100 dates

Last Sunday, Littlestar and I went to the Cartoon Art Museum in San Francisco. I'd wanted to go to the city with her for a little walking around and museuming. Several years ago, I'd been a member in the Cartoon Art Museum without ever visiting it -- so I knew it existed, but had no idea whether it would be good or not.

But the plus side to any trip to SF is that if your first target doesn't work out, there are lots of others around. Fortunately, this trip turned out really, really well.

We took the Caltrain to the city, after I (hopefully) convinced Littlestar that it's relaxed, fun and scenic, and a nice switch from driving. I hope she bought it, because I like train trips and walking. She said she was okay with the walk from the King St. station to the museum, but not too much more. Maybe we can slowly work up to longer walks. :) We sat on the upper level for both train rides -- it keeps you away from the crowd and you can enjoy a good view during your ride.

The museum itself is on Mission near Second, on a block with several other small museums. And it rocks. We didn't even make it into the museum proper before Littlestar's first slow down -- to check out the catalog for the exhibit that caught my eye: "Draw Me a Story: a Century of Children's Book Illustration." Once inside, out came the sketchbook, taking down notes on everything that caught her eye -- and there was a lot of it. The museum isn't physically large, but it was packed with great originals along with excellent notes on each one. There were several exhibits, including the one above, another about how comics deal with music, one of comics done by elementary school students, and then a smattering of other works showing the animation process. As I said, amazing originals -- Winsor McCay, Randolph Caldecott (like the medal, yes), Walt Kelly -- the list goes on. Littlestar and I wandered through in loose formation, coming over to each other every so often to point out something that struck us or that we thought was especially cool.

After enjoying our time there together, we walked outside and opted for something warm. We stopped in at Peet's Coffee, which had a good Schaffenberger (chocolate) thing for Littlestar and lightly Chai-flavored water for me (so yes on the first, no on the second).

Afterward, we wandered back out, heading up to Market. When we came alongside Powell Street mall, Littlestar unsubtly bumped me until I agreed to go inside. We circled the floors looking at shoes (mostly goofy, some cute) and checking out the other shops. After our run through the mall, we walked back to King St. station and headed south again, switching sides in the train partyway through the ride to get a bay view

It was dinner time, so I suggested that we eat something in Mountain View. After wandering a little, we ended up at Sushi Tomi, where I had some katsu I'd been wanting and Littlestar had sushi. The transcendant bliss of sushi was something to see. :)

After Sushi Tomi, we looked at bookstores for a little bit, then called it a day.