sf ride 1.24.10

sunday, sunday, sunday! folks, this is a good day of the week to ride in the city - especially on a day that has threat of rain. a lot of cars stayed home making it an extremely pleasant situation for us 2 wheelers. i took caltrain from san carlos to sf and got to peet's in the marina about 10am. met meli and anthony for a cup of the good stuff and we couldn't convince anthony to tear himself away from the football playoffs so meli & i headed out to a lbs called citizen chain. sasha, the owner, seemed pretty cool and had some nice vintage lugged steel on hand for us to drool over. he is starting to specialize in building up old mixte frames since no one else seems to be filling the demand. we could've stayed all day and talked bikes and added much of his inventory to our wish lists but we were itching to glide again. heading south on the embarcadero it started to rain a bit and then a bit more - no wind though. had to pull over and don the jacket but to be honest it felt more refreshing than annoying to me - i was just happy to finally be outside after too many days in a row of heavy rain and wind. we crossed a draw bridge or 2 while heading out hunters point to piccino for lunch. parking t & c under the awning outside the windows we watched them carefully as we didn't know if 2 italians would get along or not. they made friends while we had bianca and white (w/nettles) pizzas, beer and cafe on a copper topped table. the rain stopped during lunch so the jacket came off before we headed to flora grubb gardens - what a great atmosphere - to say this is a unique nursery is a huge understatement. it's definitely worth going out of your way for a visit. we wandered around and i couldn't stop taking pictures of this awesome space. heading back through some industrial storage and under freeway spaces we cruised down valencia (what a blast, btw!) and stopped at four barrel coffee for a little pick me up. another place i have no problem recommending, it's obvious meligrosa has good taste in all things sf. now if only i can stop sliding on the tilted floor next to the door! ;>) back on the bikes we wound up at a bookstore in the ferry building where meli showed me her latest magazine spread. Yup, she's in there! So cool... Buy the latest copy of bust magazine and check it out. we said our goodbyes and headed for home in opposite directions on the embarcadero. i had exactly 13 mins. to make the next train and made it with 2 mins. to spare - thank you, c!

meli's pics here:

http://www.flickr.com/photos/meligrosa/sets/72157623190116663/

my pics here:

http://www.flickr.com/photos/ericm/sets/72157623278968656/

'til next time, "have a nice ride"...