What else I saw on my Summer Vacation

The Mission in San Francisco is so colorful. Murals, people and signage...the place just vibrates day and night. I love the large handpainted Tuscan letters of an old sign here. You could see the gentrification taking place in the Mission as city sign workers were modernizing old signs with the new. Sigh...Then stopping in at 826 Valencia, AKA McSweeney's Pirate Supply and literary arts promoter, we could see young children busily at work writing and creating books in the backroom. Just how many ways can you spell Aaaarrghhh?

The other photos below are from Adobe Bookshop, just off Valencia on 16th. This ain't no stinkin' Borders bookstore! Adobe has to be San Francisco's most beloved used and eclectic bookstore, where their more than 20,000 books were once arranged entirely by color and handwritten names of various artists and writers are scribbled on the walls. People bang out manuscripts on old typewriters in the back and cats roam around freely amidst the piles of used books. Sadly, like many used independent bookstores, it is struggling with survival and may have to close it's doors soon. The handmade "Everything Must Go" sign on the front window is a remnant from an art exhibit last May, and the owner leaves it there to encourage people to come inside. When my husband, Paul and I walked in last Summer, we instantly felt this was a place where time stood still and the ghosts of writers could mingle with the wayward souls who napped beneath the skylights on comfy old couches and chairs–one with a pigeon resting on his stomach. The clerk at the counter said it was nap time, so we quietly made our purchase, departed the wayback machine and ambled on.