Parks and Recreation, San Francisco

The parks were awesome! Dolores, Alta Plaza, Alamo, Koret Children's Quarter, Hayes Valley and Michelangelo each had a special something, not least the views and then the lovely folk we met. We made friends and even had repeat play dates... bliss.

Balmy Alley, Mission District

There are wall paintings everywhere in the Mission, but Balmy Alley feels like the heart of it all. In sunshine and with the odd roaming dog for company we wandered up and then down... their were stories of struggle we did not know the context for but we got the gist.

Started in the 1970s, there was passion and hardship and glorious colour, with the lovely ladies of the Precita Eyes Mural Arts Centre to chat to afterwards and then the delicious sweet treats of La Victoria, a block further on.

Brainwash, SOMA

So you need to do your laundry; have a bite to eat; get a drink; hear live music; chat with folks...

Sometimes you find a place that has everything you need, and pinball machines!

Special thanks to Karney and Biv and the Mnemonics

Golden Gate Park

I'm a sucker for Japanese Tea Gardens and this one was next door to the de Young Museum and its incredible view of of the Golden Gate Park.

We did art in the gardens and spun some Japanese-warrior-princess stories before Inuit art indoors and the stupendous view.

Corona Heights Park & the Randall Museum, Castro

Unbeknownst to us - every Tuesday at noon, 65 air raid-style sirens around San Francisco sound off for 15 seconds, as a test for an emergency warning system. This began in 2005 after a refurb of their WWII system, following the 2004 Tsunami.

I was happily enjoying an idyllic picnic with the girls atop of Corona Heights and assumed the worst - we decamped at speed down rocks and screed, noting a dog walker exodus below. We were heading for the wooden steps, pondering how to position ourselves if this was an earthquake warning, when thankfully a local man halted and calmed us down. Midday must be shift-change in the pooch park too.

Down below in the Randall Museum were lego sets on shaker pads, so you could test your structures strength in the face of these routine tremors.

Seward Street Slides, Castro

Built as a protest to prevent development of the site, these forty year old concrete slides are hidden above a blossom-filled residential street, well off the beaten tourist track.

The Exploratorium's experiments in friction meant we knew chicken suits would give us the fastest run. We only had cardboard and that was speedy enough!

See us slide!

Cool buildings, San Francisco

We spied Daniel Liebskind just near the conference venue, with his Contemporary Jewish Museum building and then out in Golden Gate park is the starkly challenging and fabulous  de Young Museum by Herzog and de Meuron. Not pictured is the curving delights of Frank Lloyd Wright Xanadu Gallery and it's unbelievably friendly staff.