San Francisco

For the record this is my 101st posting!

 

In order to diminish the jet lag and time in the air we decided on a stopover in San Francisco. Although we have been several times it is one of those places where there is still much to see. This time we visited The Palace of Fine Arts – but don’t expect a gallery. It is a rebuild of some buildings originally constructed for the Panama Pacific International Exposition of 1915. It has had some real highs and lows in terms of usage and maintenance but is now a wonderful place to wonder around.

Quite spectacular but it really needs to be bearing in mind it has no longer any purpose other than to look grand.

However, it does this well.

As it was a picture perfect day we opted for a walk along the front to Fisherman's wharf. Part way through we needed a coffee and found a fascinating place with an Orrery in it. This tells the time for each of the planets in our solar system, a 10,000 year clock.  With Mercury having an orbit of 88 days and at the other extreme Jupiter taking 12 years it is a little less exciting to watch than grass growing! Wonderful precision machining though.

Further along was some slightly less precise but no less interesting heritage shipping. The Eppleton Hall paddle tug boat was built in 1914 and was retired in 1968 restored and then travelled to San Francisco under her own steam. Not sure how effective the paddles would be as stabilisers.

Even more impressive was Balclutha built in the 1886. She sailed 5 times from Europe to San Francisco via Cape Horn bringing coal and general cargo and returning with grain. In 1903 until 1930 she moved onto salmon and travelled each year to Alaska.

A small shipyard was refurbishing the 28 ft Eva B. Lots of glue, G clamps and time appears to the recipe.

The work had taken several years to get this far and then was to be moved to the mechanics for an engine fit out.

During the walk we encountered this framed image of Alcatraz. A bit more picturesque than closer up.

Exhausted we succumbed to a meal at Pier 19 and watched the sun go down over the Golden Gate.

The following day we opted for a trip across the harbour to Sausalito. This is where we had a great ice cream stop on our way to the airport back in 2009. This time we enjoyed a meander and leisurely lunch in the Blue Grey building on the shorefront.  

A first for us was this rock balancing sculptor. Each day he starts afresh. Quite a local character and although the hands were steady enough to be a surgeon I suspect that outdoor entertainment was a better character fit.

On the trip back (on a Tassie cat) we had some great crack with some other travellers who insisted on taking our picture (well actually 12 of them… thank goodness we are digital!). 

We landed at Pier 1 – another new part of town for us. There is a high quality market on the Pier. What an array of mushrooms.

We slowly wondered up Market Street to Union Square and a restaurant that had been recommended to us called Farallon. Very popular and great atmosphere. It was crowded and two woman allowed us to join them and the conversation went on for over an hour. It was a very sociable end to our trip as we headed back to the hotel a block or so away, packed and prepared for the trip home.