I Left My Eyes in San Francisco

Matty and I drove to SF yesterday for my first visit ever to the City by the Bay, and we had a blast! It was overwhelming but exciting. Lurker and good friend Christine drove us around the city yesterday, you'll be glad to know, taking over my car Graybow and doing a masterful job of driving. It's been way too long since I had to drive around in a big city, and my unfamiliarity with SF was way too much to handle driving and sightseeing at the same time. You know me: safety first!

I didn't see a whole lot of new birds, but along with the million pigeons I did see this little guy at the entrance to the Botanical Gardens:Is that an Anna's Hummingbird? Check out this lucky shot:Wow! Please tell me it's not just a plain old Ruby-throated! I really couldn't tell; the backlighting is murder in the pics too. Anyone? Anyone?

Also saw this other little guy in someone's garden on Page Street:
Is that maybe a Common Ground Dove? No, it can't be--they don't live up here, nor do Inca Doves. But he was tiny, much smaller than a regular Mourning Dove, and his plumage has that scalloped look of an Inca Dove. Hmmm. Is it just a MODO?

By the way, the Botanical Gardens were amazing. Here's a small sampling of flowers:









And we saw this beautiful Painted Lady, a butterfly I haven't seen since I was a kid in Texas:


Plus we saw a lot of city. Here's a sampling of that:




We saw some racy stuff, which is just side by side with other stuff:





We we buzzed Haight-Ashbury, we skimmed by Golden Gate Park, were up on Twin Peaks, and we even saw Absinthe restaurant where my no-longer-future-girlfriend Jamie Lauren (of Top Chef) works as executive chef! We didn't eat there, however, as Christine and Matty said the best time to see her is during brunch and we didn't get up early enough. It's like two blocks from Christine's house, though, so maybe next time. We ate some great food during our two-visit and had drinks at Marlena's where we saw the owner's amazing Harry Potter memorabilia collection. Cool!

We came back today, determined to do Fisherman's Wharf and other touristy things on another trip. I was just so overwhelmed; so much new stuff to see, and I'm still trying to get used to all the new stuff in Rohnert Park (or RoPo, as I'm told the locals call it--how tragically hip!). It was nice to come off the 101 to our low-traffic low-stress little town.

P.S.--some new lifers from RoPo too, though I don't have pics: Bushtit (hee hee), which is such a tiny bird!, and Brewer's Blackbird, which are everywhere here! Like grackles back east! So that's 206, baby!