North frenchielands.
The Frenchie on Washington square May, 2010

When was the last time you went to North Beach or anywhere near the north of the city? I have a tremendous case of the wanderlusting rides, so even if it means riding 20+ minutes, often times I will take the longer route and loop around from Hayes Valley, to the Panhandle and then thru Pac Heights to end up in North Beach for happy hour in the middle of the week. Sounds crazy, but our city to be about 7 miles square, often so square, that so frequently I hear my peers say that they don’t get out and explore the outside lands of their neighborhoods and districts or they usual route.

With the peeps last Sunday, on Stockton.

Show me some curiosity and let me know if you have taken a different route recently, doesn’t have to be long miles or crazy hilly distances. All it takes is making an intentional unusual turn and then you will see you will possibly encounter something interesting and rather new.

Next ‘unpopular‘ neighborhood: who knows? stay tuned.

find your rosebud

“yo, t-rex we are running hella late – please dont get upset…”

Hola all. Momentum chose one of the pics taken by Carrie Cizauskas in North Beach for the little insert inside the May/June issue of Momentum magazine. Very cool little cover piece. Frenchie super star at its finest, on Green near Grant streets.
♥My sincere thanks y gracias!!

Photo by Ramona Wheelright

I was, as usual chatting it up with this guy, then I thought he was looking it at me as if he knew something, he goes “is this you?!” then we all started being silly.
Thought I’d share these pictures, it was a very funny moment 😀

It was great to meet the volunteers at the Silicon Valley Bike Coalition back in May when we rode to the Maker Faire, especially Sue (Hello pretty!) and Carlos. And thanks for wanting to take my picture, with a picture of me. I was cracking up.

San Mateo, May 2010 – Photo: Maker Faire by Carlos Babcock

The missionmission peeps also posted a little picture. That was nice – Gracias! 😀
(and they got little freebie blinkies!!)

via missionmission

.xxo♥ me+Frenchie

Just another day on Stockton st.

North Beach > Stockton tunnel > Polk street > Hayes valley:
14-18 minutes – approx. 3 miles

route map (+BTW, not what google recommends)
Cutting through the city’s northeast from North beach, to get to the Hayes Valley for some more coffee is pretty fun. Biking all over the city, seeing sharrows is like seeing new cafes – I notice them right away.

An alternative postcard. You might recognize that little pointy building.

However, blog-reader Andre brought to my attention the weirdness he experiences on Sutter st. with the sharrows that seem to be thrown in the middle of traffic. I had not noticed these ones, so I decided to check it out. This one-way street during fast rush hour time, can be pretty intense, it has been a couple of years since I last rode in the midst of crazy traffic on Sutter.

To be honest I have always taken the bus lane because the MUNI line (3 Jackson) will probably not be around in between the time that takes to get across Sutter from around Union Square, to get to the Polk street corridor.

On the bus lane. Not much going on behind me.

Here is an example of the lanes.

ah look who is there. I got a text from my friend, so I stopped at the corner.
After a few minutes, the bus came out of nowhere – & yes, there are burrito joints everywhere 😀

Anyways. I’m sure that many of you have biked this street in heavier traffic. These shots were taken mid-day Sunday. As you can see there is not much traffic at all.

As far as I can compare, a similar situation applies to Post st. I used to ride in the early mornings and not having a designated bike lane was no big deal, however, car-traffic in the morning seems pretty impatient, so more than a few honks did happened.
Personally, I haven’t had to bike on Post or Sutter during AM/PM commute hours. Have any of you ridden either one lately? What other street do you take to head west or east, on the northside of Market? Geary? go through the Broadway tunnel? California – Do share your experiences and let us know how you feel about the designated sharrows that are placed in the middle lane, to the left of Muni.

South of City Hall/Civic Centre. Hola, adiós. –til next time!

A few recent snaps from North Beach. A short walk and a few minutes from corner to corner offer plenty for your eyes to jump around. Then jump back on your bike and go.

On Stockton.

Mason street.