House hunting and the thought of stepping in a museum

Thought it was going to be a happenin' Sunday.

Had plans to visit the Asian American Museum which has a new exhibit of Ming Dynasty artifacts. Plus - admission to the museum is free on the first Sunday of every month. Hot dawg!

Get out early, when the fog was starting to recede back out to the Pacific Ocean or at least from the east side of the city by the Bay.


Here's a very pretty City Hall for ya! Not too many homeless out on the sidewalk and park = less smells.


The Asian Art Museum is directly across the street from the City Hall. Even before we got this close, we noticed the line snaking around the side of the building this early morning. Boo! Guess many others had the same idea as us (free Sunday) or  they were very interested in the new Ming dynasty exhibit.

We figured we'll try a little later on in the afternoon. Headed out to the Richmond district for some lunch. Discovered a place for Taiwanese food called.....Taiwan Restaurant. Good food at great prices. That's us - always looking for economy. "Bang for the buck"as I call it.

Dropped off the passenger to the in-laws and Mr. P and I went to do some bizness.


Went to Rincon Tower to check out some condos that were for sale. This is one of the newest and tallest residential towers being constructed in San Francisco at 60 floors. Great views, great amenities, and fat prices.

Here's the view from a unit on the 26th floor, facing east. This 2-bedroom unit with Sub-Zero steel appliances and hardwood floors was asking $1.37 million or so. The view is breath-taking.


On the right of the unit, you'll see:


Later, we took a look at a 1-bedroom unit on the 9th floor, facing west. That's the off-ramp of the Bay Bridge. A little lower one will see the on-ramps to the bridge. Not very pretty down there at the moment. Asking price: upper-$500K's for less than 700 sq ft.


Rincon Tower's built using the latest engineering technology to withstand a temblor. It uses a cantilever system and the top five floors are filled with water - as a counter-balance thing. The building is designed to sway with the wind and quakes and what-have-you. I'm not too keen on living in such a tall tower myself no matter what high-tech system is used to design it. It works in theory and real-world, natural events are totally unpredictable.

We left Rincon Tower and walked down the next block where there's an existing tower of homes. The Metropolitan. A few years new with some nice-looking units as well.

Here's a view towards the financial district from the 15th floor. 2-bedroom asking price around $1.1m.


Those real estate agents lead any number of interested parties up and down the towers, in both the North and South towers. A lot of walking around. In addition to the tour of the mezzanine level where the media room, pool, mail room, business center, locker rooms and fitness center are located. I think we looked at 8 units between the Rincon and the Metro. So tiring.

Oh! We went by the Asian Art Museum again in the late afternoon and the line still snaked around the building. I saw the line ending at the back of the building which stretches the length of an entire block!

I like a good deal but enduring one or two hours' of waiting outside would negate the benefit of saving myself a few bucks from admissions. I think I'll come back on a regular, paying day.

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