As I got off the 28 Muni and stepped into the new neighborhood I would be exploring for the next semester, I felt a tingling feeling that I would rather be nowhere else but in the beautiful Marina district of San Francisco.
I got off on Fillmore and walked down Chestnut St. exploring the quaint shops that surrounded the area. My first exploration was a cute mom and pop toy store called A Child’s Delight, which was located on the corner of Fillmore and Lombard. When I first walked in, I saw a few families shopping with their kids on that sunny Friday afternoon and even though the shop was small, it had a very large variety of merchandise.
As I made my way through a galore of children’s toys I saw a sales associate who I began talking to. Jackie Zaldana, 24, had been working at A Child’s Delight for about three months and the store had been running for about five.
“We get a really big variety of tourists and locals, mainly because we try not to sell too much plastic stuff and more authentic, unique products like wood-lined toys,” Zaldana said.
Zaldana shared with me her favorite Marina hotspots when the toy store is closed, “The Blackwood Grill has an amazing Frisco Benedict and a great happy hour,” she said.
After hearing all about happy hours and benedicts, my friend and I got hungry and decided to hit my personal favorite Marina hotspot, Tacolicious.
While we enjoyed a course of four of their sensational tacos and their sizzling churros, I began to talk to my waiter about her experience in the Marina district.
“It’s definitely different than other districts, there are different niches of people and the Marina’s a crowd that definitely likes to go out for lunch,” said 26-year-old Erin Turner, a waitress at Tacolicious, located on the corner of Chestnut St. and Fillmore.
After enjoying our delicious meal, we began wandering Chestnut St. in hopes of discovering new and amazing locations and people to talk to. As we were walking I saw a store that caught my eye, David’s Tea, which is a cool and unique tea shop where you can mix your favorite flavors into a tea and take it to go or enjoy it right there. While in the store, there was a young girl sitting by herself and enjoying a meal, I began to spark up a conversation with her.
Bre Bode, 22, currently lives in the Tenderloin district but works at Benefit Cosmetics on Chestnut Street. “People are kind of self-absorbed, small-minded and not very friendly,” Bode said when I asked how she likes the Marina district.
She described the Marina in what I think is the most perfect term: Marina is the Orange County of San Francisco, which is quite ironic since I am from Orange County, but I couldn’t agree with her more.
At the end of my 10th interaction with the diverse crowd that peruse the Marina on Fridays, I began to understand more of the districts charm and why it is one of the most affluent districts in the San Francisco area. This activity made me even more excited about the assignments that lay ahead that will help me continue to discover what makes Marina my favorite district.
Wandering the Marina & Pacific Heights 