Fall in the City

When: October 6, 2007
Where: Financial District & SoMa, San Francisco

Scuffling through dry leaves has its place in October, but so do sunshine and small tastes of everything delicious in San Francisco. We got all three at FallFest, the seasonal shindig thrown by the fancy magazine where I work.

Even with stall after stall of musky wine and whimsically shaped chocolates (oh, the chocolates), my favorite table was the one with goblets of spices.


We also caught a 20-minute cooking demonstration by James Syhabout, the chef de cuisine at Manresa. Here's what his hands look like from above:


FallFest is at Justin Herman Plaza, which has a neat water-spewing fountain I can't seem to stop photographing this month. There are more shots of it here and here and here.


Bellies filled, we wandered over to MOMA to see the super cool Olafur Eliasson exhibit. Photos aren't allowed inside, but here's the kaleidoscope bridge that leads into the show.


I love museum cafés. MOMA's has some nice outdoor tables facing Yerba Buena Gardens. (Disclaimer: There's a one-legged bird in this picture, but he's hiding in the chair shadow.)


The long stone benches above Yerba Buena are one of my favorite gazing spots in the city. You can see a bunch of downtown's weirdest architecture, plus this little waterfall.


On the path leading out of the park toward the Metreon, there's a man in triplicate.




Along Mission, a block of what seems to be empty storefronts is painted over with giant versions of famous portraits. Here's Mona Lisa's cleavage. Not intentional, she's just very large and I'm only so tall.


Back in Noe Valley, there's a tag on Sanchez that seems too obvious to be a coincidence. But it really is. Or, so they tell me, it's been Photoshopped.