more than a bus stop with a cafe, a bakery, and a few other buildings. I walked across the highway and climbed down a small cliff for a terrific view of the beach with waves from the Pacific Ocean crashing on the shore. I bought something to drink in the general store and used the restroom. I showed the tour guide my Clipper card but she did not seem to be familiar with them. I think she was from Washington state.

Pigeon Point Light Station

The scenery along the highway was quite unusual to me. It was all very different from the scenery in Pennsylvania. I saw lots of deep gorges, large farms, a few ranches, cypress trees, and pampas grass.

When we arrived in Monterey, we stopped at Old Fisherman’s Wharf. I thought Fisherman’s Wharf and Cannery Row where the same thing but this was a separate collection of gift shops and restaurants along a wharf. I only had a crab cocktail and a glass of coke for lunch because I only wanted a light lunch. I saw a pelican right outside the window of the restaurant so I got up to take a photo of him. Several of the gift shops sold John Steinbeck books so I bought a copy of Sweet Tuesday. Before the trip I read his novel Cannery Row and watched the movie. That was fairly recently. I took lots of photos of the yachts tied up in the harbor and found a few seagulls to photograph too.

After driving through Cannery Row we proceeded to the 17 Mile Drive which actually took a lot of time on the trip since we made many stops. First we stopped at a beach where everyone was encouraged to dip their toes in the ocean. I walked out onto the beach and got close to the waves but I didn’t want wet feet for the rest of the trip. Next we stopped at Bird Rock, a large rock in the ocean where many birds and sea lions were resting. At this point it occurred to me to buy a textbook on Marine Biology since there was some mention of this branch of biology. Biology is the only branch of science which I find easy to understand. A physics textbook would be over my head.

Bird Rock

After that we stopped at the Lone Cypress for a photo shoot. There is a set of wooden viewing platforms for a good view of this single tree, just like we have in some state parks at home. And finally we stopped for 20 minutes at the Pebble Beach Golf Course. One of the other passengers pointed out a golfer to me. Apparently he is a famous golf pro. I will have to identify him later from the name on his golf bag. There were many impressive mansions in Pebble Beach and the Del Monte Forest had impressive stands of Monterey Pine. And finally we drove through Carmel California and saw the Mission San Carlos. There were television crews there because Father Serra has been made a saint by the Pope.

Finally we returned to Cannery Row where I was given an hour to take photos and do some shopping before our final diner at Cooper’s Pub. I took lots of photos of the Cannery Row Monument, the Monterey Bay Aquarium, the Pacific Biological Laboratories, and everything else I laid eyes on. I bought another book by John Steinbeck, Travels With Charley, because that is actually a famous travel book. It would be a shame not to buy that travel book while I was actually traveling.

Cannery Row Monument

For diner at Cooper’s Pub I had soup (clam chowder), a very large pork chop which took me a long time to chew, and coffee cake with ice cream for desert, very delicious.

On the long drive back to San Francisco we took a different route and drove through Silicon Valley along Highway 101. It was very dark out by then so I could not see many technology company headquarters except for Evernote. The sunset was spectacular and the light lingered for far longer than I expected.

So I was on a bus all day but got to see a lot of the countryside and a wide variety of scenery. It is probably very boring for a resident but everything was quite exotic to me. I can’t think of any movies that really capture that scenery.

On the trip home I bought a copy of the authorized biography, Steve Jobs by Walter Isaacson. This was a thick book but I could not resist buying an iconic book on one of the technology giants. I read almost 100 pages on the plane and in the airport waiting areas. I was already familiar with the basic story of Apple Computer’s early days from reading other books. But having finally seen a little bit of California and Silicon Valley it was more compelling and inspiring. I feel like writing some software to reinvent the world!

Posted in General, Travel | Tagged Cannery Row, Lone Cypress, Monterey, Old Fisherman's Wharf, Pacific Coast Highway, Pebble Beach Golf Course, Pigeon Point Light Station | Leave a comment

Napa Valley Wine Train

Posted on 9/25/2015 by Robert S. Robbins

Day three of my Collette tour of San Francisco was dominated by a ride on the Napa Valley Wine Train. But first I had breakfast at Bin 55, one of the restaurants in San Francisco Marriott Marquis. I almost got charged for breakfast which would have been over $38.00! This was one of the meals that should have been included with my tour. I made sure to straighten that out after the price gouging I suffered the day before.

We drove over the Bay Bridge on the way to Napa Valley. I saw the old span of the bridge which was being demolished. We stopped briefly on Treasure Island to take some photos of the San Francisco skyline across the bay, but the morning was a bit foggy. The bus driver also slowed down at the spot where you can look down at the Bay Bridge so I got some good photos there. I had to shoot through the bus window but you can’t see any evidence of that in my photos. It was very grey and dismal but I can fix that a little using Photoshop.

Bay Bridge Highway

The landscape of Northern California is very interesting to me because the vegetation is quite different from the East Coast. The hills in California are mostly tan with dead grasses but there are also some dull green trees. There are many palm trees and eucalyptus trees which are very exotic to me. I think we also went through Sonoma Valley with vast vineyards. It is hard to describe the scenery since I don’t know the names for California plants and geography. But I saw California coastal prairies which are grasslands. I saw what looked like a dusty ranch from the Old West, vast farmlands with nothing but dry brush visible. I find vast prairie lands a little frightening since it seems like you are a very long way from the slightest sign of human habitation. I can just imagine the endless trek you would face if you were abandoned out there.

Napa Valley

The Napa Valley Wine Train was a long and relaxing ride. Our tour group was the last to board the train. The train passed the back yards of trailer homes on the way out of Napa. These were distinctively California trailer homes which looked like the 1950s style of mobile home with attachments that obscure their origins. Then we began to pass many vineyards. I could even see bunches of grapes on some vines. Some vineyards had fancy houses, rustic cottages, or elaborate ranch houses but it was basically lonely stretches of vast farmlands. We got to taste some wine, only a half a glass of a red or white wine, and enjoyed appetizers. For lunch I had the soup du jour which was lobster bisque, mustard rubbed pork tenderloin, and crème brûlée for desert. The food was gourmet quality just like on the Tioga Central Railroad of Wellsboro. This reminds me that I’ve been reading some of the travel books by Paul Theroux. He is famous for writing about train travel. I’m currently reading The Great Railway Bazaar so this train ride was a small taste of what he describes.

We drove over the Golden Gate Bridge on the way back, through the tunnel on the Marin County side which is called the Waldo Tunnel, located on U.S. Route 101 between the Golden Gate Bridge and Sausalito. I remember that we did drive through Sausalito again because I saw the house boats and the yachts again.

I finally had an evening free to do something on my own in the city. I took a BART train to the Mission District. This was the first chance I got to use my Clipper card which finally registered the added value I put on my card. Once I reached the Mission District I walked along 24th Street to the Modern Times Bookstore where I bought two books; The Dramatists Guild Resource Directory for 2012 and Torch Song Trilogy by Harvey Fierstein. I was particularly keen on finding theater books because I’ve recently completed an one act play which I started while attending the Primary Stages online playwriting class. I’m through writing ten minute plays. I think I will only write more substantial works like one act plays. I plan to write the definitive shaman play next.

Modern Times Bookstore Collective

There are three more major cities in the United States I want to visit; Boston, Chicago, and Los Angeles. I have already begun to gather notes on Chicago and Los Angeles. I think Los Angeles might be my next destination because I’m more excited about seeing Hollywood than anything else. While San Francisco’s technology companies provided the inspiration for my trip to Northern California, playwriting will provide the inspiration for a trip to Los Angeles. Writing plays is closely related to writing other types of scripts for film and television. Personally I think writing a screenplay on spec is a stupid pipe dream, but there is a lot of crossover with the playwright community. Anyway, I already have an association with First Stage in Los Angeles because I paid them to do a reading of one of my short plays.

I wanted to fully explore the Mission District but since I had such limited time on my own I only walked along 24th Street. However, I did see many Latino murals, two other bookstores; Adobe Books and Alley Cat Books, Mixcoatl Arts and Crafts, and Precita Eyes.

Anyway, after that quick trip to the Mission District I went back to my hotel and then walked to North Beach. I really wanted to visit City Lights Bookstore again. I bought two books there; The Playwright At Work and The Chickencoop Chinaman / The Year of the Dragon: Two Plays by Frank Chin, a San Francisco playwright. The performing arts books are located in the basement where it was so hot that I was dripping with sweat while I examined every single theater book they had, trying to decide on the best ones to purchase.

I had diner at a good seafood restaurant, Caffe Sport on Green Street. This is a Sicilian restaurant although most of the waiters seemed to be Latinos. The interior was filled with painted furniture and woodcarvings, an eclectic, kitsch-filled setting according to Google. I had a glass of white wine. There was a house sauce for bread dipping which I mistook for soup so I ate it all without using bread. I think I ordered Cioppinno al’ Antonio, stewed seafood in white garlic sauce. There were shrimp, crab claws and one crab leg, mussels, clams, calamari (squid body rings like rubber bands), and baby octopus which I avoided eating because they are also rubbery and tasteless. This was a great meal and didn’t leave me feeling too full. It was great to be out and about the city late at night. I saw the strip clubs on Broadway which is the center of nightlife in San Francisco. The Transamerica Pyramid was not lit up as much as I expected but the Sentinel Building was floodlit so I tried to take many photos of that. Unfortunately my camera does not take good photos in low lighting or at night. Everything tends to look blurred.

After finally getting some time on my own to wander around the city I was more satisfied with the trip.

Posted in General, Travel | Tagged Bay Bridge, City Lights Bookstore, Mission District, Modern Times Bookstore Collective, Napa Valley Wine Train, San Francisco | Leave a comment

Muir Woods and Sausalito

Posted on 9/25/2015 by Robert S. Robbins

The second day of the tour began with breakfast at Boudin Bakery. It was a buffet breakfast. I had orange juice, coffee, sausage, scrambled eggs, pineapple, and sourdough bread. After breakfast I had time to see the small museum and watched bread being made. I also walked outside a bit and took photos of the Musée Mécanique entrance, the Red and White Fleet ships, the Franciscan Crab Restaurant, Alito’s, and Fisherman’s Grotto.

Then we began a bus tour of the city which did take me to some places I did not get to see on my previous trip. First we drove past the Maritime Museum and Ghirardelli Square. The we drove through the Presidio to reach the Golden Gate Bridge. We drove through some tunnels on both sides of the Golden Gate Bridge during the trip. The bus drove over the Golden Gate Bridge and we parked at Vista Point. We were given time to take photos of the bridge and to walk out onto the bridge but there wasn’t enough time to walk clear across it. Fortunately I did that on my previous trip so this was just a repeat.

After driving back over the Golden Gate Bridge we drove to the far west of the city to enter Golden Gate Park. This was more interesting to me because I never got this far west on my previous trip. I saw where the Sutro Baths were located and the Cliff House. I also got my first good look at the Pacific Ocean. In Golden Gate Park we drove pass the windmills, the bison paddock, and the beach chalet. I did not go that far west in the park on my previous trip. We stopped near the Music Concourse bandshell to use the restrooms. I saw some San Francisco Police Department cops on motorcycles ride up and down the steps to the bandshell. I’m not sure what they were doing; showing off for the tourists?, practicing their Dirty Harry chase skills? It seemed a little odd but I took some photos since everyone else felt free to take photos.

The bus then took us up the Twin Peaks where there was an excellent view of the city and the Sutro Tower. I don’t think you can get to the top of the peaks using public transportation so this was another unique benefit of the tour. I took some great photos of downtown San Francisco.

San Francisco Downtown from Twin Peaks

After the tour of the city was over a lot of the tour group took the option to see Muir Woods and Sausalito. We were dropped off at the Gray Line office near Fisherman’s Wharf. I had lunch at the nearby Hollywood Cafe while waiting for the 2:00 p.m. bus to Muir Woods. I had a Bacon, Lettuce, and Tomato sandwich with fries. The bus driver for the drive to Muir Woods acted as the tour guide. He was very outgoing and made a lot of jokes while driving and kept up a running commentary. He said he was from Honduras. The bus drove pass Ghirardelli Square and we went across the Golden Gate Bridge again and into Marin County.

