I walk back and down this street from the BART station to my office every day in San Francisco.  The trek takes me from Market Street all the way down to the Jackson Street area.  In the mornings, as the escalator delivers me from the underground train station to the street, there is always that one guy passing out the free San Francisco Examiner paper. I never get one. I get most of my news online.  The only hard copies I read on occasion are those papers delivered to my office.

Right after him, is a kiosk filled with papers and magazines and another guy trying to get you to buy one of them. Most of the time most of us are rushing to either get to appointments or to the office to stop. I barely have enough time to even get a glance at the latest covers on the magazines and gossip rags.

Then I pass the kindly old gentleman who is standing next to his big food vendor truck.  He simply bows and waves at everyone.  For us regulars, who pass him every morning, he recognizes us immediately and gives an even bigger smile and wave.  However, I have never bought anything from his food vending business.  No time!  Maybe his smile just gets bigger when he sees me because he is thinking of many ways to send my body down the river for not patronizing his business…

Soon, I start hitting the numerous cross streets that are the major arteries of the financial district such as Sutter, Bush, Pine,  California, Sacramento, Clay, Washington, etc.  with the lights, the traffic and the Pedestrian stampede.

I can stand most of it but the thing that sometimes irritates me the most is the heel brigade.  You know what I am talking about…that clickety clack sound that multiplies when a gaggle of  heels and stilettos  herd together in one big frenzy on the sidewalk. The sound is worse than chalk screeching on a blackboard.  I mean when you are barely awake in the morning, not have your morning coffee and you are trying to wend your way to work through the crowd and all you can hear is the building crescendo of  HEELS AGAINST CONCRETE….well, you get the picture.

The Walgreens at the first intersection has been a lifesaver when  I have forgotten an umbrella during an unexpected downpour or needed to pick up any assorted group of sundries.

Further up the street there are shops, restaurants, galleries and coffee shops.   Some of my favorite places to drop by and eat have been like Tlaloc which actually a little off Sansome on Commercial where I like their Shrimp Quesadillas.  Right across is Mixt Greens with their terrific salads.    I also like to go to this dive of a place called Thai Corner Express for their delicious Thai curry dishes for a good price. Specialty’s and Cafe Me are good sandwich places.

I am a regular at the Starbucks at 505 Sansome Street.  I get my grande non-fat latte  and mints ( I love those Starbuck mints!).  I know there is a Peets Coffee located kiddie corner and across the street and I like their coffee, but Starbucks is on the same side as my office and is also on my route.  Peets seems like a continent away when it means crossing the street. I know sounds so lazy.  However,  I don’t feel a bit of guilt.

There are a couple of restaurants also off Sansome that I have been to like the Kokkari on Jackson with its great Mediterranean dishes that I have been to and enjoyed.  When my best friend is assigned on occasion to the Safeway on Jackson and Front Street, we sometimes go to the Togo’s near it.  I think it is ironic that he goes to a sandwich shop for lunch when he manages the deli department at Safeway’s.  However, Togo’s is convenient and he operates on the same philosophy that I do with Peets Coffee.

I have another friend who I meet for lunch on a regular basis where we will  head off to the nearby Embarcadero Shopping center  to Gaylord’s to eat their Indian buffet lunch.  We have been there so often they know us and our favorite table.  We discuss his business, our love lives and usually head off to the GAP and Banana Republic afterward for his usual window shopping of the same types of clothing he always looks at and wears.  I love it.

On Sansome Street there is a restaurant called Georges.  It reminds me of another friend who likes to call me up several times a day from his job working at a small hotel front desk.  He always makes me laugh.

There is a fire station on Sansome Street that always garners a lot of attention when there is any kind of activity.  Well, mostly because of the firemen.

There are a few art galleries in the Jackson Street area where my office is located. This mostly brick building oasis offers a respite from the skyscraper dominance of the financial district.

On some weekends, Sansome Street and surrounding streets have been film locations for some car commercials which I have witnessed when I drop by the office on a Saturday.

I have seen tourists, Russian sailors, and of course a couple of vagrants begging for money on Sansome Street.  I have been to the City Club and had great business meetings in this historic structure.  The Golden Gate Business Association ( the oldest LGBT business association in the nation) is on this street.

There are some adventures on this street I will not include in this blog but save it for my tell all book.  🙂

Sansome Street is never the same for me every time I walk it and live my life on it.  It is located in one of the most beautiful cities in the world.  It is packed full of wonderful places and things.

I hope you get to walk it one day.