Stairway(s) to Heaven

I pulled out the 20th edition of Stairway Walks in San Francisco today, written by my buddy Adah Badalinsky (OK, technically, I've never met the woman. But you get to feel close when you read her whimsical asides like, "This building has a flat roof."). My friends A. and C. joined me for Walk #5, "San Francisco Architectural Signatures" in Russian Hill. Our walk brought us past cable cars - A. and I agreed that it's fun to wave to them, like we're ambassadors for the city. I declined to wave today, though, because since I was also poring over a guide book I felt I wouldn't have the cool "local" vibe, I would have the "over-eager tourist from smalltown America who gets way too excited if you've been to the big city in her state even though she herself lives nowhere near that city" vibe. I'll wave next time. Here's the route we followed, http://tinyurl.com/7r7mn, which took us by the beautiful curvy section of Lombard. One of my favorite finds was a Norwegian church - services in Swedish also held once a week. From time to time, we heard strains of music from the Blues Festival at Fort Mason. Our verdict? Meh. Say what you will about being up close, but I assure you that all blues songs heard from a distance do indeed sound the same.