Muir Woods didn’t offer much of a hike but the redwood trees were fantastic! The redwood trees, Sequoia, looked like giants compared to the second growth trees you see in Pennsylvania’s woods. Redwoods have existed since the Pleistocene and Jurassic geological epochs so the woods looked ancient. You almost expected to see dinosaurs. I took a lot of photos but some of them might be blurry because there wasn’t enough light. I made sure to look up to see just how tall these trees are. We had an hour and a half to explore the woods so I walked all the way to Bridge 4 and then walked back. So I saw the Founders Grove, the Cathedral Grove, and the Bohemian Grove. The gift shop did not have anything that I really wanted to but but I settled for a small book Muir Woods Meditations and a 3D bookmark.

Muir Woods

Before heading back to San Francisco we stopped for an hour in Sausalito, a small village with many fancy boutiques. I ate a Three Scoop Sundae at Lappert’s Ice Cream. Then I went into a gift shop where I found some drugstore items for sale. I bought a Pepto Bismol Liquid 4 oz for $10.99 and Pepcid Complete Acid Reducer + Antacid with Dual Action, Cool Mint, 25 Chewable Tablets for $19.99. This was some serious price gouging! Amazon sells that small bottle of Pepto Bismol for only $4.57 and the Pepcid Complete Acid Reducer should be only $9.44. I was extremely pissed by these high prices and decided to forbid any further casual purchases during my trip. After that, I was a lot more cautious in how I spent my money. The store was probably Sausalito Drug Store at 701 Bridgeway. I can tell by their Yelp reviews that they have a history of ripping off tourists. Well they just got one more negative review!

Posted in General, Travel | Tagged Boudin Bakery, Golden Gate Bridge, Muir Woods, San Francisco, Sausalito, Twin Peaks | Leave a comment

Return To San Francisco

Posted on 9/25/2015 by Robert S. Robbins

This week I made my second trip to San Francisco. I booked this trip, a packaged tour with Collette, because it included many excursions from San Francisco. This tour really only used San Francisco as a hub city to explore Northern California. I thought this trip was ideal because I got to see many things outside of the city which were described in the travel guides I read. All travel guides include recommended excursions but you usually have to rent a car to go exploring.

The first day of the tour was spent in airports and on planes. It often takes all day to fly from the East Coast to the West Coast. I missed my first early morning flight and had to rebook. I arrived at the airport just after boarding was completed for my flight so I cut it too close. I had a short flight to Philadelphia International Airport and then a longer flight to San Francisco International Airport. Once I arrived at San Francisco International Airport I found a super shuttle to take me to my hotel but I neglected to give them my transfer voucher so that cost me $17.00.

I met the tour guide in the hotel lobby and received some travel documents. She had reported me missing in action. I went to the front desk and got my room key after giving them my credit card. The hotel was the San Francisco Marriott Marquis on Mission Street in the heart of downtown. I had considered this hotel for my first trip, it is sort of a landmark, but it was too expensive. Hotel Mark Twain was fine except for its location, but the San Francisco Marriott Marquis was even better. I was charged $14.95 a day for Internet access which was outrageous. For three nights I paid $44.85 which is more than I pay for a month of Internet at home.

The watchband on my cheap wrist watch was almost split in two and I was in danger of losing my watch so I went to the Target store across the street from the hotel. This is the Target store in the Metreon shopping center. They did not have a very good selection of watches but I eventually settled for a Timex Ironman watch for $32.99.

The only thing we did on the first day was to have diner at Swiss Louis on Pier 39 at Fisherman’s Wharf. We all got on a Gray Line bus to be driven to Fisherman’s Wharf. Gray Line provided all the transportation for the trip. I can see on their web site that every excursion we went on is offered by Gray Line and could have been booked by myself.

I saw a Big Lebowski look-a-like in front of the Hard Rock Cafe and I managed to take a picture of him because he was busy taking a photo of someone else.

Swiss Louis was a nice restaurant with great views of Alcatraz Island and the Golden Gate Bridge off in the distance. The sunset was fantastic because the sun sets behind the Golden Gate Bridge. I had a salad, a bowl of clam chowder, and the Red Snapper Sautée plus two glasses of red wine. I shared a table with Philip and Gail Landers, a couple from Williamsport. They live in my neighborhood and Phil Landers taught accounting at WACC so I probably took one of his courses. He looked a little familiar.

After diner I had a little time to explore Pier 39. I found a great spot where you can photograph Telegraph Hill and the Coit Tower all light up for the evening. I also found the shops a little more interesting than on my previous trip. I bought a nice seashell at The Shell Cellar for $5.00 as a souvenir.

Telegraph Hill

I almost forgot to mention what I was reading on my Kindle during the long flights and waits. I finished reading Little Brother by Cory Doctorow and had time to read the entire novel City Come A-Walkin’ by John Shirley. Both of those ebooks are science fiction novels set in San Francisco. City Come A-Walkin’ had a ridiculous premise but I actually liked it a lot.

Posted in General, Travel | Tagged Collette, San Francisco, San Francisco Marriott Marquis, Swiss Louis | Leave a comment

Magic In Scranton

Posted on 8/30/2015 by Robert S. Robbins

Yesterday I made my second day long trip to Scranton PA. This trip proved to be more interesting than I expected. It has been three years since my last visit to Scranton and I don’t think I have fully explored the area. The Scranton / Wilkes-Barre metropolitan area is a large and influential community. I’m sort of familiar with the place names from watching Newswatch 16 back when I had cable TV. Newswatch 16 covers the entire north east and north central portion of Pennsylvania. I’m slightly reluctant to travel to Scranton because of the complex road network and traffic. It takes me two hours to drive to Scranton so it requires a bit of an effort.

I drove to Scranton without using my GPS because the directions are pretty simple. I parked at the Casey Garage on Lackawanna Avenue. It only cost me $5.00 to park from 10:00 a.m. to 1:30 p.m. One of the first things I did was to take a photo of the Casey Garage because it is important to document where you can park without getting a ticket or being towed. Taking photos was a major goal of my trip because it was a very cloudy day on my last trip and I did not get good photos. You also cannot find good photos of Scranton online since the city isn’t a popular tourist destination. Fortunately the day was bright and sunny with excellent lighting conditions for photography. One of the first landmarks I photographed was the Radisson Lackawanna Station Hotel which used to be the Delaware, Lackawanna and Western Railroad Station. I should have gone inside to see the impressive interior but I didn’t really have any business being there.

Next I wandered around Courthouse Square where a large number of statues, monuments, and landmark buildings are to be found. There were many large tents set up, possibly for the big La Festa Italiana festival which will take place next week over the Labor Day weekend. I made sure to take another photo of the Jason Miller bust. Jason Miller wrote a Pulitzer Prize winning play set in Scranton, That Championship Season. There are two different movie versions of the play available on DVD.

I walked down a few other streets in downtown Scranton, taking photos of anything that looked like it might be a landmark building. I will need these photos to expand and improve my notes on Scranton. For example, I took better photos of the Hotel Jermyn which is where several failed theaters have held their performances, most recently, the Vintage Theater which still has their sign over a door. And I took photos of the Pennsylvania Paper and Supply Company which was made famous by the television series, The Office. I enjoy pretending that the Dunder Mifflin Paper Company is a real company located in Scranton. My photos of the building used in the opening credits will be useful in making jokes about it.

Apparently a tire warehouse suffered a major fire in Scranton this week and the blackened ruins of the six story building are being torn down. This made for an impressive, apocalyptic sight. I took a lot of photos of this industrial ruin because it really makes for a good photo. This was totally unexpected and made the trip more worthwhile. One of my goals was to have lunch at Cooper’s Seafood House, the most famous restaurant in Scranton, which was even mentioned in a few episodes of The Office. Cooper’s is located just behind the tire warehouse so I was lucky they were open. I was able to get a great view of the warehouse from the edge of the Cooper’s parking lot where a small number of people were gawking at the smouldering ruins.

Tire Factory Ruins

I ordered a Sangria drink, fish and chips, and a root beer for my lunch at Cooper’s Seafood House. As I was eating a Newswatch 16 television crew showed up and interviewed a member of the staff right in front of me. The interview was about the tire warehouse fire which forced the restaurant to close for awhile, but I wasn’t entirely sure what they were talking about at the time. It was thrilling to see a Newswatch 16 television crew during my trip to Scranton since their newscasts were part of the inspiration for my trip. This was the second thing that made this trip more interesting than I expected it to be. Cooper’s Seafood House is decorated with a lot of Scranton memorabilia and everything related to the sea, which is strange since Scranton is far from any sea. There was also a model train going around a train track just under the corners of the ceiling. I watched this train go around the room several times since it took forty minutes to get my order.

After lunch I walked back downtown to reach my next goal, Embassy Vinyl. I visited this record store on my previous trip and I was glad they were still in business. Scranton seems like a tough city for a business to survive in. For example, I noticed that Marquee Cinemas was gone. At Embassy Vinyl I bought two CDs at random, the Run Lola Run soundtrack and Zero One, some sort of electronica music. Then I went to the Mall at Steamtown to use the restroom and do more shopping. I was looking for the Fye store which sells DVDs and CDs but they were gone. I did stop in at the Library Express store where I bought a book, Thousand Cranes by Yasunari Kawabata, a Japanese writer and winner of the Nobel Prize for Literature. I’ve read his novel, Snow Country.

The second part of the trip required me to leave the parking garage and journey into one of the many surrounding neighborhoods of Scranton. There are many satellite towns in the Scranton area but getting to them requires a careful study of the streets to plan a route and then some thought on where you are going to park. I took the North Scranton Expressway to reach North Main Avenue in a neighborhood known as North Scranton or Providence. The major attraction there is the Houdini Museum but I was primarily interested in the Scranton Public Theatre. I parked behind the Houdini Museum in a small parking lot where you actually blocked in other cars. I arrived shortly after 1:30 p.m. which was a half hour late for the only show which began at 1:00 p.m. I did not know that there was only one show per day. Fortunately I only missed the film at the beginning of the tour and managed to catch most of the tour and the magic show.

The Houdini Museum is a curious institution to find in a shabby neighborhood of Scranton. The tour guide told us the story of how it came to be there. The museum was originally located in Manhattan until they were priced out of the city by none other than Donald Trump. This is interesting because I’ve heard that many other artists and people in the creative industries are being priced out of New York City. Scranton has been an economically depressed area for a long time. I think the city might actually be close to being bankrupt now. Anyway, you can find some very cheap property in Scranton and some artists relocate to Pennsylvania to find cheap studios, lucky for us. The point I want to make is that seeing a magic show in a typical suburban community is kind of surreal. It is the sort of carnival occurrence in your mundane surroundings which is only experienced in a dream. This was the third thing on my trip that made it exceptional. I was only expecting a mildly interesting trip.

Houdini Museum

The magic show featured Dorothy Dietrich and John Bravo who also guided the tour of the two rooms filled with Houdini memorabilia. I’m not very interested in magic, but it was interesting from the perspective of entertainment industry history. I’m planning a trip to Los Angeles which requires me to become familiar with old Hollywood and the glory days of the film industry. Harry Houdini was part of that bygone world. I saw many vintage movie posters and entertainment industry memorabilia. The magic show itself was highly entertaining and quite intimate since the museum’s theater could only accommodate a small crowd. I enjoyed it as a kind of theater performance I rarely get to see. Actually I don’t think I’ve ever seen a professional magic show. It was also kind of old fashioned which reminds me of the steam punk aesthetic. Before I left I bought a book, The Secret Life Of Houdini, by William Kalush and Larry Sloman.

The only reason I visited the Houdini Museum was because it was in the vicinity of the Scranton Public Theatre. It has annoyed me that the Scranton Public Theatre doesn’t have a decent photo of their building online. It is hard to find an establishment if you don’t know what to look for. So one of the major goals of my trip was to take photos of the Olde Brick Theatre in North Scranton, which is where the Scranton Public Theatre does its performances. After parking in a closed strip mall parking lot I walked a long way along North Main Avenue to find the theater. I have to admit that it is lame to just take photos of theaters instead of going to a show, but it could prove useful later on. Along the way I encountered a picturesque corner formed by two old banks and a tiny parklet with a village clock. This seemed to be the heart of the old Providence neighborhood, town, suburb, or what? The Olde Brick Theatre was advertising a writer’s showcase which I read about later in the Electric City, a free local entertainment weekly.

