Shoppin' and Eatin' in SF (Lots of Snaps)

Gentle Friends thanks again for all your kind comments for yesterdays post - it does brighten my day immensely to read them!!

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Over my very long weekend I did have some plans and ideas and things I wanted to try and accomplish.  Two of the things I got a wild hair about were shoes and tea.  I wear (almost) exclusively Converse All Star shoes or Chucks.  I like them, they fit well and are classic sneakers - IMHO.  I also prefer loose tea to bagged tea, I like the control with loose tea when making a pot of tea and I like to see the leaves I am steeping - The brand I really like is called KUSMI, and it comes from France, but originated in Imperial Russia.  Now, I often do quick searches for both these things on the Internet, I look at the Converse web site to see what sales they have and then branch out to other distributors and other sales.  And, the tea, I have been ordering from a tea company in Boston, but often look to see if I can get elsewhere and closer.  Well, last week before the weekend I did some searching and found both of these things here, in SF.  You could have knocked me over with a feather.  I had never seen a Converse store.... and did not know one had opened here in the city. ( I found out it just opened up in July)  I also had never found Kusmi tea here locally, but now found it being sold downtown at Bloomingdale's.  So, with this information in hand I used last Friday to venture to were I never go, Downtown SF.  I never go as it is too crowded with out of towners and too much traffic, too many of the streets are torn up and impassable and just too much.  Living out in Noe Valley it doesn't feel like a city, but when you are downtown you can't help but feel how much city there actually is....

I also thought while I was all the way down at Union Square why not stop in at......

... Britex, I hadn't been in a while and its always fun to stop in a pick up some trim....

... this directory is in the elevator.....

... this is only a small part of the trim wall....

.. and there are racks of ribbons.... these are two sided and jammed full of ribbon...

... a small section of the wall of buttons....  and every floor is like this -  full of stuff... bolts of fabric and more things than you can look at in one day.

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Then it was a quick walk across Union Square and down to Market Street to the.......

... Converse store....

... every wall was covered in shoes and Converse stuff.....

... I liked these camouflage shoes, I already have a pair, but they are really old and need replacing....

... I thought these were a super idea, they had 4 styles with various SF things on them, and if I was a total tourista I would not have hesitated to pick up a pair..... I may just go back and get some.....

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Then it was another quick walk across the street to the big and beautiful Westfeild Centre where Bloomingdale's is located  (basically a big fancy schamancy mall)...

.....  and downstairs I found this .....

...  the whole Kusmi line of teas...  I picked up a tin of :"Anastasia" - a citrus/orange tea and a tin of "Prince Vladimir" a citrus/vanilla/spice tea - these are two really delicious teas!!

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On Saturday after our usually running around thrifting - we stopped off at a new (to us at least) hamburger place called "Super Duper Burgers."

.... here's the menu...

and over the place where you place you order is this great sign....

....  here is our tray......

.....  we shared the fries - and here's a close up of my burger...

... I loved that although they typically cook the burgers to medium they will cook to order if asked... and you know me I asked for rare, like I always say, "if it moo's ain't rare enough!!"  They have a "secret sauce" that is a kind of spicy aioli that goes on all the burgers that is tasty!!  In addition to the great burgers they also .....

.... make their own pickles, you get these at the condiment counter, where the ketchup, mustard and napkins are.  These are spicy, dill and really crunchy pickles.

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That's about it for today sports fans.  Thanks for stopping by do stop again!!

Take care,

edgar