A lovely day in the City + Giro di SF!

Yes.  This race was a week ago.  I would like to be as quick as others who post photos the night of or the following day, alas, I am not a professional photographer nor a professional blogger.  I am a professional with a full time job, a part time mom, a part time chef and a part time wannabe athlete....hence the week-long delay.  My apologies.

But, last Monday was Labor Day and Giro di SF.  The Cyclist and I had no intentions of doing this race.  We had decided to hang around home for the weekend and maybe do something with our Labor Day, but the race wasn't one of them.  But then we woke up in the morning and suddenly a day in San Francisco sounded not bad, not bad at all.  The heat was just beginning to creep on Sac-town and a short drive to the Bay with the idea of seeing some City friends and fam sounded like a plan.  So we headed out.

It turned out to be a beautiful day in the City and I Hipstamatic-d my way across the bridge.

Sweet ride on the Embarcadero....

Like I said, it was a beautiful day in the City...

...and we headed on over to the race...

The kids race was just getting started when we arrived and Ms. B was leading out the kiddie pack...

...while The Cyclist got reg'd and warmed up, I went for a walk.

This race was around Levi Strauss Plaza which is a pretty cool office-type area with some restaurants, a park and a lot of brick buildings...

I ♥ brick buildings.

But I wouldn't want to live in one in SF...

You've also gotta love how buildings are perched precariously in this City.

Check this out...

Methinksnot.

This funky little truck was in the expo area....

...but now I'm confused, because I'm seeing that Rapha is a cycling clothing company, but at the race they were selling FourBarrel Coffee out of this truck.  So ???  Anyone??

I'm told that FourBarrel is good, although I did not try it.  Yelp reviews seem to support this though.

So, I walked back on down to the Embarcadaro and admired the Bay some more...

...ahhh.

Interestingly, on our way home The Cyclist (without seeing these photos) asked me what my hobby would be if we were supremely wealthy.  I said traveling.  That's a hobby right? 

Anyway, he said his would be sailing....I like that idea, except I get sea-sick.

On my way down the Pier buildings I ran into the F's.  Dr. F pointed out the chocolate factory that I had passed and not noticed on my walk

(how is this possible?  I didn't see a chocolate factory?!)

So we stopped in...

...TCHO is pronounced "cho" by the way.  I only know this because after standing there for 5 minutes saying "I wonder what T-C-H-O stands for?"  I overheard the associate telling someone "it's pronounced cho, the T is silent".  Oh.

Their packaging was coolio...

I liked this one the best....

The chocolate was pretty good too.

Now, back to the races...

The F's and I and some other friends posted up on the crash corner of the race...

...where we watched a guy in the 3's race break his collarbone.  

Sorry dude.

I could have photographed him but I thought that would be lame, so I didn't.

This time I managed to get some pics of the P/1/2 ladies, the men's 3's and the P/1/2's. 

I'll put a Flickr link to all of them after this post.

But here are some of the P/1/2 pics....

That green kit is Wonderful Pistachios.  

I can't help it, that team name makes me giggle.

 

I liked this photo...no specific reason..maybe the movement in front with everyone lined up in the back.

 

Crash!  Blam.  Thankfully our guys missed it and nobody appeared to be seriously hurt.  I guess this was one of a few wrecks in the race.

Let me just stop with the race stuff now and show you this photo....

What could it be?

In my mind I'm envisioning some mystery wagon (think Scooby-Doo) that picks you up and takes you to all the best thrift stores in town....

...could it be??

Apparently Busvan is a furniture store in the City and this is their storage location.  I hope they are keeping the Mystery Machine in there.

OK...back to the race...

This is the dude who won....

...that shouldn't be a spoiler since the race was a week ago.

Let's take another race break and visit....


...Coit Tower!  All the time I've spent in the City I've never been to the top.

And, the pack finish (sorry, we missed Mr. Jelly Belly)...

(The Cyclist took these finish photos).

So, that was our lovely day in SF!

Until next time....