The Olde Brick Theatre

Before going home I stopped in at Main Ave Ice Cream for a large strawberry milkshake because I was dying of thirst. Every festive trip requires some ice cream to make the fun outing complete. I did have to turn on my GPS to find my way back out of the city and onto the harrowing Interstate 81 South.

In conclusion, this was a much better day than I expected. Scranton’s economic woes cause a lot of people to have a poor opinion of the city, but it can still be a great place to visit. I achieved my goal of expanding my knowledge of the region’s culture and I got some more practice navigating the infuriating road system. I should definitely visit Scranton more often. However, I probably won’t go back next week because the La Festa Italiana festival is going to make downtown crowded and it will ruin many photo opportunities.

Posted in General, Theater, Travel | Tagged Cooper's Seafood House, Dunder Mifflin Paper Company, Embassy Vinyl, Houdini Museum, Newswatch 16, Scranton, Scranton Public Theatre | Leave a comment

Return To Jim Thorpe

Posted on 8/9/2015 by Robert S. Robbins

Yesterday I made my third trip to Jim Thorpe PA, my favorite small town in Pennsylvania. Jim Thorpe is the prefect realization of everything that is charming in small town Pennsylvania. However, the major goal of this trip was to visit Lehigh Gorge State Park since I never really ventured into the park on my previous trips. Reaching the Glen Onoko Access Area was slightly difficult. You have to cross the 903 bridge over the Lehigh River over to East Jim Thorpe and then find the road that winds along the Lehigh River.

I noticed the progress being made on the new Jim Thorpe Memorial Bridge that is going to link Routes 209 and 903 in Carbon County. This will replace the current bridge which does look pretty old and decrepit. Unfortunately, I don’t think the new bridge will improve the traffic bottleneck that exists from having a bridge on the narrow mountain road into town.

There are several parking lots in the Glen Onoko Access Area but they were almost completely full even though I left early to reach the park at 9:00 a.m. I was particularly eager to see the Turn Hole Tunnel, an abandoned railroad tunnel which now exists as a sort of cave in the cliff above the river. However, I did not know exactly where to park to find the trail to this tunnel and I parked near a railroad bridge at first. I walked across the bridge and found a trail to one of the old canal locks. I explored that trail for a short while and then I went back to my car and drove further along the park road. Eventually I reached the bridge from which you can see the Turn Hole Tunnel and I tried to park at the Glen Onoko Falls Trail trail head but it was full so I had to turn around and park at the nearest parking lot. This turned out to be the right place. There is a very short trail from that parking lot to the tunnel entrance.

The Turn Hole Tunnel was so dark I could barely see the obstacles on the floor of the tunnel. There are a few boulders and buried railroad track ties which you can stumble over. There is a railing to prevent you from falling off the cliff into the river. In the middle of the river you can still see the piers of the old bridge which used to be there. The Turn Hole Tunnel was pretty neat. It was like being in a large cave.

Turn Hole Tunnel

My next goal was to hike the Glen Onoko Falls Trail. I saw the trail head on the other side of the river when I was trying to find a place to park, so I just had to walk over the bridge to get there. The Glen Onoko Falls Trail has a ridiculous number of trail signs to discourage you from hiking the trail. I saw several trail signs that read “Caution, Dangerous Trail” and “If you don’t have appropriate hiking boots, turn back now.” There were even signs warning you that people have been seriously injured or died on this trail. I climbed part of the trail and saw a few waterfalls. The trail was extremely steep in places and I gave up on it because it was exhausting and all the dire warning signs had me spooked. I don’t think I saw the major waterfalls but I saw enough to satisfy me. Back at the trail head I noticed a path to the river bank where you can take photos of the Turn Hole Tunnel. I overhead some other hikers speaking German which is proof that the Lehigh Gorge State Park is so popular it even attracts foreign tourists.

By then it was 10:00 a.m. and I had enough of hiking. I was eager to head into town. I parked in the large parking lot near the train station. It was still $6.00 to park there. I immediately bought a ticket for the 11:00 a.m. excursion train. I paid $18.00 for an open air car, a dollar more than I paid last year. Since it wasn’t quite time for boarding the train, I went to the rest room in the Visitor’s Center in the train station and picked up some brochures and a Jim Thorpe travel guide. I won’t describe the train ride since it was exactly like the first trip I made. I probably won’t bother with the excursion train on future trips to Jim Thorpe since it is very repetitive, although still kind of fun.

Train Rides

When the train returned to the station I was eager to do a little shopping and have lunch. First I went to Sellers Books where I bought a copy of Raymond Chandler’s Farewell, My Lovely. I don’t usually read mystery or crime novels but I may make Los Angeles my next big trip and Raymond Chandler is one of the writers most closely associated with Los Angeles. I picked a different restaurant for lunch, Tony Stella’s Encore, which is a charming little restaurant in a few rooms of an old house. I felt like I was having lunch in the parlor of a Victorian house. This restaurant also has an absinthe bar and sells absinthe drinks. I ordered the Death at Dusk drink which was extremely potent. This drink was a deep blue fading into purple so it really did look like dusk. It left me feeling so drunk that I had to wait over two hours before I could drive. For lunch I ordered a Classic Bacon, Lettuce and Tomato sandwich. It was excellent and came with some fries.

Tony Stella’s Encore

After lunch I was barely functional from the effects of the Death at Dusk drink but I did make it to Soundcheck Records where I bought a blues CD, Let Me Squeeze Your Lemon, the Ultimate Rude Blues Collection, which I thought might prove to be very amusing.

I returned to my car to stash my purchases but I didn’t feel sober enough to drive. I walked back up Broadway and climbed the Hill Road, looking for the Switchback Trail. This proved to be too far to walk to, but along the way I did notice the ruins of a stone mansion hidden in the woods along the road. I climbed a small path and took some photos of the ruins because you rarely come across ruined buildings. It reminded me of the ruins in the Roman Forum which I saw on my trip to Italy.

Stone House Ruins

Back on Broadway I explored the Anita Shapolsky Art Foundation, an art gallery of Abstract Expressionist art in a former Presbyterian church. This is a curious establishment to find in a small town in Pennsylvania. It is further evidence of how touristy Jim Thorpe has become with slightly more upscale boutiques than you would expect. On the second floor there were impressive stain glass windows and many larger works of art and sculpture in a deserted nave. Apparently this foundation is associated with the Anita Shapolsky Gallery in New York City which specializes in the New York School of Abstract Expressionism. I take this as evidence of how popular this town has became with artists from New York City.

At some point, I went into a book store run by the friends of the Dimmick Memorial Library. This seems to be a permanent establishment and not a temporary sale because I saw the place on previous trips. I found a travel book On The Shore Of The Mediterranean by Eric Newby which only cost me $1.00. I’ve been reading many travel books lately, even for places I have no intention of visiting. Travel writing tends to focus on adventure travel to exotic places where the traveler risks death to brave the elements. I would prefer to read personal narratives on obscure and mundane destinations but nobody writes about that.

At around 2:00 p.m. I finally felt capable of driving and left Jim Thorpe. But instead of heading directly home I did have one other establishment I wanted to check out. I drove east on Route 209 to Country Junction, the world’s largest general store. This is a huge place full of crap goods. I wandered all over the immense structure and could not find anything I felt even remotely like buying. It was a complete waste of time except for the pet store and the overall atmosphere of country kitsch.

Recently I came across a novel set in Jim Thorpe, Mauch Chunk: A Novel of 1968 by Richard Benyo. I ordered this book on Amazon but it has not arrived yet. I was expecting to see this book for sale somewhere in Jim Thorpe but I did not see it at Sellers Books or Soundcheck Records.

I’m tempted to spend some quality time in Jim Thorpe, maybe book a weekend at one of the many bed and breakfasts, but it is an extremely small town with not a lot to do. On this trip I tried another restaurant, checked out the art gallery, and discovered some ruins but it was otherwise quite repetitive. I suppose I could see a show at the Mauch Chunk Opera House if I stayed overnight.

Posted in General, Travel | Tagged Anita Shapolsky Art Foundation, Jim Thorpe, Lehigh Gorge State Park, Mauch Chunk, Sellers Books, Soundcheck Records, Tony Stella's Encore | Leave a comment

Expedition To Bloomsburg

Posted on 7/26/2015 by Robert S. Robbins

Yesterday I made an expedition to Bloomsburg, a small city located in the depths of Pennsyltucky. I made this perilous journey into uncharted territory to see what can be found there. I’ve often driven past Bloomsburg on Interstate 80 while on my way to New York City, the Poconos, or Philadelphia.

The most interesting thing about Bloomsburg is the Bloomsburg Theatre Ensemble. I began my research on this city five years ago so this trip is long overdue. I still don’t have much in my notes on Bloomsburg. Bloomsburg is a college town. But I did not venture onto the Bloomsburg University campus on this trip.

The first thing to do when visiting a city is to find a place to park. I drove down a narrow alley at the first parking sign I saw. I parked behind the post office near West End Ale Haus. I found a parking stall with a parking meter and put in two quarters for two hours of parking. This was only a block down from Market Square. Market Square has a Civil War monument and a large fountain which is one of the most distinctive features of the city.

Bloomsburg Fountain

I walked up Main Street all the way up to East Street taking photos of establishments which have not previously been documented on the Internet. Very few photos of Bloomsburg existed prior to my expedition so I was eager to document this virtually unknown corner of the world. I will upload all of my photos online so future explorers will have better information to guide them on their trips.

At 10:00 a.m. I was ready to visit my first establishment, Endless Records. Virtually nothing is known about Endless Records. They don’t even have a web site. The store is quite small and mostly sells vinyl records. However they did have some used DVDs and CDs so I looked through those. I bought Alien from L.A., a 1988 science fiction film which somehow has escaped my attention until now. I also bought a CD, Murder Ballads, a studio album by Nick Cave and the Bad Seeds. It seems appropriate to make these media discoveries while on my expedition to Bloomsburg, the unknown city.

After returning to my car with this purchase I immediately went back up Main Street in time for the opening of The Cloak and Dragon Bookstore at 10:30 a.m. This is another establishment shrouded in mystery. No photos of this book store’s exterior can be found online so I took several photos for my notes. This used book store has a small stock of books but I did find a copy of Iain Banks’ The Player of Games, a science fiction novel I’ve been looking for so I was pleased to acquire it here.

The Cloak and Dragon Bookstore

At some point in my exploration of Main Street I caught sight of the Alvina Krause Theatre hidden away down an alley. This theater is the home of the Bloomsburg Theatre Ensemble. I’ve only seen one performance presented by the Bloomsburg Theatre Ensemble and that was The Santaland Diaries by David Sedaris which the Bloomsburg Theatre Ensemble performed at the Community Arts Center’s Capitol Lounge last December.

Bloomsburg Theatre Ensemble

I was going to have lunch at Capitol Restaurant, a restaurant in a converted movie theater, but they did not appear to be open so I ate at the Bloomsburg Diner instead. I ordered a Coke and a sausage egg muffin. I saw several other restaurants which I will need to add to my notes. It was hard to tell which ones were open. I’m glad the weather allowed me to visit Bloomsburg on Saturday instead of Sunday because the town is probably completely dead on Sunday morning.

I did make a few other observations. There was a small farmer’s market taking place near the Civil War monument. I think there were only five or six produce vendors.

Before going home I went to the Columbia Mall. This proved to be a waste of time because that mall was in really bad shape. It was practically empty except for its anchor stores. Well over half of the smaller stores were either shuttered or empty. There were very few restaurants. I did enter a sporting goods store to look for waterproof hiking boots but I could not find a salesperson. I’ve heard that many malls are dying but this is the first one I’ve seen in such a shocking state of decline. Our own Lycoming Mall seems to be doing quite well. It still has a book store and a DVD store so I still like to visit our mall. In fact, I went to the Lycoming Mall before going home.

