HAPPINESS CHALLENGE

8 August 2022

Each day in August you are to post about something that makes *you* happy. Pretty simple. And, it doesn't even have to be every day if you don't want it to be. It's a great way to remind ourselves that there are positive things going on in our lives, our communities, and the world.

Well, I learned of this challenge on the 8th of August, so I've already missed a week of happiness, but I think I'll  try for the rest ofthe month.  The rules say one should post every day about something that makes them happy...or if not every day at least some day.  I'll probably aim for "some days"

I'll start with a biggie...San Francisco makes me happy.

Isn't it nice that I was born in my favorite city!  LOL.  I don't know if my love for San Francisco came from my father, who deeply loved it, or if I developed it myself.  I lived in the city for 18 years, until I moved to Berkeley.  I never lived in the city again, but visited very often, and worked there one day a week for five years.

When people come to San Francisco, I always volunteer to take them on a tour, and have my route that takes them to parts of the city that tourists don't usually visit (and stays away from Chinatown and Fisherman's Wharf).  Everybody always brings a camera and I probably take more pictures than any of my guests because I always find the city beautiful.

My favorite place in the city is the Palace of Fine Arts.

It was built as part of the Panama-Pacific Exposition in 1915 and is the only building from that fair that survives.  The Palace is so loved by the city that it was rebuilt in 1964, making it more permanent.  It was designed by Bernard Maybeck, whose structures around the Bay Area are very famous.  Originally, it housed art work, but later part of it was a hands-on science museum and part was a theater.  In 1992 and 1996, Wheel of Fortune was taped there.

I was very fortunate to have grown up just two blocks from the famous Lombard Street, which starts at Hyde Street (where the cable cars run) and ends at Leavenworth Street, where I lived. 

You always find tons of tourists at the bottom of the street trying to get a good picture.

I have driven down that street many times, always with tourists.  Lately it has become so popular, it's no fun to do any more.  But one thing I loved about driving down the street is that when you get to the bottom, there ia an apartment building which is covered with purple bougainvillea, which seems to bloom year round.

The thing about Lombard Street, though, is that if you turn right at the bottom and drive up the hill on Leavenworth (where I lived) and  then turn right to Hyde, and turn right one block, you come to the steepest street in San Francisco, Filbert Street, which tourists don't know about.  Every time I drove someone down that street, they were terrified.

I loved everything about the city when I lived there, and I still love it when I visit, though it's not the same city that I lived in and I wouldn't like to live there now.  But whenever we are driving down the highway and I see San Francisco in the distance, it makes me very happy.