Sights and Memories of MY City by the Bay

Right now the winds of western New York are blowing past 30 mpg and while we have experienced in walked in winds past 50mph, it's still interesting to be inside and hear the howling winds! 

I am always remembering my hometown and its sights, colors, events and Beauty! How can I not think of it when I have so many fabulous image files and memories?

What is your favorite city or place in this vast place we call Home?

 

all that happens...

...will eventually repeat itself. Our lives are a cycle of events that sometimes repeat itself. We return to places in our childhood and relive moments... yesterday was a busy day for me, starting as usual very early for me till I finally practically collapsed in bed and fell asleep quickly sometime after 1am, the act of sleeping easily and soundly being something that has evaded me for years, if not decades.

I met a new friend for a walk.... a slow enjoyable walk from North Beach to the base of Telegraph Hill, then up the steps to the top. I recalled that area below the bushes where I spent many a day away from school, and with a friend later who liked photography as much as I did then, and still do.

I often wonder what happened to all those I knew in San Francisco as a young lad, then leaving and not returning till four decades in the future.

From there we took the back route of Telegraph Hill: the infamous long and steep steps of over 200+ steps and leading down toward the Embarcadero... while on this jaunt down into a green lushland, this friend pointed out to me the passion flower (Passiflora incarnata)
which I have never seen, and as I didn't have my camera with me, borrowed her small camera to snap a pix! On flat land again, we continued slowly towards the Ferry Building, stopping often to see things and to take paths closer to the water to relish the spectatular views of the San Francisco Bay and the bridge. It was a cloudy overcast day, and in the distant I pointed out the heavy gray clouds and the steaks of darker color below those vaporous masses, a sign of falling rain.

Inside the Ferry Building, we walked around mixing with the crowds - the farmer's market was in session so the crowds weren't as numerous but still, there was a mess of people looking here, and many dressed in the spirit of Halloween! I stopped at several stands offering a taste of sourdough to be soaked with different flavors of olive oil. I am still amazed how - after living in southern Spain for so long - how olive oil sold in the USA is soooo expensive, often $10USD higher than priced in Spain! sigh

We eventually departed the Ferry Building and returned to North Beach via the Embcarcadero again, soon passing the cruise boat terminal where a huge new cruise ship had just moored, and a mess of people busy on the wide sidewalks with suitcases, maps and more. Some were boarding the ship here and their bags were being wrapped with tape, and their boarding tickets being verified, while others left the building in confused steps, seeking buses, taxis and little more to get to other destinations. We passed that crowd and soon crossed the street and headed toward North Beach. Soon we arrived at a quiet corner where a neighborhood grocery store sat opposite a middle school. This store was my lunch-hour snack and where I purchased my sandwich during my lunch: I can still remember the fresh smell of the tan-colored french roll, the taste of the ham. Back then I was still adjusting to wearing glasses just a few years ~ now I didn't need glasses any longer. Today it was a choice of three types of buns and I chose the dark french roll, ham and topped with mayo and shredded lettuce. The roll wasn't fresh as I once remembered, though the amount of ham was plentiful. We went to Washington Square to eat this and sat there taking in the scene, while my friend threw pieces of the hard dark french roll crust to the grass for the birds. It doesn't matter that two dogs found and ate the bread crusts instead....

In a few more hours I departed to the Western Addition near the Golden Gate Park panhanld - for a Halloween party and after finally finding a place to park - where is there parking in San Francisco - discovered a small side street closed off to car traffic allowing lots of big and short trick-or-treaters to walk about for their share of candies and other treats of the eye, before going to my friend's party!
It's been over four decades since I played any type of active role during Halloween and as innocent as it seems to be just walking through the streets of San Francisco seeing strangers in full paint and costume - even during the day - was throwing this soul into the deep dark well full of memories. I got home well after 10pm and had no problem maneuvering the wet dark but not empty San Franciscan streets. My new eyes were doing me good tonight!!

a running fool's life

... imagine seeing someone running through the streets... obviously not dressed to be a jogger since he's wearing street clothes. Another indication he's not a jogger could be he's holding in his hand a very big camera with a long lens.

Not a jogger!!!

Well, if you thought that scene to be out of a flick, think not! That would be me, running about two miles Tuesday night as this idiot wanted to catch the almost full moon rising over the East Bay hills.... then after waiting 20mins realized that the moon's angle is wrong and want it "lower" in the sky, so now I decided to run from about Union Street and Vallejo to the Embarcadero and Pier 14. Gasping for air, snaps a bunch of the Bay Bridge with the moon above, then decides to run back toward Broadway and ~ seeing the Transamerica Building ~ stop to capture that in the darkening night sky, then on a sidestep, spies that green Sentinel Building and now distracted, spend twenty minutes snapping that too..... after all, it's not often this lad with a camera gets out at night to discover the night! And all this without a tripod!!