Posted in General, Travel | Tagged Bloomsburg, Bloomsburg Theatre Ensemble, Columbia Mall, Endless Records, The Cloak and Dragon Bookstore | Leave a comment

Bellefonte PA

Posted on 7/20/2015 by Robert S. Robbins

On Saturday July 18, 2015 I continued my grand tour of Pennsylvania. I once again headed west and visited the Victorian town of Bellefonte. I’ve never been to Bellefonte before but the name is familiar because there are two exits to Interstate 80 from 180, the Bloomsburg exit to East 80 and the Bellefonte exit to West 80. It is slightly confusing because the town names are so similar, so actually visiting Bellefonte and Bloomsburg would help to create a clear distinction.

Bellefonte is mostly famous for its Victorian architecture. It has a few Victorian mansions which have been converted into bed and breakfasts and some Victorian commercial buildings that stretch for an entire block with room for many retail establishments. I did see a lot of empty store fronts so the town does not appear to be too prosperous. Bellefonte is in central Pennsylvania, far from Pittsburgh or Philadelphia, so it probably does not attract many tourists. It is close to State College so it may attract people attending Penn State games.

I parked beside Talleyrand Park. It rained briefly in the morning and the skies were cloudy so there wasn’t very many people going to the park. I saw the Talleyrand Gazebo, the Talleyrand Falls, and the High Street Bridge which was renamed Veterans Bridge. There was also a monument, Bellefonte Governors Memorial, to honor the seven Pennsylvania governors associated with the town of Bellefonte; William Bigler, William F. Packer, John Bigler, Robert J. Walker, Andrew Gregg Curtin, James A. Beaver, and Daniel H. Hastings.

I walked up High Street to the Centre County Courthouse but there was a small farmer’s market set up in front of the Andrew Gregg Curtin statue so I could not take a good photo of the courthouse. So I walked further up the hill to find the Union Cemetery which was completely deserted. I found the grave of Daniel H. Hastings, governor of Pennsylvania, and the grave of Evan Pugh, President of Pennsylvania State University. I did look for a circle of Civil War graves but I did not find it.

Bellefonte Art Museum

When I returned to the center of town I headed north on Allegheny Street and found the Bellefonte Art Museum, the Centre County Library, the Hastings Mansion, and the Reynolds Mansion. I was particularly careful to take a good photo of the Bellefonte Art Museum because I was unable to find a decent photo online. As soon as it was a little after 10:00 a.m. I returned downtown and went into the Plaza Centre to try to do a little shopping. The Plaza Centre is an antiques mall just like the ones I’ve seen in Lewisburg and the Poconos. Many dealers have booths or stalls in the mall filled with yard sale type junk. You rarely see anything worth buying. After wandering all over the shabby mall, the floors creaked, I finally settled for a Top 10 Boston (Eyewitness Travel Guide) book and a Playstation 2 game, True Crime Streets of LA. The final three major American cities I plan to visit are; Boston, Chicago, and Los Angeles.

I had lunch at The Governors’ Pub shortly after 11:00 a.m. when it opened. I was the only customer in the restaurant. It took me about an hour to eat lunch and at Noon I was still the only customer, a bad sign. I had the Robert Walker Reuben which is their specialty and home fries. The home fries were delicious with seasoning that made them very tasty. I don’t think I’ve ever had better fries. The Reuben sandwich was good but not something that I particularly enjoy. A Reuben sandwich is a hot sandwich composed of corned beef, Swiss cheese, sauerkraut, and Russian dressing, grilled between slices of rye bread. It made for a heavy meal. I had an ice cream sundae for dessert.

I returned to the Talleyrand Park to put more quarters in the parking meter and to put my purchases in the car. I was also on a mission to buy a copy of the Centre Daily Times so I went to a CVS Pharmacy behind the park and bought two local newspapers. I spent some time wandering around Talleyrand Park and I was tempted to leave but the sun finally came out so I decided to get take some more photos in the strong sunlight. When I walked back up High Street I found the farmer market stalls were gone so I was able to take some good photos of the Centre County Courthouse. I retraced my steps along Allegheny Street and got better photos of the Hastings Mansion and the Reynolds Mansion. I also walked a little further and found the two Victorian bed and breakfasts; Our Fair Lady and The Queen. I only checked the room rates for the Reynolds Mansion and they were surprisingly low for the lavish accommodations. You could get a fancy room for under $150 which is about the best price you’ll find anywhere. I’m tempted to stay at least one night at a bed and breakfast but it would be in the Poconos. I would like to stay the night at Jim Thorpe but there isn’t much to do in that town. The Deer Head Inn in Delaware Water Gap is another temptation.

Our Fair Lady

I did stay in Bellefonte just long enough to visit the Bellefonte Art Museum which opened at 1:00 p.m. This was a very small art museum but they did have one Picasso print. Unfortunately it was very hot and muggy out so I did not feel like spending a lot of time outdoors.

Before I went home I drove south on Route 550 to Route 150 and found the Barnes & Noble Booksellers book store near the Nittany Mall. I was hoping to find some Penn State books there but they had very few local interest books. I did buy The Mosquito Coast by Paul Theroux, Fodor’s Los Angeles, and the novel Stoner by John Williams, all books I’ve been looking for at other book stores.

Bellefonte is not far from Penn’s Cave, the major attraction in central Pennsylvania, so I decided to squeeze that into my trip. I’ve been to Penn’s Cave several times before but it is worth a repeat. Penn’s Cave is the only cave in America that you can go through in a boat. The price of a cave tour has gone up $1.00. I have the price in my notes as $16.50 but it is now $17.95. I was tempted to go on the Wildlife Tour too but I heard the cashier say the next Wildlife Tour was for 5:30 p.m. and that was several hours away. I did not want to hang around in the heat that long. I was able to go on the cave tour right away. Penn’s Cave was a bit crowded that day and I had to park on the grass at the overflow parking lot. This roadside attraction is way out in the middle of nowhere, in rural farmland, so it is surprising that so many people can find it. I passed several Amish buggies on Route 192. The cave was nice and cool. I didn’t have a jacket but my long sleeved shirt was good enough and I needed to cool off anyway. There was a lot of mist at the cave entrance and exit because it was hot and humid out.

Penn’s Cave

Bellefonte was a bit smaller than I expected but the Victorian architecture was impressive. There really isn’t a lot for you to do there. I still think Jim Thorpe is the best Victorian town in Pennsylvania. Williamsport and Bellefonte tie for the second best Victorian towns. Williamsport’s Millionaires Row is not in the heart of the city, but it does have as many mansions as Bellefonte and the city itself is larger.

Posted in General, Travel | Tagged Bellefonte, Bellefonte Art Museum, Centre County Courthouse, Penn's Cave, Talleyrand Park, The Governors' Pub | Leave a comment

H. Beam Piper

Posted on 7/16/2015 by Robert S. Robbins

H. Beam Piper was perhaps the most famous writer ever associated with Williamsport but the city has done little to celebrate his work. I’ve just finished reading a biography of H. Beam Piper by John F. Carr. I was curious about his connection with the city.

H. Beam Piper was born in Altoona PA and spent most of his life there working for the Pennsylvania Railroad PPR as a night watchman. However, he did frequently visit friends in Williamsport and often traveled through Central PA. He never owned a car so he must have used the railroad which offered passenger service back then. Eventually Piper moved to Williamsport in 1957 and committed suicide in 1964, so he spent seven years as a resident.

One of the surprising things I learned from this biography is that Piper knew Colonel Henry W. Shoemaker and was a guest at Restless Oaks. He even wrote a catalog of Shoemaker’s gun collection. Henry W. Shoemaker owned a newspaper in Altoona and wrote a column for his newspaper so it seems obvious that they would know each other.

H. Beam Piper is buried in Fairview Cemetery in Altoona. It may be more proper for Altoona PA to celebrate his life and work since he was a native son of that city.

Several Williamsport institutions are mentioned during the course of the Piper biography. The James V. Brown library provided the author with research materials. Piper displayed his gun collection at the Lycoming County Historical Society. And he gave a few lectures at Lycoming College. His apartment was on West Third Street, across from the Fraternal Order of Eagles, although the precise building might have been torn down.

I have not read any of H. Beam Piper’s stories or novels but I intend to read a few. His first published short story is actually set in Williamsport, Time and Time Again, and you can read it online at Project Gutenberg. He also wrote a novel about the adventures of a Pennsylvania state trooper who is accidentally transported to a more backward parallel universe, Lord Kalvan of Otherwhen. In this parallel universe Hostigos City would correspond with Bellefonte PA and Nostor Town would be Hughesville PA.

Posted in books, General, Writing | Tagged Altoona, H. Beam Piper, Williamsport | Leave a comment

State College and Pennsylvania State University

Posted on 7/11/2015 by Robert S. Robbins

Today I made a long overdue trip to State College PA. State College is only an hour’s drive from Williamsport but I’ve never been there. This trip was further proof that there are still some fun and interesting things for me to see and do in Pennsylvania.

Approximately half of State College is taken up by the Pennsylvania State University campus. I’m tempted to cite this as a perfect example of an university swallowing up a town but I suspect the town grew up around the university, based on the town name. I might be considered an alumni of Penn State since I graduated from the Williamsport Area Community College which is now the Pennsylvania College of Technology, affiliated with The Pennsylvania State University. State College has been in the national news often due to the Jerry Sandusky scandal. I think it is a great tragedy that Joe Paterno suffered the loss of his legacy after reaching a ripe old age. Just think, he spent all those years bringing glory to Penn State only to have his achievements negated just before he died. The only impact this had on my trip is that I could not take a photo of the Joe Paterno statue because it has been removed.

It just so happens that the Central Pennsylvania Festival of the Arts was taking place on the day I finally got around to visiting State College. At first I was vexed because I wanted to explore the city on a quiet, typical day but this did give me an additional reason to travel to State College. I was particularly enticed by the BookFest but it was devoted to comic books. Because of the arts festival, I parked near the Bryce Jordan Center and took a shuttle bus to the downtown area. The local media warned me that the parking garages downtown might be full for the festival and I did see that this was the case.

After the shuttle bus dropped me off downtown, I walked a few blocks taking photos of establishments but there were a lot of festival booths that got in the way. For example, the Penn State Downtown Theatre Center had a festival booth set up in front of it so I could not get a good photo. Eventually I wandered onto the Pennsylvania State University campus and took some photos of Old Main. I managed to find the Nittany Lion Shrine but there was a crowd of people around it and I had to wait in line to take my photo. This is supposedly the second most photographed site in Pennsylvania after the Liberty Bell.

Nittany Lion Shrine

I continued to walk around the campus until I found a few theater buildings and came across the Palmer Museum of Art which is open to the public. The Palmer Museum of Art is probably the finest art museum in Pennsylvania between the major cities Pittsburgh and Philadelphia. But it was a fairly small museum with just two floors of exhibits and not many galleries. The collections included everything from medieval art to modern art, Asian pottery to Peruvian pottery, but there was often only a few pieces to represent an art era. The most noteworthy painting I saw was a Philip Pearlstein nude (he was known for his Modernist Realism nudes). Visiting such a fine art museum gave me the impression that I was on a real trip and not just doing a boring bit of domestic travel. Their special exhibit was Luminous Allure: Studio Glass from the Collection of Audrey and Norbert Gaelen which reminded me of glass art work you can see at the Corning Museum of Glass.

The Palmer Museum of Art

When I left the museum I found the Pavilion Theatre and then the Penn State Berkey Creamery. The creamery is famous for its ice cream. This is where I had lunch. I picked up a boxed sandwich, tuna salad on a croissant, and ordered a Peach Paterno milkshake because I was very hot and thirsty.

The Pennsylvania State University campus was huge and quite impressive. Many of the buildings were massive and architecturally interesting. I have a peculiar fascination with college campuses. I have dreams where I go back to college to earn a redundant degree. The college campus is never the same in my dreams, but often takes a strange form which is surprisingly realistic, like the work of a great architect. Perhaps my visit to the Pennsylvania State University campus will furnish new material for my dreams. I sometimes wake from these dreams with an intense longing for my school days. I don’t think my college experience was particularly fulfilling. I got more intellectual stimulation from the college library than my classrooms.

I eventually found my way back downtown to wander around the art festival booths. There was a surprising number of art festival booths. I walked up several blocks, then over a block, and back down several blocks. I was unable to resist buying a $20 art print of a particularly lovely watercolor of trees. This artist had won a blue ribbon so I wasn’t the only one to be entranced by the beauty of her art. She was Z. L. Feng from Radford, VA.

