Point Reyes National Seashore: The Lighthouse

I have a confession to make. I’m a cartophile. I’m not a collector. I’ve no desire to hang them on my wall. I have a collection, but they’re my trusty AAA roadmaps. I have a pile of them. We use them to figure out where we want to explore next. It’s great fun finding places we haven’t seen. This time, I pointed at Point Reyes National Seashore. For some reason, in spite of the fact that it was only 40 miles away, we had not yet paid it a visit.

The area where the picture was taken regularly sees winds of 40 mph, and a weather station once recorded a gust of 133 mph..!

According to the National Park Service:

Point Reyes is the windiest place on the Pacific Coast and the second foggiest place on the North American continent. Weeks of fog, especially during the summer months, frequently reduce visibility to hundreds of feet. The Point Reyes Headlands, which jut 10 miles out to sea, pose a threat to each ship entering or leaving San Francisco Bay. The historic Point Reyes Lighthouse warned mariners of danger for more than a hundred years.

Point Reyes National Seashore is also where Sir Francis Drake is most likely to have landed. Drake’s Bay is named after him.

Follow along for our visit to the lighthouse.

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July 20, 2012October 28, 2013

The National AIDS Memorial Grove: Grief and Beauty

Located in Golden Gate Park, the National AIDS Memorial Grove is a testament to love and grief. According to the website:

The National AIDS Memorial Grove, located in San Francisco’s Golden Gate Park, is a dedicated space in the national landscape where millions of Americans touched directly or indirectly by AIDS can gather to heal, hope, and remember. For all the promising prospects on the horizon, AIDS continues to invade our lives, violate our past, and rob us of our comfortable assumptions about the future. The sacred ground of this living memorial honors all who have confronted this tragic pandemic both those who have died and those who have shared their struggle, kept the vigils, and supported each other during the final hours.

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July 11, 2012August 12, 2013

Another Visit to the Rose Garden in Golden Gate Park

In June, I posted about a trip to the Rose Garden in Golden Gate Park. We went there for a second visit and saw many more roses in bloom.

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June 29, 2012November 25, 2012

Golden Gate Park: Unexplored Trails

At 1017 acres, Golden Gate Park is the largest park in San Francisco. It’s even bigger than Central Park in New York which is 843 acres. We have brought you pictures from our adventures in the Arboretum, Stow Lake, and the Japanese Tea Garden. Winding around the park between all those areas are a multitude of little unexplored trails and park gems. Well, they’re unexplored by us, at any rate.

This little trail is located near the Conservatory of Flowers.

June 18, 2012August 12, 2013

Rosy Monday

We should all take time to smell the roses. However, until computers come in scratch ‘n sniff, we’ll have to make due with a few photos. We went to Golden Gate Park early, as usual, so we had to play “dodge the sprinklers”. It’s worth it though as the park is quiet at that time.

Here are my favorite pics from that trip. I have named the roses where I could.

Here are a few other flower posts
A San Francisco Flower Adventure
Battle of the Sprinklers at the Arboretum in Golden Gate Park: Part 1
Battle of the Sprinklers at the Arboretum in Golden Gate Park: Part 2

June 12, 2012October 9, 2013

Terrible Tuesday is Terrible

I got up this morning planning on making a post to the blog as I neglected to make one yesterday. Instead, I wound up wearing my computer tech hat and trying to find out why my browser kept crashing. I turned the air blue and even the poor kitties went into hiding. Instead of accomplishing that, I downloaded another browser. Terrible Tuesday was terrible after all. Ok, no one died. The kitties are well and have had extra scritchings and everything. There was still a lot of cursing and gnashing of teeth.

Sooooooo, here are a few photos from one of our outings in The City. We wandered over to the old shipyards on the South East side of town. There are plenty of old abandoned buildings that might be considered urban blight, but I think they have character.

While we were out, we went over to India Basin.

June 1, 2012October 9, 2013

Battle of the Sprinklers at the Arboretum in Golden Gate Park: Part 2

Today we’re going back to the San Francisco Botanical Garden at Strybing Arboretum. That last trip provided me with plenty of beautiful flowers and foliage to admire. Hopefully these photos will make your day a bit brighter.

In case you missed it…
Battle of the Sprinklers at the Arboretum in Golden Gate Park: Part 1

Other Arboretum posts:
A stroll through the Arboretum
Wednesday Walk in the Rain
Not Quite Spring Flowers

May 28, 2012October 28, 2013

Blooming discoveries, Batman!

The month of May, when plants grow and bloom, has been spectacular this year. Ka-Pow!
Bookending a visit to the California Academy of Sciences in Golden Gate Park were a solar eclipse on the 20th preceded by the apparition of the Perigee (or Super) moon on the 5th. Whamo!

Eclipse and Perigee

This trip to the Academy of Sciences was made even more enjoyable because of the San Francisco Neighborhood Free Days, making our visit free. Zing!

The California Academy of Sciences — The Academy of Sciences, earthbound spaceship…

Having said that, and after viewing all the exhibits, it is well worth the regular admission price. We will take you along on our trip in three segments. The fourth would have been the Planetarium, but since photographs were forbidden and the material copyrighted, we are left with the aforementioned celestial shows available to all (or most). Zoosh!

I have played with the solar eclipse pictures a bit as the originals look like this and are not sexy enough (crash!):

eclipse seen through pinhole and screen — Pinprick through cardboard equals…

Solar eclipse with clouds — Clouded eclipse

supermoon over water — Supermoon over the Bay

Supermoon looks like Mars — A Martian looking moon

UP NEXT…

May 25, 2012October 9, 2013

Battle of the Sprinklers at the Arboretum in Golden Gate Park: Part 1

The title is only slightly tongue-in-cheek. We love to go to Golden Gate Park very early, when there are no crowds and it’s quiet. Needless to say, we were waiting at the gate when the Arboretum opened. We had to dodge the sprinklers the whole time we were there. It was worth the effort, as always.

The San Francisco Botanical Garden at Strybing Arboretum is my favorite place in Golden Gate Park. Ok, it’s one of my favorite places. Its sprawling 55 acres is home to vast array of plants and trees from around the world. Follow along if you want to see more.

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May 2, 2012October 9, 2013

The Hills of San Francisco

San Francisco is famous for its hills. Bernal Hill is probably my favorite. As I mentioned in my last post, we went there to take a walk. The wind was pretty gusty so we stuck to the paved road that circles the peak. Usually we go to the South side of the hill as its closest to home, but this time we headed over to the North side.

Did I mention that it was windy? I don’t like wind. I really don’t like wind. I grew up in the desert and we had ferocious winds storms. Ok. I’ll shut up about the wind already. Here are some of my photos from the hill.

Bernal Heights — The blue flowers are Pride of Madeira (echium candicans)