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When I started my retirement travels in 2009, I wanted a way to share it with family and friends as it was happening. Hence, "My Travel Journal". However I realized I wouldn't always be on a trip and wondered what to do with the blog in between times. My daughter pointed out, wisely, that travels can also include trips to the kitchen to try a new recipe, trips to visit family, trips to my neighborhood Starbucks, or a fun day trip with a friend. You're welcome to join me on any of these journeys! I've set up individual pages for each of my major trips (see tabs above).

Also, I have an Etsy shop where my current needlework resides. The last pieces I posted here were in 2013! So if you'd like to see what I have accomplished recently, go to (and I apologize for having to copy and paste):

www.etsy.com/shop/thedollhouseneedle

I recently added an "Italian Word a Day" thingie which shows up at the bottom of every page. You see the word and can click to hear it pronounced. I've been enjoying it and I think my accent is improving as time goes by.

October 23, 2013

Moving on....

So, the end of my cable car trip brought me to the San Francisco Bay probably about 1-1/2 to 1-3/4 miles away from where I wanted to get to in order to get what I hoped would be some decent shots of the Golden Gate Bridge.  The sky was clear and blue with bright sunshine but out on the water, there were huge rolls of fog just like we get on the Ohio River at home.  The bridge was completely invisible, but it was still relatively early and I was hopeful that at some point the fog would lift.  I took some pictures of a beautiful tall ship and Alcatraz sitting out in the bay looking appropriately stark and forlorn and started on my trek, already pretty much freezing from the very brisk, very sea-side wind and cool temperature.









This last picture shows the fog bank out at the bridge which is hiding in there somewhere.  Every now and then one of the towers would peek through.

I walked and I walked and I froze and I froze and I went up hill and I went down hill and finally got to Crissy Field which I had decided was as far as I would go.  My original destination would have been about another 1/4 or 1/2 mile on. The bank of fog still very much had the upper hand and I needed something to eat.  There is a visitors' center there with a cafe but they were closed!  So I pointed my frozen self back out of the park and when I got to the street and was waiting to cross, there were two young women standing there waiting.  I asked if they were local, they were, and I asked them where I might find a street with some cafes, restaurants, whatever on them.  They started pointing here and there, mentioning street names and such and finally decided they would just take me to Chestnut Street.  I had wanted to go there anyway at some point because I planned to catch a bus there to get back to the hotel.  So we started off and they were so nice - just chattered away about anything and everything - insisted on taking me on a more scenic route, disagreed with each other about almost everything but seemed to enjoy it, so it was quite a pleasant interlude.  They got me to Chestnut, I found myself a burger joint that seemed real popular and felt much better after a sit-down and some food.

Next I went back to Crissy Field, passing through the Palace of Fine Arts and its gardens which is lovely although I'm not real sure what it is.  I figured it would be a museum of sorts but I think maybe it is a place where people can have weddings (wedding photos were being taken while I was passing through), other special events, etc.  I saw a building that the wedding party seemed to be coming out of and going into but it was just a building - not part of the very large and impressive structure that seems to serve only as a large and impressive structure.

 The entrance to the Palace of Fine Arts and surrounding gardens.  Maybe not gardens actually but a very lovely park area.

The dome by the pretty lake.  I stayed in this kind of sequestered spot wandering around for longer than I needed to but it was so pretty and not anywhere near as windy as the rest of my walk.

Looking up...

And a portion of the lake with many, many white ducks.  All in all, a nice interlude.  But now on to Crissy Field and hopefully most of the fog gone.

And what can I say?  I took a lot of pictures with my quickly dying-battery camera and then with my phone, but it basically came down to one view and just choosing the best one.  So here it is.  Still fairly hazy and either too far away or too hazy to get that true orange color, but hey, it's the bridge and I saw it!


I took this picture around 3:00 p.m. and decided I just couldn't wait any longer to see if more fog would clear or try and make myself get closer.  I had just enough gumption left to get myself back up to where I had eaten lunch and could catch my bus back to the hotel.  So that's what I did and that pretty much took care of Friday.  Heather got out of her convention duties around 7:30 and we freshened up and went for a very good dinner to John's Grill.  Not only was the food good, but it was an interesting place - it was themed around the Maltese Falcon because when they made the movie, they shot some scene in the restaurant so the decor was kind of art deco and there were many photos from that period, etc.  We ate upstairs which is something I enjoy when a restaurant has more than one floor.

And that is basically it for San Francisco.  Saturday Heather's convention ended at 1:00, she packed everything up and we hit the road for Napa and the wine and great food life!  I realize I didn't do the city of San Francisco justice, but I did what I could.  It's a huge city and I think to really explore it and all its various neighborhoods, you'd need at least a couple of weeks.

4 comments:

Christopher said...

So glad you A) got to see the bridge eventually, and B) ended up by the Palace of Fine Arts -- it is a real knockout bit of showy architecture! Wish I'd had more time there when I visited it, for photography. (There actually is a museum there as part of the whole campus, but most visiting folks stick to the beautiful, massive exterior monuments and pond/gardens.)
Looking forward to the Napa post :)

January said...

That's a nice picture of the bridge! Well, they're all nice pictures, but I was wondering how your bridge shot would turn out after our quick conference about doing a panoramic with your phone. Pretty pretty!

Chinch said...

I guess I saw some of your photos this morning before you finished uploading -- this complete edition is very nice and I think your SFBridge pic is lovely. Why take the same one everyone else takes -- the fog looks beautiful. Don't overdo the winery offerings if you're doing lots of driving but do have mega fun!

Elga said...

I am glad you got to see the bridge, Mary Lynne!

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