Actually, before I explored the art festival booths I went to Webster’s Bookstore Cafe, the only used book store in State College. I wasn’t too impressed by this book store since it was located in a basement and had a terrible selection of used books, they all seemed to be extremely used (in the sense of being shabby). After struggling to find any book worth buying I settled for a programming book, CodeNotes for C#. I also entered a Penn State souvenir store were I saw the book Paterno Legacy: Enduring Lessons from the Life and Death of My Father for sale. I’m not a big sports fan so I bought a Nittany Lion stuffed animal instead. The problem with Pennsylvania State University is that it is a football university. They are nuts about football. They do not glorify the intellect or academic achievement the way they glorify football. Beaver Stadium is the most massive building on campus. The stadium is so massive that it is the second largest stadium in the Western Hemisphere and the third largest in the world.

Beaver Stadium

I spent about four hours at State College. I should have stayed longer but I was hot and tired and the arts festival made the town a mad house. I took the shuttle bus back to the Bryce Jordan Center parking lot. Before I left, I took lots of photos of Beaver Stadium and the Bryce Jordan Center. Some big name performers and major entertainment acts do perform at the Bryce Jordan Center so that provides the best reason for me to return.

I’m glad I finally visited State College and Penn State. You do hear a lot about this city and university in Williamsport. The Central Pennsylvania Convention and Visitor Bureau even includes a few Williamsport attractions in its travel brochure. In addition, I think some of the Pennsylvania startup community is based in State College so I should familiarize myself with the city for future Information Technology opportunities.

Posted in General, Travel | Tagged Central Pennsylvania Festival of the Arts, Joe Paterno, Nittany Lion Shrine, Pennsylvania State University, State College | Leave a comment

YouTube Data API

Posted on 7/4/2015 by Robert S. Robbins

Google has changed their YouTube Data API and broken my web pages; YouTube Favorites Back Up and YouTube Subscriptions Back Up. I did manage to rewrite the YouTube favorites back up. It actually backs up a playlist and it can only do one playlist at a time. Instead of entering your YouTube username, you have to enter your playlist id which can be found at the end of the playlist url, for example, https://www.youtube.com/playlist?list=FLqcux7OX-LWcqJvLcjFfjnQ

The YouTube Favorites Back Up spreadsheet will now only include the Video Url, Channel, Title, and Description because I can get less information about a video. Just getting the Channel name requires a separate data request for every item in the playlist. I also made a few improvements to my original code. I added some error handling so I get an email when there is an error. Google limits the number of records it will return per data request and I finally added some code to get the next page of results.

Backing up your list of YouTube subscriptions is proving to be more difficult. This requires an OAuth 2.0 token. I’ve made some progress using the Google API Client Library but the results are unexpected. I’m not getting the right number of records and the data does not exactly match the channel names I see for my subscriptions.

Posted in General, Programming, Web | Tagged Google, Google API Client Library, YouTube, YouTube Data API | Leave a comment

Worlds End State Park

Posted on 7/3/2015 by Robert S. Robbins

On Friday the weather forecast changed. There would be zero percent chance of precipitation for the day. I decided to revisit Worlds End State Park on Friday in the hope that it would be less crowded on a work day. At least it was a work day for some people. I got the day off because the July 4th holiday fell on a Saturday.

My main reason for essentially repeating a recent trip was to see Dutchman Falls, a waterfall which is actually very close to where I begin the Loyalsock Trail. But I didn’t know it was there so I missed it on my other two trips to the Haystacks.

First I drove to Eagles Mere because it has a book store and I cannot resist a book store. I bought a novel, The Circle by Dave Eggers since it was on my Amazon wish list. I wanted to read this novel because it is about social networking. Maybe this is Dave Eggers take on Silicon Valley. I had a cheeseburger for lunch at the Sweet Shop across the street. This time I did not immediately leave Eagles Mere. I walked around the town a little bit to see what else is there. I found additional parking just up the road from the Sweet Shop. That is good to know because the general store parking lot can get full. I also found a park with a gazebo and one bench. I never realized this park was there. It was fairly small. I also saw the Eagles Mere Lake and the canoes piled on its shore. The lake is the main asset of this small village. There used to be many vacation resorts around the lake and now there are million dollar vacation homes in Eagles Mere, all because of this lake. I also explored a few side streets and found Eagles Mere Inn. I’m not sure why you would want to stay there, since Eagles Mere has practically nothing for you to do, unless you go to Worlds End State Park. This village puzzles me but it is very picturesque and reminds me of the Poconos. I saw one of the million dollar homes with a pebble lawn, huge picture windows, and a deck with a view of the mountains. I would describe it as a rustic ranch house with mansion pretensions.

I left Eagles Mere and drove to the Loyalsock State Forest where there is a trail head at Mead Road on Route 220 North. After climbing down to the North Bend Railroad grade I immediately left the trail and climbed down further to find the Dutchman Falls. I thought you needed to hike a ways to the right, but it is actually right there down the hill towards Loyalsock Creek. I saw a stone tunnel under the North Bend Railroad grade for the stream to flow through. It was obviously not a natural tunnel. The Dutchman Falls has an upper falls and a lower falls and I carefully climbed down to take photos of both. I did see three other hikers leaving just as I got there.

After taking photos and even video of the waterfalls I decided I might as well hike to see the Haystacks as long as I was there. I might have skipped that if the waterfalls had taken longer to find. When I got to the Haystacks I found them quite crowded, with people sitting on the boulders and wading into the creek. On my previous trips to the Haystacks they had been deserted. But I saw a lot of people on the trail and around fifteen people camped out around the Haystacks.

It had been raining all week and there were a few streams flowing over the trail. At some places it was quite difficult to cross the stream without getting my feet wet. On the way back to the parking lot I tried an alternative route. I was hoping this would require less climbing. It wasn’t as steep a climb, but the climbing seemed to go on for much longer so I didn’t consider it an improvement.

I then proceeded to Worlds End State Park which I still have not explored completely. I did come across several new aspects of the park which made my trip worth while. First I drove along a very narrow state forest road up to the Canyon Vista. The view was fantastic! Almost as good as the Pennsylvania Grand Canyon vistas from its overlooks. Nearby I discovered the Rock Garden, a collection of large boulders and rock formations with deep crevices. One crevice provided a path deep into the rocks. The Rock Garden looked like the ruins of an ancient civilization without the rock carvings.

After that I drove far along other narrow state forest roads and managed to find the High Knob Overlook. I was quite pleased with myself because I have directions to the High Knob Overlook in my notes but I had not intended to try to find it on this trip. There were a few cars parked at the overlook and a few people enjoying the view. I took lots of photos. You could see many mountains in the distance. It was the kind of view that makes you glad to live in Pennsylvania where there is a forested mountain always on the horizon. I found an overgrown trail behind the High Knob Overlook but I did not follow it very far because it seemed to be unmarked.

I did want to do some hiking at the Worlds End State Park but I wanted to try one of the trails I had seen on my last trip. I drove to the main parking lot and picked up a park map at the park office. Then I drove to the Butternut Trail and High Rock Trail trail heads. I decided to hike the Butternut Trail since it did not have a warning sign under the trail sign. I only hiked for about an hour on the Butternut Trail until 5:00 p.m. because it was beginning to get dark in the woods.

I bought a strawberry milk shake at the refreshment stand near the main parking lot and sat at a picnic table where I drank it through a straw. There is something quite nostalgic about a state park because it is the sort of rustic amusement you may experience as a kid during family outings and then abandon as an adult. Unfortunately, I only remember being taken to Ricketts Glenn State Park even though there are many other state parks that are closer. Oh well, you can definitely over do it and I may get tired of visiting these state parks and hiking the same sorts of trails. On the other hand, it makes for a cheap weekend vacation.

Posted in General, Travel | Leave a comment

Last Day In San Francisco

Posted on 6/20/2015 by Robert S. Robbins

For my last day in San Francisco I had no specific plans. I decided to just visit a few places I had not seen yet. My first goal was to was to find the Hallidie Building which was the first American building to feature glass curtain walls. I saw a NBC truck parked up the street from my hotel with “We Investigate” written on its side. This vehicle was probably there to cover the U.S. Conference of Mayors. I walked to the Powell Street Station and took the MUNI subway to the Montgomery Street Station. From there it was easy to locate the Hallidie Building and I found the Crocker Galleria nearby. I also planned to explore the downtown shopping malls later on in the day after they had opened.

I found a CVS Pharmacy where I bought a small bottle of Bayer Aspirin and a small stick of CVS Sunscreen. I can tell from the receipt that the San Francisco bag fee is 10 cents. I used the self checkout machine. My receipt also gives me the precise time I was there, June 20, 2015 at 8:59 a.m. and the address of the store 581 Market Street.

I returned to my hotel with this purchase and then went out again to seek the Ina Coolbrith Park. I went to the Powell Street Station and bought a single ride ticket to the cable car. This time I made sure to keep the ticket in my other pocket without my point and shoot camera which I was always taking out. I waited over an hour to get on a cable car but I did see the famous San Francisco eccentric Frank Chu while waiting in line. There was also a gathering of police at Hallidie Plaza for some reason. I saw an Asian street preacher screaming at people about the bible. He even screamed at the police who seemed to tolerate him with amusement. After finally getting on the cable car I only managed to get off at Columbus Avenue.

As long as I was in North Beach again I decided to check out a few more things in the neighborhood. I had lunch at Caffe Greco. I had a smoked salmon bagel and a latte. Then I went to Washington Park and found the Bob Kaufman Alley. Bob Kaufman was a Beat poet. I finished reading his Ancient Rain book just before my trip.

I was finally ready to find Ina Coolbrith Park. The park entrance proved to be hard to find. I think I mistook the Vallejo Street Stairway for the park entrance because I did climb a steep set of steps on Vallejo Street. But I eventually found Ina Coolbrith Park. This must be one of the hidden gems of San Francisco since it offered spectacular views of the downtown skyscrapers, yet it was a relatively quiet place with only a few tourists about. The park was beautifully landscaped and gave me several opportunities to get some foliage in the foreground of my photos. Ina Coolbrith was a Bohemian poet who is completely forgotten today.

Ina Coolbrith Park

After spending a fair amount of time in the park I returned to Columbus Avenue and took my best photo of the Kenenth Rexroth Alley street sign. The alley itself was of no interest whatsoever. I had lunch at L’Osteria del Forno where I ordered two limonatas and lamb which was served on a skewer. The lamb was full of gristle and it took me a long time to chew it enough to swallow. I rarely eat lamb so I don’t know if this meat is always like this. I could not resist returning to City Lights Bookstore and buying one final book, Kenneth Rexroth’s One Hundred Poems from the Chinese. At least it was a thin book of poetry. I did notice that other travelers had much bigger pieces of checked luggage than mine. I’ve recently bought the biggest piece of luggage I could find at Walmart so I’ll have more room for bringing back books from my trips.

Kenneth Rexroth Alley

As usual I walked all the way to Market Street and took the MUNI subway from Montgomery Street Station to Powell Street Station. For my final few hours in San Francisco I decided to just walk along Market Street. I came across the San Francisco Chronicle building which I had forgotten about and the nearby Mint building. I entered the Westfield San Francisco Centre and wandered around without buying anything since there were no stores where I could buy books or DVDs. I also revisited Yerba Buena Gardens and took some better photos. I walked all the way up Market Street to the Ferry Building and then explored the Embarcadero Center. I bought a vanilla and strawberry milkshake at Over The Moon, a small ice cream parlor.

When I arrived back at my hotel I encountered an even larger street protest against police brutality. I even saw Frank Chu again at this protest. This protest was taking place at the intersection of Taylor Street and O’Farrell Street so it was hard to avoid. I was worried that it would delay my departure. I checked out of my hotel at 9:00 p.m. even though my flight did not leave SFO until 12:22 a.m. The front desk suggested that I get a taxi at the taxi stand in front of the Hilton Hotel. The only final detail to report is that I ate dinner at the Yankee Pier SFO where I ordered a lemonade and fish and chips.

I will be going back to San Francisco in September. This trip is with Collette Tour and will only use San Francisco as a hub for excursions around Northern California. The only reason I booked this tour is because it would give me a chance to see more of California. On my own, I would not venture far from my destination city.

