Chinatown and back

As I sit here sipping one of our fine bottles of Merlot from Markham wineries in Napa, I am truly enjoying San Francisco. Up early this morning, Norm had me walking for an hour up and down hills to reach Chinatown and the free city tour (OK we made a donation at the end like everyone else). It was very good and I learned things about Chinatown I didn't know, like the paper items Chinese people buy to burn for those who have died. Do you know that you can get a six pack of Coke (or Heineken -- NG) made of paper for such occasions. Remember that when I "pass on". Next we had lunch at the Ferry building, sharing a baguette and cinnamon loaf (bigger than a bun :). From there we hiked over to the Jewish Contemporary Art Museum to see the exhibit of Maria Kalman illustrations. Now there is one definitely abstract random person! She's done covers for the New Yorker magazine, book illustrations online things for the New York Times, and more. Did you know she was a cofounder of the Rubber Band Society, commmorating the invention of the rubber band in England in 1845?  Next was tea at the Samovar for only $25, (smoky lapsang souchang for Norm and black tea for Mary) but it was on a sunny afternoon in the Yerba Buena Gardens, viewing the lovely bougainvillea blossoms. Remember we are on holidays. I promised to do some subbing when we get home to pay for the holiday :)
NG now (well, I added a few phrases above too):we had dinner in the Marina district, which is not far from SF Bay, where they dumped a lot of 1906 earthquake rubble, then  built new apartment houses atop the debris. The restaurant was an organic vegeterian place called The Plant and we had burgers, with lots of shredded beets to give it colour, and a side of mango spring rolls. Cabbage seems to be the predominant ingredient here. But we feel we've had a healthy dinner of vegetables. I had a beer too, Pinkus pilsner from Germany, unfiltered, so it was cloudy. Not t-o-o bad. I don't know what it's doing on top of the lapsang souchang and Markham merlot -- tell you tomorrow.