Monday, July 21, 2008

San Francisco and Other Bay Area Sites, part one


I start this album off with a classic "postcard" shot I took of the bridge, taken from the southern end of this incredible landmark, which opened in 1937.

This is a compilation of photographs I've taken over the years on my visits to my favorite American City and its suburbs. I've added a few other pictures from the web to round out "the tour" I offer here.

46 comments:

  1. Very nice! I visited San Francisco when I was 13 and did not appreciate the view. It is on my list of places to visit.

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  2. There's a lot to see within a fairly short distance, and the transit systems make the city very pedestrian friendly.

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  3. A great shot Doug, I have a few of the bridge myself, but this is better than those.

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  4. A peaceful place and even better....no cougars...I hope!

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  5. LOL I hear Babel leans that way too Doug

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  6. Another great shot, those graffiti artists get everywhere though don't they...is nothing sacred?

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  7. Now if they had learned from the builders of the Grand Mosque in Kairouan they would have used some of those giant redwoods to make shock absorbers at the base and capital of the columns, this technique has a track record for preventing earthquake damage over hundreds of years. Worth popping in their 'suggestion box' next time you're passing Doug maybe?

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  8. I was there and what a great park it is too.

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  9. Even the restaurants in China Town look like this......great to see a picture of the pagoda here.

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  10. Brings back memories. Thanks for posting this picture

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  11. And some antique foreign ones too, including one from Blackpool England I remember. I love these old streetcars, or what we call trams.

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  12. I have a few pictures here too, but I never knew or thought about the history, so thanks for the info.

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  13. I gave the guy with the sign saying 'please support your neighborhood drunk' a dollar....proving that honesty really does pay I think.

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  14. Nothing like stopping for one of those hollowed out loaves with chowder inside just here.... as a welcome break from walking with your baby down along........etc.

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  15. May I contribute a soundtrack for this beautiful photo album?

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  16. I suspect US Sec of State Condi Rice--and fromerr Stanford Provost--will have her own edifice installed nearby when her tenure ends--the Condi Tower will be in the shape of a mushroom cloud to remind us of all the Neo Cons about those WMD sites in Iraq--ooops, but actually weren't. Better luck next time, lady.

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  17. Thanks. You can't beat the observation tower at the Tranamerica on a clear day.

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  18. Early San Francisco had a raucous history, something I need to touch upon in a future blog. Suffice to say the 1850's were even wilder here than the 1960's were in spots like the Haight-Ashbury.

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  19. One photo can't do it justice, but this one makes it look inviting.

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  20. love that spanish style architecture
    and japanese gardens anywhere i find them
    somehow it looks warmer than i expected
    thanks for the views

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  21. I suspect US Sec of State Condi Rice--the fromer Stanford Provost--will have her own edifice installed nearby when her tenure ends--the Condi Tower will be in the shape of a mushroom cloud to remind us of all the Neo Cons who warned us about WMD sites in Iraq--ooops, but actually weren't. Better luck next time, lady.

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  22. Yes, I know just what you mean...never was much for the chowder, but the Parisian style sourdough bread is great!

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  23. No, there are so many visitors to this park--especially on weekends--that I imagine even the squirrels give it a wide berth. You have to leave the paved trails to really feel the natural sense of the place. On the other hand, the main walkways makes it accessible for almost everyone.

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  24. No, there are so many visitors to this park--especially on weekends--that I imagine even the squirrels give it a wide berth. You have to leave the paved trails to really feel the natural sense of the place. On the other hand, the main walkways makes it accessible for almost everyone.

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  25. I have seen many pictures of this bridge, yours is nice.

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  26. I have never seen this angle before though...

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  27. Wow, what a beautifully decorated building.

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  28. We call them trams here too, we never had any that looked quite like this though, but the shape reminds me of a toy bus my little brother once owned - it must have been an American bus.

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  29. People who to to the USA from New Zealand always comment on thses sad sights, we are so unaccustomed to that here.

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  30. Plumbers Need Sculpture Too! lol

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  31. It is stunning. I hadn't seen this side of the church before I took this. It's like suddenly being in Ravenna or Rome.

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  32. I will drop it in--although such Islamic wisdom might put me on a "terrorist watch list" where I couldn't fly in a commercial plane for like 50 years. Mind if I give you the credit, AA?

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  33. They have a beautiful glass tower at the top of this museum, which affords tourists a 360* view of the surrounding vista.

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  34. Alas, that part was under repair when I took this. Hope to have better luck next time.

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  35. Interesting. A friend who lives there told me he had seen one from the UK as I recall--their original city of service is usually on a plague inside the bus--so that must have been the one.

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  36. You're right--I believe this one was from Seattle. The restoration on this "tram"--I like that word--was very complete. The picture doesn't so justice to how "new" it looked.

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  37. hehehe, on our streets at the time that bus/tram/streetcar would have been ultra ultra modern (and probably huge too), Most of our vehicles back then were more similar to smaller British ones.

    The occasional people had big American cars but they were rare. I had a friend once who owned a Chevrolet Belair (is that how you spell it?)

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  38. Your spelling is right, but its listed as a Chevrolet "Bel air" with a space. My parents had version of this car--the first car I remember riding in---until I was about 5 or 6 when my folks bought one of the new Ford Mustangs--one of the most popular vehicles over here ever. That was the coolest car my family ever owned.

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  39. I've read news accounts over the years that San Francisco has the highest homeless rates per capita in the USA. I haven't spent a long time there since the 1990's, but it seems the problem of getting people out of that sad situation never improves all that much. My friends who live there eventually become numb to walking past someone asleep on a sidewalk, or, in some areas, smoking crack right out on a backstreet. You can give some change to someone who looks like they need it, but the "safety net" for really helping these people is a hodgepodge of public/private aid groups. In my opinion some of these street people are in need of being taken outside the urban environment (to a hospital or a camp where they could be freed from the predators and the drug pushers.) This is apparently not likely to happen due to the city and the State of California's budget woes.

    Here's a recent editorial from the city's main paper to give you an idea where things stand. Whatever works in NZ, I wish we could adapt it over here.

    http://www.sfgate.com/cgi-bin/article.cgi?f=/c/a/2008/07/17/BABT11PHFJ.DTL&hw=homeless&sn=005&sc=549

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  40. I used to come down here and eat lunch with friends at this plaza. We would sometimes speculate how this sculpture ever got approved. You're right, though, you'd need to be a plumber to really like it. When the water is shut off it really looks rather sad. I wouldn't want a statue of Ronald Reagan to replace it, but maybe Nelson Mandela.

    It's either a joke on some civic planners by a sculptor, or my taste in modern art must be close to that of a philistine, take your pick.

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  41. lol I actually quite like this "plumber" sculpture, but my tastes these days do veer towards modern and contemporary pieces rather than "traditional" or classical".

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