Posted in General, Travel | Tagged Bob Kaufman Alley, Caffe Greco, City Lights Bookstore, Ina Coolbrith Park, L'Osteria del Forno, San Francisco | 1 Comment

San Francisco Golden Gate Bridge

Posted on 6/19/2015 by Robert S. Robbins

By Friday I had completed all of my original goals for my trip. Now I had to improvise. Fortunately I had researched a lot of establishments which were outside of the neighborhoods I was focused on. My major goal for the day was to walk across the Golden Gate Bridge but I did not want to do this in the morning because it might be hidden in fog. I decided to visit the Mission District in the morning since it is easily reached using BART.

I took the MUNI subway to Castro Street Station because there was one other San Francisco Zen Center location I wanted to find, the Hartford Street Zen Center. As soon as I exited Castro Street Station I saw the famous Castro Theater. And I found the Hartford Street Zen Center pretty quickly since it was just one street to the east. I didn’t want to see anything else in the Castro District so I continued to walk east until I came upon Dolores Park. Naturally I stopped to climb the hill in the park and took photos of the view and every park monument I could see. The park has some palm trees which are exotic looking for an East Coast native. From there it was easy to find the Mission Dolores church.

I continued to walk east to find Valencia Street. There were several establishments on Valencia Street which I wanted to see. First I located the Stage Werx Theatre which rents its performance space to many theater companies. Although the San Francisco travel guides only mention a few theaters that stage touring musicals, San Francisco actually has an extensive theater community which you have to research. I also saw 826 Valencia which is associated with the writer Dave Eggers. It has an interesting mural on the facade.

Further up Valencia Street I found Dog Eared Books, Owl Cave Books, and Borderlands. Borderlands was the book store I really wanted to visit since they specialize in science fiction. But they would not be open until Noon and I did not want to wait around that long before heading out for the Golden Gate Bridge. However, I was able to have breakfast at the Borderlands Cafe. I ordered a strawberry lemonade and ham croissant. Dog Eared Books did open at 10:00 a.m. so I went there and bought some more books. I bought This Present Moment: New Poems by Gary Snyder and Time Out Los Angeles. Other establishments I located were Owl Cave Books and The Marsh Theater which wasn’t in my notes. I did take a postcard from their promotional materials.

Dog Eared Books

I finally managed to obtain a copy of the San Francisco Chronicle newspaper from a vending machine. Every time I tried to find this paper at a Walgreens, they were sold out.

I continued to walk east until I found Mission Street. I didn’t really make any effort to find anything on Mission Street. I just observed whatever I happened to come across and took photos of anything of interest. I did come across a Dark Room Theater which appeared to be another performance space which I missed during my research. As soon as I saw the 16th Street Mission BART station I decided to cut short my exploration of the Mission District. Mission Street was very interesting but sort of ghetto. I was eager to see the Golden Gate Bridge.

As I approached my hotel I saw a lot of protestors lying in the middle of O’Farrell Street in front of the Hilton Hotel. They were making a lot of racket using a siren and an alarm. I did not know it at the time, but President Obama was in town to give a speech at the Hilton Hotel where the U.S. Conference of Mayors was being held. This explains the heavy police presence I always saw in front of the Hilton Hotel. I may have even seen President Obama’s black limousine in front of the Hilton Hotel, because I did see a black limousine. This was all going on so close to my hotel that there was a line of police squad cars parked in front of my hotel.

I dropped off my books at my hotel and headed back out to see the Golden Gate Bridge. The bridge is clear across town so it takes a long time to get there and requires several bus trips. I took the 38 bus to Park Presidio Boulevard and then transferred to the 28 (19th Avenue) MUNI bus to the Golden Gate Bridge. I did encounter a few other tourists on the 28 (19th Avenue) MUNI bus. I walked all the way across the Golden Gate Bridge and then walked back. This probably amounted to four miles of walking if you include the walk around the observation point on the other side of the bridge. I took a lot of photos! Some of my photos look just like the classic photos of the Golden Gate Bridge you find in travel guides. The pedestrian walkway was crowded with tourists and bicyclists. The view was spectacular! I walked around Vista Point. Sausalito was actually further up the bay, but I had mistaken the U.S. Coast Guard Station and the Presido Yacht Club for the city and was wondering why it looked so small and inconsequential.

The Golden Gate Bridge

After walking back across the Golden Gate Bridge I took the 28 (19th Avenue) MUNI bus back towards downtown but I did not transfer to the 38 bus. The 28 (19th Avenue) MUNI bus only took me as far as Laguna and Chestnut Street. A large group of Asian school children discouraged me from getting on the 30 Stockton bus and it was proving to be a long wait for the next bus. Looking at my travel notes on my smartphone, I noticed that I could walk to Lombard Street and see the famous crooked street which I hadn’t seen yet. It was a long walk up some hills to get there. But first I came across the George Sterling Park which I spent a few minutes exploring. George Sterling was a Bohemian poet who was quite famous in his day, but he is practically forgotten now. I only came across his name while researching San Francisco. I did order a copy of his book The Thirst of Satan: Poems of Fantasy and Terror on Amazon but it did not arrive until I got home.

When I arrived at Lombard Street I found it swarming with tourists. They were so thick it was hard to find a spot in which to take photos and cars could hardly squeeze through to begin winding down the crooked street. It was sort of ridiculous since this street is very picturesque but hardly that fascinating.

Lombard Street

From Lombard Street I proceeded down to Columbus Avenue and spent more time in North Beach. I went into Mario’s Bohemian Cigar Store Cafe but I only had a coke since I was very thirty from all that walking. Then I could not resist stopping in at City Lights Bookstore again. But I felt obligated to buy a book from their Theater section instead of more poetry. I took a chance on Mojo and Other Plays by Jez Butterworth. I have never heard of this playwright. He is a contemporary British playwright and I’m not familiar with contemporary British theater.

After making my purchase, I walked to Market Street and found Lotta’s Fountain in front of the Palace Hotel. That must have been near the Montgomery Street Station which I used to get to the Powell Street Station and from there, back to my hotel. After that much walking I needed a lot of time to recuperate. I brought my old DELL laptop with me on this trip. It served as my digital command center. I checked my Clipper card balance and discovered that I was running low so I added $10.00. I also made a reservation for 7:00 p.m. at the Minas Brazilian Restaurant. I’ve become slightly interested in Brazil as an exotic travel destination because I discovered that Brazil has a vibrant theater community which is virtually unknown in the United States. I have a nasty tendency to become fascinated by anything obscure which might be caused by an ingrained inclination towards the occult and hidden knowledge. This fascination with the arcane is even responsible for my involvement with computer programming.

To get to the Minas Brazilian Restaurant I had to take the MUNI subway to the Van Ness Station. My Clipper card did indeed not have enough value left for this fare so I had to add $5.00 cash to it using the station vending machines. Before going to the restaurant I did find the SFJazz Center and took a few photos of that. Along the way I saw a homeless man pissing very visibly into the street which was pretty disgusting.

Minas Brazilian Restaurant provided probably the best meal I had in San Francisco but it was also the most expensive, $51.11. I had a Caipirinhas (drink), Frutos do Mar Tropical (served in half a pineapple used as a dish), and Mousse de Maracauja for desert. While waiting for my meal I watched a Brazilian sports channel on satellite TV. It was mostly about soccer. I accidentally left my sweater on the back of my chair and had to go back for it. Fortunately it was chilly enough to remind me to get my sweater.

I probably should have spent more time on Mission Street but it was hard to know how long it would take to walk across the Golden Gate Bridge and I couldn’t miss that. I think I did an excellent job packing in more essential tourist experiences on this largely unplanned day. I’m pleased that I enjoyed an unique dining experience at Minas Brazilian Restaurant. I didn’t really plan to visit any fancy restaurants on this trip but I did manage to eat at a variety of places.

Posted in General, Travel | Tagged Dolores Park, Golden Gate Bridge, Hartford Street Zen Center, Lombard Street, Minas Brazilian Restaurant, Mission District, Valencia Street | Leave a comment

San Francisco – Haight-Ashbury

Posted on 6/18/2015 by Robert S. Robbins

The 1960s is an era before my time but in the 1980s it seemed like a golden age in myth and legend. Pop culture still contained many references to the 1960s. It is easy for me to idealize the 1960s because although it seems vaguely familiar, it is not tied to any unpleasant memories or specific events. Therefore I wanted to visit the center of the Hippie universe, Haight-Ashbury. To prepare for my trip, I read the book The Haight-Ashbury: A History by Charles Perry and bought a few classic hippie albums on CD, even a Grateful Dead CD.

Kenneth Rexroth’s Apartment

I took 7 Haight-Noriega MUNI bus towards Haight Street but got off at Pierce Street because I wanted to find Kenneth Rexroth’s old apartment building first. I had finished reading the Linda Hamalian biography, A Life of Kenneth Rexroth, a few weeks before my trip. After taking numerous photos of this Victorian house I walked further along Page Street to find the San Francisco Zen Center. I’ve read several books about the San Francisco Zen Center, including Shunryu Suzuki’s Zen Mind, Beginner’s Mind and Crooked Cucumber, a biography of Shunryu Suzuki. Zen appeals to my contemplative nature and inclination towards mysticism. But I suppose I lean more towards shamanism since my spirituality relies on my ability to explore the depths of the subconscious mind. Buddhists don’t seem to appreciate the visionary experience. They only value the transcendence of consciousness to feel one with the universe, i.e. enlightenment. You can find some interesting blends of shamanism with Zen in the psychedelic 1960s when the youth experimented with LSD to experience a chemically induced enlightenment.

San Francisco Zen Center

Next I walked to the Alamo Square Park which proved to be very disappointing. The grass was brown because of the drought. The city is not watering the lawn in this park. And one of the painted ladies was covered in scaffolding. It was being repainted. On top of this, it was early in the morning and the sky was more gray than foggy. I was unable to take a classic photo of the “Painted Ladies”. My photos just look dreary.

I walked back to Haight Street although I initially went in the wrong direction. Once I reached the corner of Haight Street and Ashbury Street I managed to locate the Grateful Dead house. Unfortunately there was some road work being done on Haight Street so that really ruined many of my photos. I walked all the way to Golden Gate Park but then walked back up Haight Street to Booksmith which was open by 10:00 a.m. At Booksmith I bought some travel guides; The Rough Guide to Los Angeles and Time Out Boston. I may make Boston my next destination since I can get there via an Amtrak train and avoid airport security. I had lunch at the Blue Front Cafe. I had a glass of lemonade and a Clubhouse Sandwich, fresh baked turkey and crispy bacon on toasted bread. The sandwich was huge so I only ate half of it. After eating I went to Amoeba Music. This record store had a huge selection so it was hard to decide on what to buy. They had an impressive collection of world music and I was intrigued by Brazilian music but I don’t know anything about that. I took a chance on a double CD of Françoise Hardy, a French pop music, yé-yé singer. And I bought a Die Antwoord CD, Donker Mag, because I had seen the movie Chappie on the plane to San Francisco.

There isn’t much to do on Haight Street except shopping and eating out so I went back to the Golden Gate Park which offered a huge park to explore. I saw a lot of homeless people camping out in the park. I soon found the National AIDS Memorial Grove which proved to have some beautifully landscaped paths through lush vegetation. I then came across the Music Concourse and headed for the de Young Museum, a fine arts museum in Golden Gate Park. The de Young Museum had two floors of exhibits featuring anthropological artwork from Africa and Mesoamerica, and American art from the Hudson River School and the Arts and Crafts Movement. I did see two Salvador Dali paintings which were popular as always. You often have to get in line to see a Salvador Dali painting. I managed to find my way to the tower where I could take photos of the city and the California Academy of Sciences. I bought a book of photographs South of Market by Janet Delaney. Some of these photos were on display as a special exhibit, Janet Delaney: South of Market January 17, 2015 to July 19, 2015 in Gallery 12. I liked these gritty urban photos of what the South of Market district looked like before redevelopment made it the home of Internet startups. At the museum cafe I just bought something to drink. I wish I knew what I bought since I had never seen these products before. The coffee flavored drink may have been Califia Farms Cold Brew Coffee and the citrus drink may have been a can of Sanpellegrino Aranciata. When I walked outside I found the “skyspace”, James Turrell’s “Three Gems”, which is basically just a circular room with an oculus like the Pantheon in Rome which allows you to view part of the sky.

