On The Waterfront

Saturday dawned gorgeously in San Francisco after two weeks of winter weather, so we joined thousands of people walking the Embarcadero.

The downtown waterfront is a rotting, glorious wonder, open to all and free for the moment from grotesque high-rise development, but not if ex-mayor Gavin Newsom and his California State Lands Commission has anything to do with it. (Click here for the latest wrinkle where Lands Commission lawyers argued in Superior Court last week that city voters were too stupid to make land use decisions.)

The Ferry Building was restored and retrofitted about 15 years ago and turned into an upscale foodie emporium that I thought would never take off.

Gosh, was I wrong.

The place has organically evolved into a great farmers market with extraordinary vendors and thousands of people shopping and dining on street food. (Roli Roti with their rotisserie chicken and pork sandwiches seemed to have the biggest line above.)

Even the buskers are lovely.

Further along the waterfront, we were serenaded by an erhu player...

...followed by a strikingly handsome acrobat with what sounded like an Australian accent...

...entertaining hundreds of visitors.

Even the crudely touristic Fisherman's Wharf looked beautiful today...

...and my newly skinny Italian-American spouse Tony looked right at home.