Tag: photos

  • Lagunitas Brewing Company tour

    Today I took a tour of the Lagunitas Brewing operation in Petaluma. The facility was largely built before they sold themselves to Heineken, and still operates independently. Tickets for the tour are free and (if you’re over 21) include a free beer. The tour focuses very little on brewing and much more of the stories…

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  • Marin County Civic Center

    Exterior of the building The more I’ve seen of Frank Lloyd Wright’s designs, the more I’m convinced he was an interior designer at heart who happened to get tasked with architecture. His interiors are always unique and playful, but the exteriors are almost offensively boring. It’s certainly true of the Marin County Civic Center. From…

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  • Museum of International Propaganda

    My last stop in downtown San Rafael was a tiny museum with an unusual premise: the Museum of International Propaganda. Housed in a former shoe store, each section of the museum is devoted to a certain type of propaganda. Examples include leader worship, promoting the military, and demonizing a perceived enemy. It seemed to me…

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  • Louis Pasteur “420” statue

    When I got off the bus from the Larkspur Ferry Terminal, I discovered I was a short walk from the origin of a well known slang term: 420, the not-so-secret code for marijuana. I had to go see it for myself. As Atlas Obscura explains this unusual statue of Louis Pasteur in front of San…

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  • Mission San Rafael Arcangel

    For the Forth of July weekend, I decided to split the difference between a real vacation and a “staycation,” opting to explore several parts of the North Bay I’ve never or rarely been to in the past. My first stop is in San Rafael, named after the second to last of the Spanish missions in…

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  • Lakefest at Lake Merritt

    Today was Lakefest at Lake Merritt in Oakland. I’d never been to this festival before and decided to go take a look. Lakefest is a free street festival outside the boat house at the north side of the lake. There’s your typical street food vendors, artists, and local businesses with booths. Walking over from the…

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  • Pride rocks! (Sure, we’ll go with that headline)

    The space at 2223 Market Street has seen many restaurants come and go over the years, including the memorably named 2223. These days it’s home to Izakaya Sushi Ran, a Japanese gastropub (no, I’m not exactly sure what that means either.) The new restaurateurs placed a large rock — if not a small boulder —…

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  • Vaillancourt Fountain

    Of all the controversial elements of San Francisco, Vaillancourt Fountain easily evokes the strongest love-it-or-hate-it response of any water feature. Sitting in the corner of Embarcadero Plaza (formerly Justin Herman Plaza) it looks like a large knot of rectangular pipes spewing water in various directions — when it’s on, that is. Over the past couple…

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  • Pink Triangle Park and Memorial

    After delving into the potential futures of Harvey Milk Plaza yesterday, I thought I’d hop across the street and discuss one of the most overlooked public places in San Francisco hidden in plain sight. Located on a small triangular piece of land between Market Street and 17th Street, Pink Triangle Park and Memorial — often…

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  • “Save Harvey Milk Plaza” written in dust

    Yesterday while walking through Church Station I noticed the renovations there were winding down, and behind the semi-demolished storage area someone had written SaveHarveyMilkPlaza.org in the dust on the orange railing. This is a reaction to proposed changes at Castro Station, the next station outbound from Church. The plaza on the south side of the…

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