Next to the de Young Museum I came across the Japanese Tea Garden which was really cool. It was very popular and quite crowded with tourists. I had to pay a $8.00 entrance fee. I saw the large statue of the Buddha, the koi (ornamental varieties of domesticated common carp), the Zen rock and sand garden, and the pagoda. The Japanese Tea Garden had a restroom which I used and a gift shop which didn’t have anything to interest me.

Japanese Tea Garden

I was tempted to visit the California Academy of Sciences but it was expensive and I felt I had done enough for the day. Golden Gate Park was already an addition to my original plan to just explore Haight-Ashbury. So I found my way out of the park and then walked along the southern edge of Golden Gate Park trying to get back to Haight Street. It was impossible to walk all the way around without re-entering the park but eventually I found my way back to where I came in. Along the way I briefly stopped at the Shakespeare Garden. I know there was a lot of other things to see in Golden Gate Park but it is a huge park and you would have to devote an entire day to fully explore it.

Once I got back to Haight Street I went to Loved To Death, a store which sells macabre, Gothic trinkets, and bought a scorpion in lucite keychain since it was probably the cheapest thing they sold. I then retraced my steps to Kenneth Rexroth’s old house and San Francisco Zen Center to take photos under better lighting conditions. I was going to visit the San Francisco Zen Center book store but it appeared to be closed even though it should have been open by then. That was disappointing because it was the only real reason I walked all the way back there.

I then walked all the way to Market Street looking for a bus stop but instead I entered the Van Ness Station to take the MUNI subway up to Powell Station. I entered the Visitor Center and picked up a few free brochures. Then I went to a Carl’s Jr. fast food restaurant and had a Western Bacon Thickburger, french fries, and a Sprite. A homeless man made a scene until the security guard called for the police. That made me a little nervous.

That evening I saw a play at the Exit Theater, not far from my hotel. This was the second nightlife activity I scheduled which made this trip really special. The Exit Theater is on Eddy Street, in the Tenderloin, a very sketchy part of town. I snapped a photo of the exterior on my first day in San Francisco but I can see why nobody had taken any photos of the theater. You don’t want to look like a tourist in the Tenderloin. I told them I bought a ticket online and they gave me a theater program as my “ticket”. I bought a can of Pepsi before the show and sat on a stool in the cafe, staring at interesting photos of past performances on the wall. There was a very small stage with purple lighting at the back of the cafe. It was all very shabby but cozy like a genuine artistic space.

Exit Theatre

The play I saw was The Pillowman by Martin McDonagh. This was a play I actually wanted to see. I’ve read a book of Martin McDonagh’s plays, but not this one because it hasn’t been published except as an actor’s script. This production was put on by the Breadbox Theatre Company. An actor was sitting blindfolded on stage while the audience filtered in. He sat there patiently for fifteen minutes or more while everyone got settled. What actors go through for their craft! The stage was an almost perfect box theater and very ghetto. This was a very dark play about torture and child murder and telling stories, really grim but slightly humorous. It was probably the darkest play I’ve ever seen or read. Martin McDonagh’s other plays are kind of dark, but not to this extreme.

There were lots of street people outside when the play let out and the theater staff had to beg them not to murder anyone. I’m not sure if this was a joke or not! It was very sketchy. Of course, the content of the play may have inspired the plea against murder.

But I was very pleased to have seen this play during my vacation. A little theater makes travel seem more like a cultural experience. I wish I was more active in the theater. I do have a short play which will be performed in January and I’m thinking of writing a novel about a very mysterious actress, sort of a Jungian animus figure, to represent the yearning for the inexpressible as glimpsed in great theater. Anyone can now write and self-publish a novel without losing any respect. I think writing that novel would be a great way to entertain an elaborate fantasy and it could be the best way to ultimately get what I am after. The theater does not offer fame or fortune to a playwright. You have to be in it for the sheer love of drama as a form of literature.

Posted in General, Theater, Travel | Tagged Alamo Square Park, de Young Museum, Exit Theater, Haight-Ashbury, Japanese Tea Garden, Kenneth Rexroth, San Francisco Zen Center, The Pillowman | Leave a comment

San Francisco Technology Tour

Posted on 6/17/2015 by Robert S. Robbins

On Wednesday I devoted the day to my special interests and explored an area of San Francisco which is not visited by tourists. I went to the South of Market area and located the headquarters and office buildings of numerous technology companies. This was actually one of the main inspirations for my trip. I became fascinated with the many Internet companies based in San Francisco as an outpost of Silicon Valley. As a programmer, I could probably get a job in San Francisco and make three times what I’m making now, but most of that money would go to paying rent which is ridiculously expensive in the entire Bay Area. There are many startups around South Park so I went there first.

I took the subway to the Montgomery Street Station and then the 10 Townsend MUNI bus. At the bus stop I found the Alexander Book Company but they weren’t open yet. I took a photo of the books in their window.

The first technology company headquarters I located was TaskRabbit, which is under the I-80 overpass. I then walked to South Park and walked all around this small urban park. The second technology company I located was KeepSafe. I had come across this company due to an experiment they ran to find engineers without asking for a formal resume. As a joke, I submitted a short boast about my punchcard image generator and reader project. I hadn’t actually written the code at the time but I did create the project shortly after. Punch cards may not be a viable form of user input anymore, but the concept of encoding data as an image could be applied in clever ways. For example, an animated punch card image could transmit an entire program as source code.

I was especially excited to find the building where Reddit is located since I spend the entire day on that site. I love the social interaction on Reddit where anything is sure to be commented on. Wired Magazine is also located in that building. You wouldn’t know this just by looking at the building which only has a sign reading Organic.

I had breakfast at Caffe Centro, where many tech workers in the neighborhood have breakfast. I overhead some tech talk. I ordered a bagel with bacon and egg and a diet coke.

After eating, I walked south to find the AT&T Park and photographed the Famo.us office building. Famo.us is one of the technology companies that I find particularly interesting. They have created a JavaScript library which allows you to create really cool 3D animation in the browser. It appeals to my creative side. I tried to stalk the founders online but eventually got too busy with other things. I studied the Famo.us JavaScript framework for awhile but it is very complex so I’m afraid I abandoned that too. Still, I plan to do some in-depth research into a San Francisco startup to find a way to associate myself with that tech scene.

188 King Street

At the AT&T Park I saw some ATMs so I made my first cash withdrawal. I had $600 cash on me when I arrived in San Francisco but I burned through that money fast.

I then did a lot of walking through a bland urban industrial area looking for nondescript buildings which housed various high tech offices. There were a few other establishments like The Creamery near the Caltrain station and Brickhouse Cafe next to the Olivia building where Hipmunk is located. Zygna and Adobe had very large buildings far south on Townsend Street so they were easy to find. I got very hot and tired so I didn’t bother to find as many buildings as I could have. Eventually I returned to South Park and then walked east to the Bay Bridge. From there I found the Greyhound Bus Station and the Mozilla offices in San Francisco, something I particularly wanted to see since I use the Mozilla browser in my web development work.

Mozilla

Rather than retrace my steps using public transportation, I walked north on the Embarcadero. I saw the massive Cupid’s Span sculpture by Claes Oldenburg. Eventually I reached the Ferry Building where I had lunch at MarketBar. I ordered Panko Crusted Organic Chicken Paillard and a glass of prosecco, since I know how to pronounce it. After walking around the Ferry Building I found the Book Passage store which was much smaller than I expected. I bought the book In Patagonia by Bruce Chatwin because it is a famous travel book and I’ve been reading travel books lately. I plan to write two novels which will feature imaginary journeys.

I waited a long time for a F historic trolley to take me to Fisherman’s Wharf. But I didn’t have to pay the fare because the driver made everyone board immediately without paying. At Fisherman’s Wharf I saw Alcaraz Island in the distance and the seals on Pier 39. All the stores were quite tacky and only sold junk which I wasn’t interested in buying. However I did enter quite a few stores looking for something to buy so I could get a bag for my book. Eventually I found a CVS Pharmacy where I bought Aftersun Aloe Vera which I needed for sunburn and got a bag. My nose and forehead did get badly sunburned from being out in the sun all day. San Francisco may be chilly most of the time but the sun is still bright and you will burn if you aren’t careful. I found the In-And-Out burger joint where I wanted to eat but it was packed with a long line so I decided to skip it.

I walked all the way to Ghirardelli Square where I used their restroom but I didn’t find their shops very interesting. I bought a single ride cable car ticket at the Fisherman’s Wharf Cable Car Turnaround. However, there was a limousine driver going around trying to convince people to ride with him instead, since the cable car was only going to Chinatown and not all the way to Union Square. About half way through the line I discovered that I had lost my ticket when I removed my camera to take photos of the cable cars in my boredom. This really disgusted me after waiting so long in line.

Out of disgust with my bad fortune I became determined to finally use Uber to avoid a long walk back to my hotel. I went to the corner of Beach Street and Hyde Street and used the Uber app on my smartphone to get a ride. I was able to identify the car by the license plate. There were two other tourists already in the car because I had used UberPool. I sat in the front seat next to the driver. He dropped off that couple first and then left me out directly in front of Hotel Mark Twain. This ride only cost me $7.00 and I didn’t have to pay the driver anything. The application charged my credit card. I was pleased to have successfully used Uber because the company is based in San Francisco and its frequently in the news. Using Uber in San Francisco should be considered part of the local culture experience.

After resting my feet at the hotel for awhile I went out again and walked down Market Street to find the Twitter headquarters. I was also looking for the Uber headquarters but I think I missed it. I did find the restaurant Farmerbrown and the new Strand Theatre on Market Street which is associated with the American Conservatory Theater. I also took some photos of the Orpheus Theater. I did a lot of research on San Francisco theater for this trip. The theater district is located around Union Square and my hotel so it was easy to find all the theater buildings.

I made a reservation for dinner at John’s Grill at 7:00 p.m. It was a short walk to the restaurant. I ordered the Chef’s Special Red Snapper served with seasonal vegetables and a baked Idaho potato. This was one of the more expensive meals I had in San Francisco. I think it cost over $45.00. I’m not sure exactly how much I paid because I used cash.

After leaving the restaurant I found a Rasputin Music store on Powell Street. I was going to visit their store on Haight Street but I decided to visit this one instead. I bought an used Terminator 2 Blu-ray DVD for $9.95. This seemed appropriate since Arnold Schwarzenegger used to be the governor of California. This store had way more DVDs than CDs. When I got back to my hotel I saw a young homeless girl being arrested in front of my hotel. The cops asked me to walk around them.

Even though I did a lot of walking on this trip, I did not get any blisters on my feet because I wore padded socks and new sneakers. San Francisco is a very important city in the tech sector, but except for the South of Market urban industrial area, I saw little sign of technology companies dominating the city. I didn’t see any Google buses or excessive advertising for Apple products. I forgot I was a computer programmer and didn’t feel like a privileged member of the tech elite.

Posted in General, Travel | Tagged Famo.us, Ferry Building, Fisherman's Wharf, Ghirardelli Square, Hipmunk, John's Grill, KeepSafe, Reddit, San Francisco, South of Market, South Park, TaskRabbit, Uber, Zygna | Leave a comment

San Francisco – Chinatown and Japantown

Posted on 6/16/2015 by Robert S. Robbins

For my second full day in San Francisco my mission was to visit Chinatown and Japantown. This is probably as close as I will ever get to Asia. I would love to visit Japan some day, but not being able to read the writing at all is very intimidating. I think I would feel completely lost there.

I walked to Chinatown since I had seen how easy that was yesterday. I just had to walk north on Taylor Street and then east on Bush Street. Along the way I came across an elaborate French church, the Eglise Notre Dame des Victories, which I don’t remember being mentioned in any of the guide books. I also saw the Goethe-Institut on Bush Street.

I walked all the way to Grant Avenue but most of the stores in Chinatown had their security gates down so I had breakfast at Café de la Presse first. I ordered an espresso and two scrambled eggs with two slices of toast. I had my first encounter with the technology industry in San Francisco because the two men at the next table were discussing databases, MySQL and SQL Server. I eavesdropped on their conversation like a spy.

