time to shuffle forth.

we have to leave the bay today. it's sad but forward motion is important to our survival - like sharks.

before leaving, however, we needed to do a few more things to ensure our hungers for san francsico were appeased.

we started the day with a trip to giant longs. it is a longs drug store in oakland (i think) that genevieve recommended we visit. she had not lead us astray yet so we heeded her advice. the place is amazing. i hope i am not ruining anyone's closely guarded secret here, but they have a ridiculously good fabric section. they stocked a huge collection of 1930's reporductions - and most of them were $3.67/ft. i kind of freaked out about that.

after making a huge fabric score (that now has to find a home in the car), we headed across the bay to visit some stores.



little otsu was sadly close for the day. but we did discover a new store called curiosty shoppe (also closed) a few doors down. they seemed to be stocking a bunch of stuff from favorite craft-makers of mine. we had also come to the area to check out paxton gate, an actual shop of curiosities and botanicals. aitor was saddened to confront the fact that our wandering ways could not guarantee the survival of an ostrich egg that he wanted to purchase. it's a pretty cool, store. they even had flowering pitcher plants in the back yard!



next store to that, we unwittingly wandered into 826 valencia - a tutoring and literacy centre fronted by san francisco's only pirate supply shop. the pirate shop pays the rent for the tutoring space and is also pretty exciting regardless of that. those mcsweeny's guys. they really do some good work.

on our way to the car, we also got swept up in this public portrait project. i felt too messy to be photographed, but aitor is always picture perfect so he posed for them. i think i even spy someone there with a mustache-on-a-stick by something's hiding in here.







to finish off the day, we had one more store to visit - rare device on market street. rare device is a lovely little indie art/design oriented shop with a nice sized gallery wall. the current show (and window display above) is called home and features the works of julia rothman and caitlin keegan. it is pretty lovely. you might want to go check it out.

after this last stop, it was time to roll out to our overnight destination of santa cruz. we ended our night on the boardwalk you might remember from the lost boys (if you are as old as me). just in case you don't remember: