Lunar New Year, San Francisco

 Yesterday Cay, her significant other, and his sister, as well as their roommate hopped in the van with me and we all went to Chinatown in San Francisco for the Lunar New Year Street Fair.  I was leaning pretty heavily on my walker so I didn't get all the photos I wanted, but I got quite a few. We met Carlos who had arrived much earlier, and he showed us around some of the cool alleyways and we did some shopping between performances.  Food, especially baked goods from the New Hollywood Bakery on Pacific, featured prominently in our little adventure, especially for the kids, who got to experiment with different sweets and savories. 

I was there for two things: Shopping and entertainment.  I was a little disappointed that there was only one small stage.  The whole event had a vary different feel from events I'd gone to in Japan Town.  It was pretty clear that the focus of the event was less on the folk dancing and dragon dancing, and more on being out in the streets and shopping.  

A fold dance group on the main stage

Musicians in the park

one of the things that really amused me was seeing all these groups of people with cardboard box tables in the park playing cards! 

Characters walking the street fair

beautiful decorations in the alleyways! 

part of one of many wall murals in the alleys

big line for fortune cookies!

and of course, plenty of photos of lion dancers! 

I haven't been to Chinatown in San Francisco before, so for me part of the fun was going in all the little touristy shops.  The big problem was that I was using my walker, and navigating most shops was impossible.  I don't think I could have entered a single indoor space had I been in a wheelchair.  I'm becoming more and more aware of just how little accessibility there is in some public spaces.

That was especially frustrating, because I really came to the festival with thoughts of shopping, and I left with only a stuffed dragon/boy for my grandson and an oversized tourist t-shirt (which I'd wear in Santa Fe) which I could have gotten at any cheesy tourist shop in the city.  I was really disappointed that I didn't have access to shops where I might have purchased something more interesting. 

Of course it was terribly crowded, so we ended up going back to Petaluma for Chinese food. I'd been wanting to go to China Town Restaurant on Kentucky for years, and this was the year we finally did it.  The food was DELICIOUS, and we had a great time.