Mission Dolores and Return to the SFPL

Right now I am blogging again from the History Center. I just can't seem to stay away from libraries.

This morning after having breakfast, I walked 17th street, with its 17.5% grade, to Mission Dolores. The post below re my trip is one I started while I was in a cafe:

Am at Café Trieste on Market Street. I went to Mission Dolores this morning after meeting Rich for breakfast at Zazie or whatever it’s called. It was about a 3 mile walk, so I was ready to eat when I got there. Now I am having a ham and cheese sandwich with a morning roll.

Mission Dolores is at the corner of 16^th and Dolores. The actual mission church is the smaller of the two structures – the basilica stands out most. After giving a five dollar donation, I enter the adobe church, which was not surprisingly very cool – four foot walls will do that. It kinda smells like poo in here for some reason. Ok, back to the Mission… I set up the video camera tripod and took one shot at getting the inside – it worked, I think. I’ll have to look at it later. I’m not sure how fast I can go, but I was nervous that someone would stop me.

Oh, before I forget, there’s a connection between the Mission and Mexico, which reminded me of HH’s dismissive comments re the Mexican trash in Charlotte’s home and Dolores being a product of their trip – Harold and Charlotte’s – to Mexico. I don’t think anyone has made this connection, so I really want to write something about that. But what to make of it?

So, the inside of the church is really impressive – particularly the reredos at the front and the mural on the side. I took a lot of photos but have no clue whether they’ll turn out ok. Then I went through the door to a breezeway – there’s a museum up on the left that has pretty interesting artifacts in it. I should have spent more time there. The most interesting part of my tour was going through the cemetery, which has a lot of impressive headstones and a beautiful garden – there are a ton of plants and such in there. I think VN would have been impressed had he visited. I took a LOT of photos in there, and I also did another round robin with the video camera. Again, I was feeling rushed because I was afraid someone would stop me. After spending a lot of time in the cemetery, I went in to the gift shop and proceeded to pick up as much as possible with Mission Dolores on it, including a wooden whistle with a train and Mission Dolores written on the side. Why a wooden whistle? Who knows? I also bought a Miraculous Medal for Mom. I’m wearing the one she got from Grandma. I almost got hit by a car last night right in front of the Mission – was crossing 16^th at Dolores, and I had the walk sign, but then I just stopped for some reason. This lady FLIES into the intersection and nearly hits me – she would have had I not stopped as she didn’t stop her car until it was where I would have been. That would have been nasty. The lady in the store was really nice and she even gave me a bottle of iced water for free! I thought that was cool.
And I did need the water.

So now that I've returned to "live blogging," I'll just say that I will post some pictures soon. I just haven't had the time to download them to the computer yet. I don't know if I'll be online tomorrow as I'm going to Russian Gulch State Park, but we'll see how it goes.