Urban Hiker SF

Lockdown day 1,000,000. Let's face it, it's going to be a long time before any of us go on a vacation with a plane, so I'm trying to get good at being a tourist in my own town. On the Sunday before Memorial Day, I decided to go on a sea lion "hunt" along the Embarcadero. (As a 20+ year vegetarian, I would never go on an actual sea lion hunt—this was a hunt for sea lion sculptures.) Here's a little backstory.... Last weekend, I decided to run home to the Mission from North Beach and explore some hills and stairways along the way. On my way back, I noticed a sea lion statue on the Embarcadero. (I originally thought it was a seal, but I was wrong. Here's the difference .) I am a huge animal lover, so I crossed the street to get a closer look. It reminded me of the "I left my heart in San Francisco" sculptures you can still see around town, so I figured this statue might be part of a series. When I got home from my run, I decided to learn more. On t...

It's been a LONG time since I posted. So long that in fact that since that last post, I have given birth to two babies: one human and one paperback .  Being a mom has been wonderful, but I do feel like I have a lot less time than before. And while some people feel like they have more free time during quarantine, my experience has been quite the opposite! In addition to holding down a job, I was now a house cleaner, nanny, dog walker, and chef. One thing that has not just kept me sane, but also brought me great pleasure during COVID-19 is taking daily walks. During this pandemic, exercise in fresh air was always considered an essential activity, but for a while, the rule was that you were supposed to exercise in your own neighborhoods. Guided by the mantra "If you need a car, it's too far," I started taking off on walks and runs from my home in the Mission District seeing where I would go in any direction in a 2.5-mile radius—which roughly equated to the time I had off...