THE Trip, THE Encore' :: The Sea Mist Lifts, Fun Stuff I Find Along The 101

Copyright 2013, CABS for Reflections From the Fence

May 10, 2013, continuing our driving day trip to San Francisco, we are now headed back to camp, north(ish) along the 101, crossing the Golden Gate.  No issues this time getting through the toll gate area, as we managed to figure out the curb lane was best for Jolly.

There is still sea mist (fog) hiding the top of the bridge tower:

"The total length of the Bridge including approaches from abutment to abutment: 1.7 miles", according to the web site for the bridge. It is starting to look sea-mist-less??  Could it be?? Will I get the opportunity to photo the bridge sans sea-mist??  Hope - -

CLEAR!!!!!!!!!!!!!

As you go north from San Francisco there is the H. Dana Bowers Memorial Vista Point.  With minimal sea-mist (for the moment), we had to pull off, and we did.  Clear!  Looking from the Vista Point back into San Francisco.

Clear on the north, misty on the south, I actually took several of these shots, from this same vantage point, and the mist covers that far tower differently in each.  I still think that mist might be alive - -

At the base of the tower on the far north side, see the photo above, you will see small buildings on an outcrop of rock.  Sony Too zooms:

Certain photos I take seem to beg me to "play" with them in my photo editing program, this one did:

At the Vista Point there is the Lone Sailor Memorial.  Upon research, I discovered it is one of 12.

San Francisco, still enveloped in the mist/fog, tomorrow we will visit you again, till then - -

On the ride back to home/Tana/camp, I captured these true "house boats".

Imagine my delight to see a house boat AND a sea plane.  After seeing all the mist/fog and chatting with some of my friends who have lived in and around San Fran, I have to wonder how often this plane has weather clear enough to fly.  It is for hire, I believe, as I saw a sign nearby advertising "Seaplane Tours".

A little further up the 101 I spy some more "artwork" on top of the offices of a local nursery business, one grasshopper, err, praying mantis, green and super duper large!  (Thank you to friend Jana for correcting my identification.)

And, on the other end of the building, a lady bug (a red one, we can only hope the real deal not one of those Oriental wanna bee biting snarky lady bugs like I get here in SE Michigan in the fall) and I do believe those little green bugs are aphids.  Sure caught my attention, I do so love the odd things we see as we travel, they make me smile.  Even if they are bugs!

Our next two days will be spent riding the ferries to and from San Francisco and our battles with mass transit, sorta a win/loose thingy.




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THE Trip, THE Encore' :: Golden Gate Park And Beyond

Copyright 2013, CABS for Reflections From the Fence

May 10, 2013

(STILL - - yep, way behind - - working on it)

After our picnic lunch we drove easterly through the park, stopping once or twice to capture the views and wander around.  Parking was not favorable for Jolly, so, we mostly kept rolling.

This was about 3 to 4 foot tall, I have no idea, but, found it interesting, white pedals emerging from the dark red/green.  Anyone able to identify this?

A lovely multi-level water fall and a bridge.  Yummy.

Oriental influenced garden area.  Always pretty.  Always!

We drove into the Haight-Ashbury area.  Yes, we were from that time, we had to at least drive down a street or two, Man wanted to see Haight-Ashbury.  So, we did, I do love the architecture.  LOVE those angled rooms in the front.  SIGHHH

We then drove back thru the park, there were several interesting places we would have loved to stop, but there was no parking, so, sadly, we left the Golden Gate Park and headed to the Lake Merced area.  There we found a memorial to Captain Juan Bautista De Anza.

We drove past San Francisco State University, the San Francisco Zoo, soon finding ourselves on the Great Highway.  Just north of the zoo I captured this artwork with Sony Too while Jolly kept on driving.  No place to stop to discover what it was.  Hopefully one of my readers will enlighten us.

Along the Great Highway, near Ulloa (location per some other photos I discovered online), I spied a row of homes, painted different colors, just like a rainbow.  

(Now, I'll warn you, if you search for rainbow houses in San Francisco, you are gonna find some amazing photos online.  Here are two links, one, two.  Man and I did not visit during our visit to San Fran, just to be clear.  Would have been fun to do so tho!)

Across the Great Highway is Ocean Beach, the Golden Gate National Recreation Area.  We saw people walking on the beach, one lone kite surfer and a large ship almost to port. I also spied what I believe was someone sleeping on the sand dunes, almost appeared that someone had a tent that had collapsed.  We saw lots of interesting things and people in San Francisco.

I felt like I was back in the Outer Banks of North Carolina, all that sand on the road.

We drove along Geary Boulevard till we found our way back to 1 north and the 101 north to the Golden Gate Bridge, heading back to camp.  I have more to show you, more Golden Gate bridge and some other fun things Sony Too and I captured.  Soon - -




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THE Trip, THE Encore' :: San Francisco, Cross the Bridge, Sharing Lunch

Copyright 2013, CABS for Reflections From the Fence

Yes, we are still in San Francisco and yes, we are 4.5 months behind on the posts and yes, it has been almost 3 weeks since I blogged about THE Trip, THE Encore'.  WOW!

May 10, 2013.

After spending some time at the Marin Headlands, watching the Golden Gate Bridge playing tag with a bunch of sea mist (OK, Facebook friends, Beverly and Linda, it was heavy enough at times to be fog), we headed down to the bridge and drove into San Francisco.

Many walk and bike across the bridge:

It is magnificent, isn't it?  Massive.  Stunning.  Not "golden", but, Golden in our hearts.

Here is Jolly getting through the toll gate. This was probably as close, and maybe closer, as was Needles tunnels near Custer South Dakota.  REALLY CLOSE!! Man was sweating it, and, truth be known, so was I.

On the way back to Greenbrae later in the afternoon, we discovered that we probably were in the wrong lane, as we were NOT in the curb lane going INTO town.  NOPE, we were in one of the inside lanes.  Ooops. No wonder it was such a tight fit.  It sure was easier going OUT of town and using that curb lane.  DUHHHH  (By the way, as far as we know, they have never billed us for the toll, maybe they thought since we managed to snug through they would award us with a free toll??  Nahhh, I doubt that too.)

San Francisco, the mist hung around most of the day.

Had to try to capture the steep hills.  They ARE just like in the movies!

We drove around a bit, carefully, this is not a Jolly friendly place.  We made our way to Golden Gate Park, Stow Lake, where we were delighted and a bit surprised to find a parking spot for our big fella, Jolly.  We had a picnic lunch and the fur kids, we found a park bench and proceeded to have lunch.   There were patrons of the park having row boat and kayak rides. Lots of people walking, some walking dogs, or pushing strollers with youngsters.  Other than some fine people watching, our view included this lovely stone bridge.

Some of our dining companions.

I had to laugh at this pair, I suspect we had a male and a female, and he was the fluffed up one?  He chased her all around, back and forth.  She kept moving, he kept chasing.  I kept giggling.

"I'm cute, look see, I am not afraid of you, I'll show off for you, ohh, what DO you have in that bag?  Food by any chance?"  (The sneak attack, well the attempt!)

No food was shared with the flocks.

After a leisurely (?) lunch in the cool dampness we drove around the park some more, eventually taking in other areas close by.  Coming here to Reflections sometime, hopefully soon.




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