WEIRD DOLL WEDNESDAY, PART 123

Finally, a doll from distance lands I can tell you about!

She's from Kazakstan. My brother-in-law worked there for 6 years( on and off) and his co-workers were always giving him gifts. Knowing that I love dolls, SIL gave this to me on my recent visit. She's made of felt and has an embroidered face.  She's maybe 5 inches tall. 

THE ART OF VACATION

 

Wandering around The Mission in San Francisco I was struck by how pretty it is. No dull gray city stuff here. The Mission is named after Mission Delores, which was founded in 1776 and is the oldest building in SF. Mission Delores in featured in the Hitchcock movie Vertigo (one of my favorite) The area was been the home to Hispanic people for forever. It's easy to get to on BART (19th and 24th street stations). Go, if you ever visit SF.

There's art everywhere.....

 This beautiful mural is on the side of a building. There's no information about the woman. She must have been well loved. RIP.

In a short ally off of 24th street are these wonderful murals.

 left side and right side

 I like how the artist painted roses on the sign post

Do you look up when walking?

 I would have missed this if I didn't.

 Glad to see the new business kept the old sign.

 The store were I got the Day of the Dead and Frida socks.

 Poetry happens , too.


The day after my birthday, I got kidnapped and taken to the Oakland Museum . It was the tail end of the annual Day of the Dead instillation. It's been happening for years.

 For the artists Father. The black screen is make out of metal.

The museum has stickers that are a pointing finger  that says "OK" which means you can touch whatever the finger is pointing at.

 or sit in. This chair is metal and is meant to depict the famous chair Bobby Seal of the Black Panthers sat in back in the early 1970's. You can see the sticker on the left

as you can see the two Child Brides sat in it. I swear we did not share notes on dressing alike.

Hope you enjoyed my vacation photos. Tomorrow is the return of Weird Doll Wednesday. 

MORE BIRTHDAY VACATION FUN

Where did I leave off? Sunset on Wednesday. Thursday was Double Birthday Day (mine was on Friday)

 

 The Birthday Girls! 59 and 20! Rachel looks pretty good for 59.

 Three cakes are better than one, anyday of the week. Rachel's Mom thought "Something for everyone". Left to right: cheese cake, chocolate with chocolate and some more chocolate, mango mousse. The rose on top is made from mango slices. We had food, too. Italian from Genoa in Oakland. Yummy!

Friday, SIL and I went to SF (I know, twice in 3 days). She wanted me to help her shop for new clothes. Shopping AKA fun.

 Here's a bit of old San Francisco. The Palace Hotel. The roof survived the 1906 earthquake. No, we didn't have lunch here.

 Old school tobacco/wine store.

 Speaking of "old school", we ate lunch here. Sears Fine Foods, in business for 76 years.

 They have an old tile floor, and use sideboards and old stoves to store things in. And are known for these......

 Silver dollar Swedish pancakes. No this isn't turning into a food blog. Promise.

I had to take these photos. Store front in Maiden Lane

 So many old sewing machines. Around the front of the building are to more windows with top to bottom machines.

 The electric street car. I've ridden  one these a bunch of times. If you look close at the red brick building, you can see the overhead wires.

 The world famous Powell Street cable car. Which I've never ridden on. They are always full of tourist and don't seem worth the hassle of waiting to get on.

On Saturday, I got kidnapped......

 by these two. Next post I'll show you where they took me. We're having dinner at Rudies Can't Fail Cafe in beautiful downtown Oakland (it really is)

 Not drinking brew for breakfast!   I had mac & cheese and onion rings. There's a diet in my future.

Of course, I bought myself birthday presents!

 I ran out of socks, so I just had to.

 Really good 3D Madonna bought from a street vender for $1.

 Peacock shawl bought from the same vender for $6.

 Thrifted purse that looks like it was made from a place mat.

 Penguin ring, thrifted and beaded thing found in  free box.

 Book of travel essays, gift from a friend and Christmas socks from Top Shop pop-up in Nordstroms.

Next time, there's all sorts of art to show you. It's everywhere.

FALL VACATION

or how the heck did I get 2 vacations this fall.

My sister-in-law (SIL) called me and invited us to come out for two weeks while her husband was out of town on a business trip. The Doctor didn't want to go, but I did. It was my birthday present.

 The airport send off in Jacksonville. My flight got to Oakland at midnight AKA 3am my time! That was along day.

SIL and I hung out with friends, eating and talking, talking, talking in her backyard (it was warm for November).

Every Sunday evening there's an event down the street at the North Berkeley BART station called Off The Grid.

As you can see by the sign, it's a food truck event. About 8-9 food trucks park around the parking lot and it turns into the coolest food court in town. It's family friendly and there's live music. We went twice and the trucks were different each time. Off the Grid happens all the time at different locations .

 

We had bbq and catfish from this truck.

 an overview of the area. It was warm the first night, but the second was chilly, so we got our food to go.

 Yummy, cupcakes. My SIL looks so much like The Doctor in this photo.

One day I took a walk from the house to downtown, it takes maybe 15 minutes. Because I took tons of photos, I'll have another posts about all the different restaurants.

This is the library. It's from the 1920's and has an arts and craft style

 These panels go around the building. A lot of the public building in Berkeley are in the arts and craft style.

I took 2 trips to San Francisco. The first was with "cousin" Neil, my friend of 30+ years.

We drove over the new Bay Bridge. The old span is being torn down from both ends.

 The new part. The bridge is in 2 section. The green part at the top of this photo is Treasure Island, there's a tunnel that the bridge goes through.


Who's says you can't find cheap, good eats in SF? Pizza by the slice at The Pizza Shop on 24th St in the Mission. 4 slices, 2 drinks for $18.

Speaking of the Mission, I took tons of photos there, too. Those deserve a post of their own. ( I'm dragging this out LOL)
 

 Here's a taste: Where's Frida?

 A beautiful "Painted Lady"

 Mitchell's ice cream, not just for breakfast. Years ago we had breakfast here, funny thing, they only have ice cream.

 The parking Gods always smile on cousin Neil. Right at the door at the Thrift Town on Mission. People who know how hard it is to find parking in SF will hate us for this. Neil always finds a parking space, always.

After all that city fun, we went to the beach.

 This is looking south from Sutro Park. The Pacific ocean is on the right, the trees are the west end of Golden Gate Park

 Watching the surfers at Ocean Beach

 This is the beach my family came to when I was little, back in the 1960's. It's cold and windy, but who cares, it's the beach!

If you keep going, you hit China.  

That's vacation 2, post 1. I'll probably be don't a couple more. After all, I was there for 2 weeks and a double birthday party happen. Until next time.....