Karen and I are exploring San Francisco over the next few days. Today, we put on miles walking and I took dozens of photos, trying to capture all the diverse fun we had.

Our first stop was at the eclectic SCRAP.
SCRAP’s mission is to stimulate creativity and environmental awareness in children and adults through promoting the creative reuse of materials that traditionally have been discarded as waste.
It is a treasure hunt full of discovery!
A must for me was the San Francisco Center for the Book.
This is a center of inspiration for the book arts world, featuring the art & craft of letterpress printing, bookbinding, and artists bookmaking.

The most unique stop of the day was at Paxton Gate, a shop full of natural curiosities, carnivorous plants, and costumed taxidermized mice.
Yes, taxidermized mice. Notice this creation of Hamlet?
How about this fetal pig dissection? Truly something for everyone was found at Paxton Gate.

Lunch was shared with Karen's niece, Lila, at a new pizza place in town.

So this $3 cup of coffee wasn't super special but what I did love was the pocket on the sleeve that held a cookie treat.
We then strolled down Clarion Alley to look at the murals there.


The Mission of Clarion Alley Mural Project (CAMP) is to support and produce socially-engaged and aesthetically innovative public art, locally and globally, as a grassroots community-directed organization based in San Francisco’s Mission District. Definitely thought-provoking.
Much of our itinerary was found on Atlas Obscura, including Cloudflare's Encryption Lava Lamps. The randomness of this wall of lava lamps helps encrypt up to 10 percent of the internet.
What’s encrypting your web traffic as you surf the internet? An advanced algorithm created by a supercomputer? Actually, if the site you’re visiting is encrypted by the cybersecurity firm Cloudflare, your activity may be protected by nothing other than a wall of lava lamps. There couldn’t possibly be a groovier way to keep the internet secure. We just had to see them and we have the t-shirts to prove it.

A big surprise for us was found located in the Fisherman's Wharf neighborhood. The way awesome San Francisco Maritime National Historical Park offers visitors the sights, sounds, smells and stories of Pacific Coast maritime history.
We loved the Waterfront Exhibit in the park's visitor center which recreated six historical waterfront neighborhoods, and invited us to take a walk along the edge. We visited a wind-swept Yelamu village at the Golden Gate. We discovered Gold Rush ships buried under the Barbary Coast. We heard the clamor along the shore and we got lost in the stories that made "Frisco" a legendary port.




The Musée Mécanique is one of those places that you have to see to fully grasp. It is an exceptional collection of 20th-century automata, penny arcade games, and musical contraptions.
One of the last remaining links to San Francisco’s oceanside Playland at the Beach amusement park, the Musée Mécanique is a unique hands-on arcade of vintage coin-operated contraptions of all kinds.


With about 200 of the machines in the collection on display at Pier 45, the museum represents a lifetime of curiosity, and is one of the largest privately-owned collections of mechanically-operated machines in the world.
Our last stop was at Boudin at the Wharf (the famous sourdough store). Home of their mother dough—flagship of their brand, this beautiful building is the place to see the bakers at work, dine with a view or in a casual café, and learn the full story of their famous sourdough bread and the city that made it possible.


After touring the museum, we ogled the Demonstration and Production Bakery where we watched the bakers busy at work crafting batches of bread by hand through the 30-foot observation window.
What an exhaustingly amazing day. I can't wait to see what tomorrow brings! I 🧡 SF.