day out: the city

I had a somewhat rare opportunity to work in "The City" (San Francisco) on Friday, and took the opportunity between work and meeting friends to do two very important things. 

First things first, I visited The Coffee Bean and Tea Leaf to pick up my beloved Vanilla Ice Blended--a holdover addiction from my SoCal days. Have you had one of these? Highly recommended if you find yourself either on Market Street just East of the San Francisco Centre, or on pretty much every street corner in Los Angeles, San Diego or their surrounding areas. Please do not branch out into other flavors your first time out. The Ice Blended is to be experienced in vanilla. Vanilla!

From the Stockton end of Maiden Lane

Then I took my lovely drink on the road for a trip down Memory Lane, in the form of Union Square's Maiden Lane. Every Christmas season, my family made a pilgrimage to Union Square to look at shop windows, have lunch out and generally feel like suburban rubes in the urban jungle. My favorite things to see were Macy's shop windows, the huge tree through the middle of Neiman Marcus, the old Crate and Barrel store (that no longer exists) on Grant Street, which felt like it was seventeen stories tall with a new exciting thing around every corner and up every staircase (I was a kid, why did I care about housewares?), and, last but not least, Maiden Lane. 

Britex Fabrics

Union Square is loud, bustling and can be a little hard on the senses, but making the turn into Maiden Lane, the city crowds and noises fade to the background. The lane is closed to traffic, and is a great pedestrian throughway between Stockton and Kearny.

Xanadu Gallery

There are a few cafes and a few shops, chief among them Britex Fabrics and the back entrance to Gumps. I also recommend taking a stroll through what is now called the Xanadu Gallery. The gallery is the only Frank Lloyd Wright building in San Francisco, and it's worth a trip. The tan brick facade hides a beautiful swirling interior that will remind you of Wright's Guggenheim Museum, but was built first! 

Mostly, though, Maiden Lane is a lovely respite from the sounds of the city, and a fun place to window shop. It runs between Stockton and Kearny one half block North of Geary, adjacent to Union Square.

Looking down Maiden Lane toward Union Square
and the Westin St. Francis