Chinatown Gate

It was a little too early to be exploring Chinatown. All the stores were closed. I can tell by the timestamp of my digital photos that I arrived at the Chinatown Gate at 8:00 a.m., although my digital camera was still set for the Eastern Time Zone. Nevertheless I walked up Grant Avenue and located various buildings in Chinatown based on my Google Street View virtual tour of this street. Eventually I walked all the way to Columbus Avenue and then walked up that street to take photos of Hotel Bohème which I had missed the day before. I had considered staying at Hotel Bohème but their rooms seemed kind of small and shabby for what you are paying. It would have been more expensive than the Hotel Mark Twain for a dingy room. Only the location would have been an improvement.

After walking back towards downtown I found the Transamerica Redwood Park. This is a small park at the base of the Transamerica Pyramid skyscraper. There are a few redwood trees in the park. At 10:00 a.m. I finally went to the Chinese Culture Center which does not open until then. The Chinese Culture Center was a disappointment. There is only a small art gallery to see. It only took me ten or fifteen minutes to look at the art. The Chinese Culture Center is hard to find. You have to cross a walkway from the Portsmouth Square Plaza and enter the Hilton Hotel on the third floor.

I then walked to Union Square and waited until 11:00 for the R&G Lounge Restaurant to open. This restaurant is famous for its Dungeness crab but I did not see that on the lunch menu. I think I ordered the Barbecued Pork which was served with rice and a vegetable I’ve never seen before, bok choy or “Chinese cabbage”. The dining room was downstairs and they had forks on the tables so I didn’t have to use chopsticks.

When I walked through Chinatown again, more of the stores were finally open so I entered the Far East Flea Market hoping to find DVDs or some interesting bit of Chinese culture. I only found “Made in China” crap but I eventually settled for a beetle in lucite keychain.

I found the Chinese Historical Society of America but it wasn’t quite ready to open at Noon so I walked to the nearby Cable Car Museum. I wasn’t going to visit the Cable Car Museum at all but it is free. I bought what might be the best souvenir of my trip, a San Francisco HD Video Tour on Blu-ray DVD for $14.99. Although this video focuses too much on cable cars and the Golden Gate Bridge, it does have some vivid footage which almost transports you back to the city.

When I went back to the Chinese Historical Society of America the museum was open. It did not take very long to see the exhibits. I did see the Underground Chinatown exhibit, about a 1915 San Francisco World’s Fair attraction which presented the Chinese community in a false light.

I walked all the way back to my hotel and found the room had been cleaned in my absence. There was at least one day when my room was not freshened up. Although I had only planned on visiting Chinatown for the entire day, there wasn’t enough to do there so I decided to squeeze in a trip to Japantown. I walked up to Sutter Street and took the 3 Jackson MUNI bus to Japantown. I got off the bus at Laguna Street and immediately saw the Soto Zen Mission where Shunryu Suzuki was the chief priest, although this was just where the temple moved. I did take some photos of the original Bush Street Temple where Shunryu Suzuki actually taught Zen back in the 1960s. I’ve read several books on the San Francisco Zen Center so this was very interesting to me. There isn’t much to Japantown except for three interconnected shopping malls. The original neighborhood was destroyed when the Japanese were rounded up and sent to internment camps during World War II. But I actually preferred Japantown to Chinatown since the shopping was better. I entered the Japan Center mall and found Japan Video right away where I bought a DVD, Bushido: Cruel Code of the Samurai for $24.98. I have so many samurai movies that I wasn’t sure if I didn’t already own this DVD but fortunately I did not. I then found a cafe where I bought a bottle of orange juice because I was very thirsty. For some reason, I had a craving for orange juice on this trip and always bought that when it was available. I then searched through the malls until I found the Kinokuniya Bookstore where I spent considerable time trying to select the best book. Eventually I decided upon A History of Japan by R.H.P. Mason and J.G. Caiger published by Tuttle ISBN: 978-0-8048-2097-4. I don’t know anything about the history of Japan so this seemed to be the best introduction to their culture.

Japantown

When I left the Japan Center mall I located another bookstore on the Buchanan Plaza, Forest Books. There I found a book by Gary Snyder, He Who Hunted Birds In His Father’s Village: The Dimensions of a Haida Myth. I had no idea what this book was about. Gary Snyder is one of the Beat poets whose work I have not read. According to Amazon it is a study of a single Native American myth.

Before leaving Japantown I walked around the area taking lots of photos. I could have visited the New People entertainment complex but I was getting tired so I decided that was enough for one day. I took the 3 Jackson MUNI bus back to Taylor Street.

At 7:00 that evening I had a reservation for a show at Biscuits and Blues, a music club not far from my hotel. This was one of the neatest things I did on this trip, since I often don’t get a chance to try any nightlife on my one day bus trips. Although the show seemed like a bargain at $20.00 that did not cover the food and drinks. I had to pay $20.00 cash at the door since my credit card was not actually charged for the online reservation. The hostess had to give an explanation for that. I ordered a Mississippi Tea Cocktail for $11.00, Nachoes with Guocomole for $14.00 and a basket of biscuits for $5.00. I ate the four biscuits first and was unable to finish the nachoes. The musical act was the Daniel Castro Band with special guest guitarist, Terry Hiatt. I’m not really into the blues but this was a real treat. The music was great! Daniel Castro and Terry Hiatt are real guitar virtuosos. It was like watching Jimmy Hendrix do his thing. They had a sense of humor and kept you guessing when the song was really over, with lots of false stops. They even showed a sense of humor when somebody in the audience complained that the music was too loud. The rest of the audience seemed shocked that somebody would complain. This is live music! It is supposed to be loud! After the show I bought a CD of their latest album, Desperate Rain.

Biscuits and Blues

I rarely hear live music and this was my introduction to the blues so I thought this show was really something special. Travel offers an excellent opportunity for new experiences that will expand your horizons. San Francisco is a very multicultural city and I discovered a lot of new things on this trip.

Posted in General, Travel | Tagged Biscuits and Blues, Chinatown, Chinese Historical Society of America, Daniel Castro Band, Japan Center, Japantown, Kinokuniya Bookstore, R&G Lounge Restaurant | Leave a comment

San Francisco – North Beach

Posted on 6/15/2015 by Robert S. Robbins

For my first full day in San Francisco I wanted to visit North Beach. Being a bibliomaniac, I was eager to visit City Lights Bookstore and do some shopping. I tried to use Uber outside my hotel but I was harassed by a homeless person so I walked to the Hallidie Plaza and bought a single ride ticket for the cable car. A black man was singing next to where passengers get on the cable car. He was using an iPad to play his music. Even the buskers have gone high tech! I got off the cable car where it makes a turn in Chinatown, near the Cable Car Museum. I found Broadway Street and walked east until I found Columbus Avenue. I soon found Jack Kerouac Alley since it connects Chinatown’s Grant Avenue to Columbus Avenue.

At City Lights Bookstore I headed upstairs to find the Beat Literature and the Poetry sections. There was only one other tourist up there taking photos so I felt comfortable taking a photo as well. I bought four books because this book store has a great selection for anyone interested in serious literature.

San Francisco Poems by Lawrence Ferlinghetti (an obvious choice)
Overtime by Philip Whalen (Zen poet)
Seven Guitars by August Wilson (Pittsburgh playwright)
One Hundred Poems From The Japanese by Kenneth Rexroth

It was hard to find the Kenneth Rexroth book since it was shelved in the basement under Asian Classics and not upstairs in the Poetry section. This trip has gotten me to read some poetry again, but I really prefer drama.

City Lights Bookstore

I found Caffè Trieste nearby which is also a famous Beat writer hangout. It did not look too busy or crowded so I stopped in for lunch. I had a grilled cheese sandwich and iced latte.

My next stop was the Beat Museum which is pretty interesting for a writer. I saw lots of typewriters. They also had a nice collection of paperback books on display in the museum. You could also buy rare books in the museum store. There was some material on Charles Bukowski. I don’t really consider him a Beat poet. He was more closely associated with Los Angeles. I sat in the museum’s little movie theater for quite a while, watching a good documentary on Jack Kerouac. Before leaving the museum, I bought a DVD, The Source, a Beat documentary which was very expensive considering it was burned onto a DVDR, and not a commercial DVD. I should have bought a rare book instead.

After that I walked up Columbus Avenue taking photos of all the North Beach landmarks. I saw lots of fire trucks near the Transamerica Pyramid so I got a few instances of fire engines in my photos to add interest to them.

At Lombard Street I turned east and walked up a steep hill to reach the Coit Tower. Unfortunately, the elevator to the observation deck stopped working right after I entered the elevator with some other tourists. Everyone had to walk 13 floors of steps to reach the observation deck. This was very exhausting for me! On the observation deck a few windows were open so I could get good photos of the TransAmerican Pyramid and Alcatraz Island. This is obviously where some of the great photos of the San Francisco skyline which I found on Flickr where taken.

Coit Tower View

After visiting Coit Tower, I continued to walk up Columbus Avenue until I reached the San Francisco Marriott Fisherman’s Wharf hotel. This is where I’ll be staying on my second trip to San Francisco scheduled for September so I wanted to check out the neighborhood.

Instead of walking all the way back up Columbus Avenue, I took a MUNI bus. This was the first time I used my Clipper card. I was going to try Uber again but I found that my smartphone battery was too low to use my phone. Apparently the ReadySim SIM card had drained the battery with 3G data requests. This was unexpected since I usually don’t have a SIM card in my smartphone. I had to find Kenneth Rexroth Alley without my travel notes. Fortunately I managed to find the alley even though there is only a street sign to see.

I had lunch at Mona Lisa Ristorante. This restaurant wasn’t in my notes but it seemed convenient. I’m proud of the fact that I didn’t eat at the same restaurant once during my entire trip. I always went to a different restaurant. Usually I don’t consider this important so I can be very unadventurous in eating out. This must have been an authentic Italian restaurant because I heard someone speaking fluent Italian. I think I ordered Gamberoni con Cozze alla San Marino, prawns with mussels in pink sauce.

After lunch I walked down Kearny Street until I found the Chinese Cultural Center. From there I located Portsmouth Square Plaza and then Grant Avenue. I walked all the way down Grant Avenue to the Chinatown Gate, which was sort of a preview of Chinatown which I intended to explore the next day. I then walked east to Union Square where I found a lot of construction going on that partially ruined any photos I could take of this landmark.

Further walking led me to Biscuits and Blues, a music club where I had a reservation for Tuesday night and theaters on Geary Boulevard.

Geary Boulevard Theaters

After a brief rest at the hotel I went back out and just walked a few blocks to locate the Bohemian Club, Alcazar Theater, Tides Theater, and San Francisco Playhouse. I didn’t waste much time in my hotel room on this trip. I was always out and about if only to take photos. I had dinner at Lori’s Diner which had some neat decor. They had an Edsel parked right in the diner and my table had a framed laserdisc of the film Gigi. I still own a laserdisc player and it amused to me to see a laserdisc used as a bit of nostalgic decor. I ordered a Moon Doggie (hot dog) and a coffee milkshake.

And that was how I spent my second day in San Francisco. Although I’m just a casual writer, it was thrilling to visit one of the most famous literary spots in the country. For this trip, I researched more writers for my notes than on any other trip. I’m always interested in the culture of any city I visit and San Francisco is particularly rich in culture.

Posted in General, Travel, Writing | Tagged Beat Museum, CaffÃ¨ Trieste, City Lights Bookstore, Coit Tower, Columbus Avenue, Kenneth Rexroth, North Beach, San Francisco | Leave a comment

Philadelphia Theater Trip – Disgraced

Scranton, The Electric City

Monterey

Napa Valley Wine Train

Muir Woods and Sausalito

Return To San Francisco

Magic In Scranton

Return To Jim Thorpe

Expedition To Bloomsburg

Bellefonte PA

H. Beam Piper

State College and Pennsylvania State University

YouTube Data API

Worlds End State Park

Last Day In San Francisco

San Francisco Golden Gate Bridge

San Francisco – Haight-Ashbury

San Francisco Technology Tour

San Francisco – Chinatown and Japantown

San Francisco – North Beach

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