San Francisco's Union Square
There's no doubt that Union Square comes to mind every time one thinks of going shopping in San Francisco. It is THE place to go. I have visited this place more times than any other attraction in the entire city. I can't help it. I do love to window shop and shop. It is just a lot of fun not to mention very soothing, calming, and therapeutic all rolled into one. The stores and other commercial establishments I have featured in this entry directly surround the square or are a block away from it.
This is Union Square people!
Crowds relax here in the square. Sometimes, the place becomes inaccessible to the public when a huge tent is set up here for some event or big to do.
I first visited this place back in 1989 when I came to the US from Spain and celebrated Christmas with my family in the East Bay. My mom toured me around and this was the first place she took me to.
It would be a stretch if I said that I never notice the St. Francis when I come to Union Square. How can I not? The building is very imposing. This hotel's lobby gets really full of visitors at Christmas time. That's when the Gingerbread Castle made by the hotel's pastry chefs place the much awaited Gingerbread Castle there. One can literally get a whiff of the sugar the décor is made of. Pair that with the cold air and it is sheer Christmas magic.
I took this picture last Christmas 2013. This is the Gingerbread Castle that decks the hotel's lobby year after year.
San Francisco has the country's only moving historic landmark, the Cable Car. I use to ride it every day twice a day for years. Then the fares went up and up and I decided to just walk to and from BART one day.
This lady atop the column is a SF icon.
At one corner of Powell and Post is this very elegant leather good store called GOYARD. It caters to women's bags and its windows are always colorful. Right across this store is the building currently occupied both Chase and DSW.
GOYARD
The trunks by the main entrance to the GOYARD store
The building where the Chase Bank and DSW Shoe store are now located used to be a United Airlines Reservations office decades ago. Later on, Borders Bookstore set up shop here until the chain closed all of its stores nationwide a couple of years ago.
One restaurant on Union Square very popular among the tourists is Sear's Fine Foods. I always see lines every time I pass by it in the morning.
Inside Saks Fifth Avenue for women. The men have a different building altogether.
Saks just reeks of elegance and style
Tiffany and Company is here too.
The façade of the Williams Sonoma Flagship store in San Francisco
A flight of stairs inside the flagship store of Williams Sonoma on the Square
I love Interior Design and boy do I love this living room vignette inside WS
On another floor of Williams Sonoma
Inside Macy's
The recently opened Express Clothing Store on Powell and Geary
