Explaining my photos, episode 2

I've been really bad about labeling my photos in the past few years, so this whole "Explaining my photos" series is an effort to remember why I took the weird photos that I've taken.

In our last episode, we looked at Spain. Today's episode is about San Francisco.

As a recap, I went to San Fran over the Easter vacation to visit my friend Chrissie. I've never been to the West Coast, so it was very exciting. I had a great time, and Chrissie is a great host because she took me everywhere and didn't get bored with it, even though she's probably been to all those places hundreds of times.

This was a shop somewhere in Fisherman's Wharf. It had some of the tackiest statues I've ever seen, including this one of two dolphins and a soccer ball. If you know someone who would buy this, you win a prize in my book.

I saw these trees everywhere. I am guessing they are West Coast trees, because I have never seen them before. I do not know what they are - can someone identify them? This was taken at Berkeley from the Mario Savio Steps.

While in Berkeley, we visited the Shakespeare & Co. Bookstore. I cracked up at this shelf, which had the following topics from top to bottom: Linguistics, then Sign Language, then Dope. As you can see from the book titles, I am not joking.

Also at Shakespeare & Co., we found The Pop-up Book of Phobias. It is exactly what it sounds like, which is hilarious.

I don't know what I'd expect to find in a place called Grandma's Cocktail Saloon. This was near Balboa Park, methinks.

I am, as you know, an ad geek. So whenever I see ads in places I do not expect, I get very excited. This one was presented in such a way that you could see it as you approached the stairs of the BART.

This, my friends, is no ordinary curved staircase - it is a curved escalator. Yes, it goes up in a curve. My friend Mark, a Brit who works for Google, has been to San Fran on business before, so I asked him for suggestions of what to see. He forwarded me a list he had made for his brother, which happened to include a lot of shopping places - mostly because the dollar was taking a beating against the pound, so prices were fantastic for them. Anyway, among the shopping places on his list was this mall with the curved escalators. I think Chrissie was a bit surprised when I asked to see it, but she took me there without complaints. (I certainly didn't complain, as it also contained a Hello Kitty store.)

That's about it for now. More NaBloPoMo goodness tomorrow!