FARMERS MARKET

December 13, 2005
Written by Jay Jacobson <jay (at) kinetic (dot) org>



As you may have noticed, updates have been scarce lately. My time has been completely consumed with finding an apartment and staying caught up on work. Progress is being made on the apartment front, but it is far different than finding a place to live in either Vegas or Phoenix.

All of the neighborhoods are so distinctly different; the first step is just finding the general area to live. It is not really a matter of good versus bad parts of town, but rather good versus bad blocks. After much exploration, Erik and I narrowed down our areas of interest to Pacific Heights, Russian Hill, or Nob Hill.

Unlike other cities where I have lived, San Francisco does not really have any such thing as "apartment complexes" containing hundreds, or thousands of units. Here, everything is quite different as it is generally considered a big building if a place has more than about 20 apartments in it. Most places contain anywhere from two to ten units.

With that environment, finding a place pretty much boils down to whatever happens to be available, in the areas one is looking, when it is time to move. We are finding places with many of the features we want. Nothing is "perfect," but we are able to find a few nice places. I am hoping (needing) to sign a lease this week, so once we lock-in a specific place, I will be sure to send another update.

On a non-domestic note, today I met with Francine for breakfast ("lunch" for her, I am sure) at the farmers' market - yet another gem I had never previously seen in this city. It is at Pier 1, in the Ferry Terminal, basically at The Embarcadero and Market Street. The place is packed, inside and out (and much more on the weekends), with restaurants, food shops, fresh made goods, of every variety one could imagine. It was really quite the experience and I am sure the place is packed with local chefs on the weekend hunting for fresh ingredients.

I managed to take a few pictures between the market and the bus stop to share with you. When you walk out of the Ferry Terminal building , directly across the street is a nice park on the Embarcadero. It is quite nice with various pieces of art , a seasonal ice skating rink, and a big open field . Off in the distance, you can see Telegraph Hill and Coit Tower . If you use a little zoom action on the camera, it looks a bit like this . Looking the other way, you can see the TransAmerica Tower above all of the other buildings. However, my favorite was when I turned around and saw a beautiful view of Pier 1, Treasure Island, and the Bay Bridge , which goes over to Oakland and Berkeley.



More of my Bay Adventures: http://kinetic.org/bay-adventure/
My website: http://kinetic.org/