Unusual Gifts

It becomes increasingly harder for adult children to find gifts for Mother's and Father's Day for parents who have everything they need.  Our children get pretty creative with the gifts they come up with and we really appreciate their inventiveness and the time and thought they put into their gifts to us.  This year for Father's Day was no exception.

The girls sent Mark many pounds (can't remember how many, and we've eaten some of it!) of gourmet bacon along with a book entitled "Dad Is Fat" by Jim Gaffigan.  Which, of course, he is not, but it is a funny book.  Our family has a love affair with all things bacon, so this was a fun treat to receive and enjoy.

Jeff and Jess invited us to join them on an architectural walking tour in San Francisco.  It was very fun and we learned some really interesting things.  One of the most interesting is that "popos" or Privately-Owned Public Open Spaces exist in downtown San Francisco.  Sixty-eight of them!  Many are somewhat hidden, but we had a chance to visit a few of them.  This one is near the Crocker Galleria:

From this vantage point we had a nice view of the Hallidie Building.  Built in 1918, it had the world's first glass curtain wall.  The front of the building had been shrouded in scaffolding and sheet metal for something like 30 years, but had undergone renovation in the last 3 years:

Our next stop was 111 Sutter.  Built in 1926, at 24 stories it was one of the city's tallest buildings.  It had a lovely entrance:

Closeup of the front stonework:

Staircase:

Painted ceiling:

and mailbox:

On another rooftop terrace (popos) we had a lovely view of this building which I can't remember the name of:

We also had view of the Hobart Building (1914).  This building always seemed a little odd to me: lovely on top but a solid wall below.  We learned that the building next to it was actually much higher originally, but had been torn down to just a few stories high, exposing a solid wall.  

Next we saw the Crown Zellerbach (1959) building, here with the Shell Building (1929) reflected in it:

And the Shell Building full on:

Lastly, this is "The Narrow Building" on Bush Street built in 1910.  It was the tallest building on the block when built and originally housed a garment manufacturing business.  It measures 20 feet wide, 80 feet deep, and is 10 stories high:

It was a very fun and informative day.  I'm just sorry that I didn't get a picture of Jeff and Jess!