Pooped to hell and back, he rests till today when he spies a great cloudy sky as sunset nears, and decides on a whim to get the sunset from a different spot, so he runs up Greenwich Street to Telegraph Hill, where ~ out of breath again ~ encounters a tourist couple whose boyfriend is busying "watering" the green bushes by the walkway leading to the top of the hill... I detected a spanish-sounding accent and in Spain it's commonplace for males to look for any place to urinate.... I was going to ask if he was from Spain but thought better of it as I was in a hurry to get the sunset which was minutes away.... gasp, pant, gasp....

Near to the top, I see a spot not blocked by tree limbs or bushes. I stood there for about ten minutes while not even two feet away a man dressed in dark clothing burned a small stove in the bushes, crouched below the bush-level. As I started to capture the setting sun, he started banging a spoon on metal chant-style, and I wondered if what he was doing was a spell to shoo me away from his camp location for the night. I left in a few minutes, running again to the top of the hill, only to see trees and even taller bushes blocking any possible view, but I did see the statue of Columbus there backlit by the setting sun's golden glow upon the clouds.

I looked skyward; a BIG mistake and decided (I'm really crazy when I go snapping away and I've had an otherwise boring few days standing for hours for four days shooting the roaring jets) to go DOWN the backside of Telegraph Hill to the Embarcadero (ooooh no, not again!) and snap Coit Tower against the red flaming clouds above...... so I ran down the 300+ steps and was shocked I didn't fall not once - usually I fall when I have camera in hand) and started snapping away yet again at street level....
....then I see a lighted water fountain and those glimmering lights and that dark and shiny reflections of light caught my eye...... if you're a technie type, the data on the fountain pix is about a four-second exposure without a tripod, the camera on the ground, me lying next to it and keys and whatever else I had in my pockets to level the camera and angle the lense down to my subject.... wot fun!!

An hour and a half later I got home..... I think I'll stay away from my camera for a few days. Maybe if I moved everything around again, I'll lose my camera and I won't have to run anytime soon.....

yea right!
This is a picture captured with my cell phone camera, showing my camera on the ground (without me) as I snapped away at the fountain to get the picture above.... neatoooo tripod, huh? hahahahaaa

I saw an interesting scene during that chase for the full moon: I am walking ~ slow for once ~ down the street and notice a man loudly talking in chinese but holding at shoulder-height a square object in his hands. As I near, I can see that object is a laptop, and instantly, I know what he is doing... I've done it myself! He is holding the laptop equipped with a webcam toward Russian Hill and the dying golden glow of that night's sunset. Through this modern technology that we so take for granted these days, this man is probably talking to friends or family in China and using his wireless net access, walk outside with his laptop and share that sunset with his friends a world away.....

Then, on the other hand, why can't people direct their thoughts in one precise direction? Why does someone have to talk using this same technology but act in such a confusing matter that it's a headache foir both that individual and myself? To make matters worst, this individual acts as if they are talking to someone else. Nooooo, this person doesn't say my name, but refers to other named persons. Not only is this insulting that they cannot say my name, but it's confusing.

I don't get headaches often.... maybe once every two years, and this is the first one in probably that period.... and I don't like having a headache caused by someone's tactlessness.

grrrrrrrr

.... and still, as in every country I've lived in... why am I still watching sunsets alone? I hate being in this place and wish I were elsewhere. Anywhere but here.....

the party's over.....

at least, it is for me! I've recorded and created about 3,762 in the past few days, and probably deleted about 3,761 of all of those images!!! hahahahaaa I almost feel as if I were at a tennis match, watching the ball tossed from one side to the other... at least I don't have to look at aircraft any longer, till next year perhaps! I've been standing an average of 4-5 hours per day, except for Saturday where my volunteer-time had me standing in the biting cold from 9am till 4:30pm... guess I am not the young man I have always been and my bones were really hurting! I could barely bend and just to sit in the car and drive home was painful enough....

For this final performance day, I had decided to sacrifice detail for distance. I walked onto the Golden Gate Bridge to take some of these most recent pixs of the Blue Angels to share with my good European and other friends, who aren't from this area {or never seen this area xcept in fotos/film} so they could "see" a bit more than just some tiny jets and even smaller propeller planes flying against a blue sky. Puting the City skyline in the background creates a terrible picture for me as it's too busy and hard to see the low-flying aircraft, but this does put into perspective the vast area being used by the planes during the performances, plus also gives them an idea of the size of the aircraft flying in comparsion to the city.
This last pix below are of some seals who were playing in their backyard below me on the bridge. I also saw what I thought was a dolphin who never reappeared again, but these seals stayed around for some hours. I also saw some huge jellyfish thinking it was strange that those would appear in the water at this late time of the year, but oh well. enjoy the fotos!!

