I Love Hardware Stores!

Not the big box stores like Lowes and Home Depot (although they are interesting too) but the small ones that used to be independent and joined Ace Hardware just to survive.  Monroeville doesn't have one but Oakmont does and I will forever love Strosnider's in Silver Spring, Maryland.  No, Patterson's Hardware in Fillmore is still independent and doesn't belong to Ace.  Didn't there used to be a Brigg's Hardware?  But I can't picture it.

Right now the reason for my affection is the fact that Cole Hardware on Polk Street in San Francisco sells the 7-day San Francisco MUNI passport and it is open from 8 am to 8 pm EVERY DAY!  So that means that on Sunday morning we could walk the 6 blocks to Polk and buy the passport, unless the San Francisco Information Center at the SF airport is still open when we arrive at 7 pm on Saturday night.  In that case we would buy it at the airport but it is nice to know there is a hardware store near the apartment in case we need a plunger or a flashlight.

To get to Cole Hardware on Polk Street we would have to go up some steps since Green Street ends at Taylor and then recommences half a block later but after that it is pretty flat until Leavenworth when it goes downhill.  And it keeps going downhill block after long block until it reaches Polk Street.  On the left corner is Cole Hardware and on the right corner La Boulange bakery (the one that is supplying Starbucks now).  So we could have breakfast too!  Or lunch.  They have a wild mushroom mac and cheese, for those interested.

I don't think I want to walk back uphill to the apartment.  Maybe back uphill two blocks to Hyde Street to catch the cable car.  Or over to Van Ness and down to Pacific to catch the #49 Van Ness/Mission MUNI bus since we are doing the Mission District on Sunday.