Day 2: Northward! (north of San Jose)

Sunday was another busy day with blue skies. I got through all the stuff north of San Jose and moved on to San Francisco. I have a feeling that nobody’s reading what I write much at these posts — so let’s just launch right into the photos since there’s lots of them.

Let’s start with this winner in Mountain View:

This incredible vitrolite-faced storefront in Palo Alto is challenging to shoot with the trees blocking the sun:

Preston’s Candies in Burlingame was established in 1943:

Candy on the left, ice cream on the right:

A well-preserved Heap Big Beef building in Millbrae:

with the original sign frame and teepee poles poking out the top:

This advertisement shows what the building & sign looked like originally. I also have lots of other examples at my website towards the bottom of this page:
http://www.roadarch.com/eateries/aframe.html

From San Bruno. Yes, I shared one with the dogs (jelly) to show my support for this well-maintained sign. To be honest, the donut was nothing special — but not bad either:

From Daly City:

A Daly City institution since the restaurant first opened in 1957. It closed earlier this year and remains boarded up. It will supposedly be renovated and reopened as part of the Original Joe’s chain:

Moving on for the the remainder of this blog post to San Francisco:

This place has lots going on for it: [reminder: clicking on the photos at my blog opens them to a larger photo] the Last Supper, the crown-shaped roofline, and the glass block:

The Beep’s Burgers sign was a lot nicer when it had neon. But at least the rocket is still present. Scroll down towards the bottom of this page for a 2002 photo:
http://www.outsidelands.org/streetwise-ocean-ave.php

The walk-up stand at Beep’s:

Disernia Drugs closed in 1998 but these signs remain. There’s a BBQ restaurant in the space below now:

There are probably twice as many vintage dark blue porcelain enamel signs as red ones. I think readability was the reason. Less common are the green ones and then there are a few other even rarer colors (browns, yellows, maybe others that aren’t coming to mind). Anyway, here’s a nice trio of the red versions:

Note the top panel on this one is a mismatched color — apparently, an add-on for a name change:

A pretty stair-step effect:

Some nighttime shots to close out this batch. Some neon is out but that’s okay. I like the patient Poodle in this shot, too:

The neon’s out next to the “AS” — ah well. A stunner in person with animated & sequentially lit letters:

A pain-in-the-butt part of town to drive-in (downtown) with one way streets and deadends. Thank goodness for the smartphone which really helped with the maze. Not as bad as Boston but still far trickier than NYC: