Great Views and Great Drinks

San Francisco CA

There are a few reasons I like hitting up different bars. Of course one reason is having an excellent cocktail or draft beer. The other reason is one that differs from bar to bar and that is The View. Below I document 3 bars with great views.

The Pied Piper Bar in The Palace Hotel

The Pied Piper Bar has no windows and yet the view is amazing. Sitting at the bar you stare up at a 16 foot wide painting by Maxfield Parrish. The painting is amazing and lighting really brings out the colors.

The Pied Piper of Hamelin

There are 2 more paintings in the bar. I really like this one because it shows Mark Twain as well as Emperor Norton I

Grandviews at The Hyatt

The Grandviews at The Hyatt is on the 36th floor. It offers a different but equally impressive view.

Looking down on Coit Tower from the 36th floor

The Top of the Mark doesn't look so toppy from up here

Even normal parking garages look cooler from the 36th floor

Hawaii West Bar

Sometimes the view from the bar you are in comes from the interesting people you meet in the bar. This is the case with Hawaii West. It's a Tiki dive bar boarding Chinatown and North Beach.

I wish I could have taken photos of everyone in the bar because many of them were as interesting looking as our bar tender.

That's it for now but keep an eye out for more posts in the near future.

Jon

A Memorable Memorial Day Weekend

Bay Area CA

3 day weekends are great. This most recent 3 day weekend was epic. We packed a ton into 3 days. We did 2 city tours, went to 2 bars on our quest to visit bars from A-Z and rented a car and got out of town for a day. Check it out.

We did the SF City Guides Tour of the Rincon Center Murals. These murals were painted during the WPA program.

The Rincon Center is a really great Art Deco building originally built to be the main post office in San Francisco.

I really liked this shot I took on our walk to North Beach.

We have been going to bars working our way through the alphabet. We went to Columbus Cafe for the letter C.

Here is me striking a pose at Columbus Cafe.

I took a picture of a nice selection of Bitters at Cask, a fairly high end Whiskey Store.

Donna and I went to Brentwood to pick cherries. It was the 2nd weekend of the season. It was fun.

I took this one of Donna while I was on a Cherry Ladder. I didn't fine the Chute or the HiHo....

Lovely Cherries

Donna wore her Cherry Tree camouflage.

More Cherry Picking. It was very picturesque.

Then we went to an Alpaca farm and saw the alpaca.

They were cute

This one liked Donna but Donna didn't know it yet. :)

Twins? Nope....

Cute hu?

A bit of grafiti art and a different view of the Transamerica Pyramid.

I like taking photos of buildings

This is a great shot of a bar we went to in North Beach. 15 Romolo. It's a speak easy in an alley. The photo doesn't do the view we had justice. It was so cool.

A candle and bitters at 15 Romolo

Donna anticipating her libation at 15 Romolo.

It was a great weekend. I look forward to the next 3 day weekend.

A Tough Day at Work - The How Weird Street Festival

San Francisco CA - Downtown


We are working hard at MunkyFun to release a highly innovative game and a little extra effort is needed. We all went to work on Sunday and at noon the How Weird Street Fair started. This is a Techno/Love festival so the there were DJs playing music in many locations. Our office looks out on 2 alleys and both were blocked off for the festival so some of the guys had to hop a fence to get to work. It was fun but it was also tough to be at work with all of the fun going on around us. I took a small break and went down to take photos.

Out the back window looking down on some resting revelers

Out the front window. It was some sort of commitment ceremony or something

The flier mentioned to wear a costume

Hula Hooping for Health

Now that's a costume!

Liza?

Dude! Your hair is this big!

I documented the documentary

He wasn't asking for anything, just having a good day

Rainbow Bright!

The glasses match the top. They are both small

Ewok!

Three Wheeling!

Big hair

Lucky kid has Halo Legos.....

A cowgirl in The City

This won't end well

Everyone was having fun

Even night elf Jedi

That's it for now. See ya soon.

What happens in SF gets put on my blog...Family Visit

San Francisco CA

A few weeks ago Sharon (Donna's Sister) visited us. We spent a nice weekend exploring the city and eating its fine food. Here are some photos from the visit.

Both Sharon and Donna close their eyes when photos are taken. It's in their genes. Luckily my 11 years in the Tech Industry has allowed me to meet some of the best digital artists around and one of them was able to quickly make some adjustments to this so that their eyes appear open. Keep in mind this is an altered photo when looking at it. It's amazing what we can do with computers these days.

Here is a shot of Donna and Sharon on the Golden Gate Bridge in the wind. I used my Lensbaby.

Another Lensbaby shot.

And another shot with the Lensbaby.

I was Lensbaby crazy.

Crissy Field in a dream.

China Town was ready for the Chinese New Year

Donna and Sharon took some time to do some shopping in China Town

Just before Sharon's flight we took her to the Irish Bank and she had a nice Ice Tea in a San Jose Sharks Glass.