by Jane Winstead

Created on: January 30, 2009

San Francisco; City by the Bay; the City Tony Bennett sings about, "I Left My Heart in San Francisco; others say San Francisco is like no other place in the world. These are only a few of the descriptions of San Francisco. Others say San Francisco is full of "crazies" and their politics are a little on the "far side." If you scratch the surface and look beyond the crazies and the politics you will find one of the most exciting, interesting, beautiful and magical cities on earth.

I am fortunate enough to live across the Bay from San Francisco. Thus, I only have to fight the traffic, confusion and crowds if I choose to do so. Once after a trip to the City I came home and scribbled my observations of a lovely spring Saturday morning in San Francisco, browsing the stores, window shopping and listening to a street singer called "Mr. Smiley" around Union Square. It was a delightful day in the Magical City ending with lunch at the Cheese Cake Factory.

I sat in bed drinking my morning coffee and looked out at the overcast skies and asked the question "Do I really want to get ready to leave the house by 9 o'clock?" I tried to convince myself it wasn't a good idea. An even more convincing thought came to me, "It's probably going to rain so I should just stay home." But my "love to go to San Francisco passion" came over me and I crawled out of bed.

I quickly showered, got ready, didn't take time for breakfast, and waited for my daughter to pick me up. She had an errand to do in the City which meant these hours would be mine alone to spend time slowly walking and browsing the shops and area around Union Square. The plan was to meet for lunch. This meant I would have at least three hours to browse the "Streets of San Francisco." A lovely thought.

My first stop was Saks Fifth Avenue. I walked to the wide doors and pushed. They didn't open. I looked for a "Closed Today" sign but didn't see one. There was a man on the corner singing "I Left My Heart in San Francisco." I hadn't paid much attention to him until I heard him say, "Ten o'clock lady." He repeated it a couple of times before I realized he was talking to me. I looked at my watch. "Oops." I didn't realize I was so early.

I focused my attention on his singing and watched as people stopped and talked to him, listened for awhile, dropped money into his little box and walked on. I reached into my purse and pulled out a couple of dollars to drop in the box. Maybe when he wasn't too busy we could talk awhile. I was curious to

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