Juana Briones and More -- March 15, 2014

We had a day off today, so we went downtown.  The weather was warm and sunny.  We parked at Fifth and Mission and walked up Fourth and Stockton to Macys.  Stockton is still blocked but there isn't much happening on the surface. 

After Macys, we walked to the Irish Bank, but they were closed to set up for their Saint Patrick's Day block party.  We walked down Kearny and third to the Yerba Buena Gardens.  As we walked along Mission, a decorated cable car went by and two girls yelled my wife's name.  The car went by so quickly, she couldn't see who they were.  We had lunch at Super Duper Burgers.  They do a nice hamburger. 

We walked up Fourth to Market just in time to see the Good Shepherd students march by in a combined Catholic schools band.  We watched for a while and saw the cable car again.  It was from the Rebel Cork Benevolent Association.  Two of her students and their mother were aboard. 

We went down Third to Mission and over to the California Historical Society to see their current show, Juana Briones y su California ~ Pionera, Fundadora, Curandera. This is the CHS' first bilingual exhibit. One of the artifacts is a section of adobe wall, which was part of her home that was recently and shamefully torn down  in Palo Alto.  There was a nice selection of documents, images and maps that traced her life from Villa Branciforte to Santa Clara to San Francisco to Palo Alto.  The show is handicapped by the lack of a verified drawing or photograph of Juana Briones.  She was too busy to pose for a picture. 

We stopped at AG Ferrari to get something to drink and a cookie.  We sat at the outside tables and watched the jammed traffic on Mission.  Traffic was fine on the way home.