57th Annual North Beach Festival

57th Annual North Beach Festival, a set on Flickr.

North Beach is no longer the haven for poets, free thinkers, and other artists that it was in the 60's.

The North Beach Festival, now in its 57th year, has echos from that era but those echos are faint and perhaps unintelligible to those who did not live through those tumultuous times.

The Beat Museum is wonderfully quaint and evoked some distant memories making me think I might read Kerouac's "On the Road" and see if it was still relevant. Maybe not.

Coit Tower is still relevant and though I've been in the area many times had not seen the W.P.A. murals until now. Worth a return to the SFAI gallery to see Diego Rivera's murals.

And if you visit North Beach, try The Stinking Rose for dinner. The food's tasty and the atmosphere is great (lot's of garlic!!).

Playland at the Beach Lives On

Playland at the Beach Lives On, a set on Flickr.

Remember San Francisco's Playland at the Beach? You don't? Oh well, you're probably a lot younger than I and can be forgiven.

While Playland no longer exists, having gone seedy and even scary in the 60's and then got itself replaced with condos and a supermarket when no one thought it worth the face lift, some of it lives on. Like at the Musee Mechanique at San Francisco's Pier 43.5 and Playland Not at the Beach in El Cerrito on the east side of the bay.

Both are worth a visit. The Musee Mechanique is free and fun though you might just drop a few quarters into a machine or two to see how they work and take you to a yesterday when fun was a much simpler and cheaper endeavor.