Fun Facts for History Buffs

So we live in the Marina neighborhood of San Francisco (as you probably already knew), which is the northernmost area in the city and borders the Bay near the Golden Gate Bridge. I really like the neighborhood - there's plenty of shops, restaurants, and bars within walking distance but it's also a bit of a gateway to the outdoors. It's flat, so it's really easy to go running and you just can't beat the views from running along the Bay on a sunny day. We are just a few minutes from the Presidio, which is a national forest that we really haven't even explored yet. And just a few blocks the other way is Fort Mason, an old military fort that hosts the Farmer's Market and other functions but is also a huge park. Plus, we're literally a 4 minute drive to the bridge so we can escape up to wine country pretty easily :)

On my run today I ran through Fort Mason and stopped to read one of those historical markers. I knew that San Francisco hosted the World's Fair in 1915, with the Palace of Fine Arts still hanging out a few blocks away, but I didn't know much else about it. It turns out, the whole Marina area housed several different buildings, all called "Palaces" for different expositions. Fillmore St., which is where we live, was known as the Avenue of Progress and the surrounding blocks, from the Bay to Chestnut St., housed the Palace of Machinery. According to some random website, the Palace of Machinery was the world's largest wooden and steel building at the time and apparently the first-ever indoor flight occurred there. So that's what used to be here before our apartment! Of course the only downside to these World's Fair fun facts is that the Marina was built on landfill to make room for all these Palaces, so in the event of a big earthquake, well, things might not go so well.

A map of the World's Fair grounds above, and the Palace of Machinery below. These images were stolen from Google. Don't report me :)

Anyways, that's just a little trivia for you. I've just finished up my first busy season week on my main client and am enjoying a nice relaxing weekend at home, without Jordan! He took Friday off and went up to Seattle for the weekend. I'm a little jealous, and can't wait to hear the details about the masquerade he went to on Friday for a charity my sister is involved with. Now that I'm working late most nights, weekend time is very precious to catch up on all the random things I have to do. I spent most of yesterday cleaning and today I have a few more errands to get through! I do plan on taking some time to bake Valentine's Day treats and maybe do some shopping as well.

Happy Valentine's Day to all of you!