Sunset Walk

A rainy and windy cold front blew through overnight and this morning.  Afternoon clearing seemed liked a great opportunity to go for a walk and see the beautiful skies after the storm.

With most of the coastal areas closed because of the tsunami watch from the Chilean earthquake we decided to go high up on a ridge.

William sometimes gets into the spirit of taking pictures and he took many beautiful photographs of forest & sky with his iPhone, which he then manipulated with Photoshop Mobile to give them all kinds of interesting effects.

The sunset looked promising so we stayed up on the ridge to see it.

Even though that meant we had to walk back down to our car in the dark.  Fortunately it was a bright full moon, and we had flashlights & headlamps in our packs.

Squiddler!

Preparing to launch Squiddler.

Squiddler!

Trying to interest Julie in Squiddler.

Success!

What's a blog without cats?

A comic I read today reminded me of the centrality of cats to blogging.  We have been remiss.

Here are some pics taken just today of Jake.

He loves this soft yet spiky ball.

He and I were playing "fetch" with it.  I'd throw it around the living room and he'd bring it back to me.  His favorite was when I threw it behind the couch so he could leap right over the couch to find it.

A great deal of vigilance was required to defend his ball from Julie.

Coming soon, cats playing with marbles!

Spring has sprung

After living here for over 20 years, Cristie & I recently discovered that there's a huge botanical garden in Golden Gate Park.  I guess we'd never explored it before because it goes by the name of "Strybing Arboretum" which doesn't really sound like someplace you'd want to go.

To make it even less inviting, there's a sign at Strybing Arboretum's entrance gate listing all the things you're not allowed to do.

(Click on it to make it a little bigger)

Fortunately, you are allowed to take pictures.  Cristie caused a stir among the other photographers by bringing her own backgrounds and attaching them to the plants with a plamp.

As you can see it's spring in the Bay Area.  The weather was so nice even the hipsters in skull t-shirts and tattoos were in the park.

Joggers were stopping and taking the time to relax.

And the cherry blossoms are out at William's school.

Bike Rainbow

For a couple of days our neighborhood bike shop had this rainbow of bikes out front.

Animal Book

I've been thinking about putting together a new book, this time with photographs of animals. A few recent trips to the San Francisco Zoo have yielded some nice encounters, like this one with an East African Crowned Crane.

Foggy Morning

Yesterday morning was magically foggy for the hill walk with William to his school. At the top of the hill we were in and out of the fog with blue sky above and the morning sun strong at our backs -- perfect conditions for a "fog bow". We saw our first such bow about a year ago, and are now able to spot them more easily when conditions are right. This is only the third one we've seen.
Nothing gets William more excited about our walk (which is about 25 minutes from our door to the school) than a foggy morning. The few trees on the hill look so mysterious and everything is covered with tiny droplets. Sometimes the fog is so thick we can barely see the school until we're almost there, but today the sun was able to peek through.


On my way back home the only features standing out from the fog were the moon-like sun and the mourning doves perched on the utility lines.


Just as I returned home, I noticed the most spectacular rays of light projecting through the fog from the tree across the street. What a nice way to start the day! I only wish William could have seen it with me.

Back from Lake Tahoe

This was our best ski trip ever, with wonderful weather, uncrowded slopes, and William skiing the intermediate "blue" runs with us all day.

I had a camera with me and spent a lot of time skiing backwards and sideways taking pictures of Cristie & William and getting in their way.

On  the last day of our trip we drove out to a different resort which has 70km of cross-country and snowshoeing trails punctutated by "warming huts".  It was a magical day of snowshoeing in the forest while large amounts of big fluffy snow fell.  This is Cristie & William about to enter one of the little huts for a break.  We're standing on about 10 feet of snow.

Skiing!

We're in Lake Tahoe for a few days, skiing in the most beautiful weather.  That means no time for photography and blogging.  Except for this snapshot!

William at Fort Point and Koret Playground

Of course we've also been taking pictures of our favorite subject.  He needs a haircut!

William enjoyed Fort Point quite well, but when Cristie & I have been snapping away for too long the iPhone comes out to keep him entertained.

He's gotten too big for 99% of playgrounds.  Just about the last playground in the Bay Area that he still enjoys is in Golden Gate Park.  It has fast spinning things, large climbing structures and long slides built into the hills for the older kids.  It makes me want to take him back to Paris where there are a half dozen such giant playgrounds full of kids his age.

More from Fort Point

As I mentioned earlier, Fort Point is directly underneath the Golden Gate Bridge.  You don't see it from the bridge unless you're a pedestrian and you look straight down over the railing.

Here's what it looks like from down below where we were.

From the roof of the fort you see the underside of the bridge.

You can study all kinds of details.  Unless you're looking at it from exactly the centerline, as in the picture above, it doesn't look organized -- it looks like a jumbled tinker toy set.

Hippy Drum Circle

Every weekend, all weekend long, there's an old hippy drum circle in Golden Gate Park.  People drop in and out of it, but it goes on from sunrise to sunset uninterrupted.

(This blank spot is a movie -- click on play)

The drumming attracts dancers, jugglers, ball-on-a-rope twirlers, hula hoopers and all kinds of free spirits.

 

 

Fort Point

We've known for a long time that there's an old fort directly underneath the southernmost part of the Golden Gate Bridge.  Finally, after 20 years, we decided to visit it.

It turned out to be a large, interesting structure -- built in the 1850's, all brick, and very well preserved.  It defended San Francisco Bay from the Confederacy during the Civil War, served as the headquarters for building the Golden Gate Bridge in the 1930's, looked out for Japanese submarines during WW II, and finally became part of the National Park Service in 1970.

It's full of interesting archways and corridors.

Probably the best part is that because it's directly underneath the bridge, you get amazing views of the Golden Gate Bridge's structure.

More from San Francisco

Spent all day in the city again, taking "urban" pictures in the old hippy neighborhood, the gay neighborhood, and the Mexican neighborhood.

Lots of graffiti in all these places, but it's mostly artistic, not just "tagging".

Interesting people too.  This guy was very aggressive about posing for me because he knew the bigger the show he put on, the more money I was likely to give him.  He got $2 out of me.

It was a gray day, but the city is full of interesting shapes, sights, and colors.