Google Maps and the Stairways of San Francisco

Google Maps is trying to get me to switch to their new map system.  But that means I can't search and add locations to my San Francisco Map.  Each time I have to go to "custom maps", choose San Francisco and then click on "open original map".  In the new Google map you can "save" (star) a location but it is not obvious how you retrieve saved items.  The street view is supposed to load faster than the old one but it doesn't and it's harder to get to.  I'm sure the new Google Map works better on your mobile device when you want to find something nearby but doesn't Google realize how much fun old people like us have exploring a location that we are not in?  Maybe what I can do is look up things on the new Google map and then duplicate the search on the old Google map and add it to San Francisco.  Or maybe I'll eventually learn how to use the new version.

Right now I'm trying to find interesting streets to explore.  USA Today listed Fillmore Street as one of the best shopping streets in the nation.  It runs from Pacific Heights to Japan Town on Geary and "appeals to those with varied interests; it has three quaint bookstores, three flower shops and even three hardware outlets".  And then in Japan Town, SanFrancisco.travel lists a Soko Hardware store which "hosts every Japanese cooking tool, décor item, or gadget you could ever possibly need. This is the place to get your paper lanterns, wooden floor mats, rice cookers, and chopsticks."  We can't miss that!

Maybe we should explore the Stairway Walks in San Francisco.  How are our knees?  Just around the apartment on Russian Hill there are the Green Street steps, the Vallejo steps which run through Ina Coolbrith Park, Macondray Lane, not to mention the Filbert and Greenwich steps that go up to (or down from) Telegraph Hill.  They should provide some nice photo opportunities which we can't preview in Google Map's Street View because the Google camera truck can't go there...

OK.  I bit the bullet and bought the Kindle edition of Stairway Walks in San Francisco.  They have two walks for Russian Hill that we simply have to do because it is our neighborhood!  The author ferrets out all the little stairways in the neighborhood but warns against continuing on the cobblestones of Macondray Lane.  Unfortunately she doesn't cover the Inner and Outer Richmond because that area is flat, except for the Coastal Trail with the Cliff House and the Sutro Baths, which I wouldn't mind checking out.  She gives lots of history and points out every historical house.   So what day do we wander the neighborhood?  Maybe we should have scheduled a two week visit...