today’s first, convenient..learned you can park on the sidewalk downtown SF in certain alleyways if you are strategic, thank you Mr. random stranger riding a sexy Ducati  for enlightening me. First was parking my Aprilia on the sidwalk, have never done that..

This also led to the discovery of the California Historical Society, lovely manager Patti gave me a personal tour:

Above pic is of the bookstore.  Below the current exhibit: *

CURRENT EXHIBITION

Juana Briones y su California ~ Pionera, Fundadora, Curandera

January 26, 2014 – June 8, 2014

In this bilingual exhibition about the life and times of Juana Briones (1802–1889)—pioneer, founder, healer—we experience the transformation of California under three flags: Spain, Mexico, and the United States. We navigate alongside Juana—without a formal education yet dynamic, strategic, and resourceful—through the social, economic, political, and legal upheavals of nineteenth-century California. Through paintings, maps, portraits, legal documents, and artifacts, we realize a vision of Juana Briones as a woman adaptable yet undaunted in her pursuits. More broadly, through her accomplishments—as mother, landowner, business woman, and humanitarian—we glimpse how some women, including those of Mexican and Spanish descent, influenced our state’s history on a wide-ranging yet distinctively human scale.