+ = more!!!

well, another night but not on my roof this time! I left the flat searching for a place to shoot the fireworks, after spending an hour online looking at maps and ideas for where it might be and how it might look from this location and that. Also difficult when you don't know exactly where the fireworks will be launched from! So, I hoofed it up the steep Jones and Taylor Streets hills, puffing like someone with a breathing deficiency... what a way to exercise!!

I arrived at Green Street where there's a lovely little park but having been there previous times during the day, knew the numerous trees blocked the best views. To a higher park on Vallejo, the same thing: trees and bushes prevented one from a splendid scene of the City's Financial district and the Embarcadero. I stayed long enough to test the scene(s) with some test exposures, then hoofed it over to yet another location: Broadway Street, which is a steep slope also, and from mid-stret offered a decent view, with enough leeway to the left and right for me to quickly move and re-angle the camera once the fireworks started. Now set up, I tested my exposures for Broadway Street... tweak up the aperature, drop the duration, change the angle.....

This time I was ready at 9:30pm, and even changed the angle and location of the camera by a few feet after it started. I could hear people screaming, clapping and of course, the "oooh" and "aaaaahs" were easily heard.

It lasted 13 minutes only but it lit up the night....

I saw the lady....

draped in ghostly white... bathed in the warmth and golden glow of the dying day. I was inside my metal wheeled-box, traveling among strangers on a concrete pillared road... seemingly at the speed of sound though it was not.

I often think of this woman, so restful is she that never to awake she - sitting atop a mountain so far...

yet so near to my heart and to my soul.

As a youth I had sketched her and now as an adult, I have photographed her.... there she lies, unchanged throughout my life... I, changed in my many decades of years tossed past me, and she: still there in her glory...

in her peace.

As my transport of cold metal took me across the Bay Bridge, I saw her again, and as the strangers before me slowed, slow must I also transit this same path, and in knowing this, grabbed my camera from behind me.

She is embedded into my mind of centuries past....

But never can I remember her looking so glorious as she did tonight....

So, with my heavy camera in one hand, and my other steering my vehicle, I unseeingly pointed my weapon of choice at her corpse and stole an image of her....

draped in fog....

it's just an inch in distance on the map....

...and not really that far. I love to walk, and I do walk fast. I love to hike too, and it's so different from walking. I can do either and enjoy both and specially when the scenery along the route taken is fantastic as it was this day! It started off a bright day with the greatest fluffy clouds I've seen in some time. The day previous was very hot but today promised a weak breeze (delivered as promised) and not such high temperatures.

I met up with a small group of about eight hikers, and starting from Baker Beach, we took to the road leading upward toward the Golden Gate Bridge toll plaza......

.....continuing under the bridge and down toward Fort Mason. The views were of course amazing and though I've seen the sights often, there were a few spots I hadn't seen before, and it was pure joy. I last did something like this as a pre-teen lad with only a bicycle, and I didn't have a camera yet alone the interest of photography yet. Now I live here as an adult with a car, and though the areas I am driving through are "familiar", it just isn't the same.

From Fort Mason we went up a short hill and down to Aquatic Park at the base of steep Hyde Street, then to a Fishermen's Wharf italian restaurant for a quick lunch, then continued out of the wharf area toward the Ferry Building, where the hike ended and we boarded a MUNI bus to get us within walking distance of the parking lot at Baker's Beach where our cars and a mess of stop-N-go traffic awaited us.

It was just a wee-bit over 8 miles that was completed in just a bit over two hours; the group was overall slower than the rapid pace I like, but still, I'm patient and can hike/walk slow or fast; I just get bored though. The route was filled with many sightings of pelicans which I attempted capturing at each opportunity as it presented itself. All of the beaches we neared or transited through were crowded with families and children as the day was hot and bright.

It was great to get out of the hot apartment though I had a friend visiting from out of state, so I was busy all week playing a combination of host tour guide and tourist myself, as many of the places I had taken my friend to, were those places I hadn't been to since I was a wee lad! It was so interesting to see the differences, plus then I walked everywhere; now I had to figure out how to get there by car! My friend and I had gone to the headlands also, and also was lucky enough to witness some gorgeous red flaming sunsets (below), plus the unusual and rare creation of a cloud funnel in the warm airs above Marin County. My friend also helped me to take advantage of stop-N-go traffic on the Bay Bridge to get some pictures of Coit Tower and the waterfront of my hometown from the bridge's upper deck... something I've been driving to do for many years/decades but difficult when you are the driver and camera-man.