San Francisco Sightseeing

Good morning, my friends. We had a fabulous day yesterday. The weather was dry and relatively warm. We even had some sun breaks for our day at the outskirts of San Francisco. The lighthouse didn't open until 12:30 pm, and so we had a leisurely morning. I started some chili in the slow cooker, and then I baked this scaled-down recipe of Debi's Skillet Cornbread to make it a "for two" recipe. It worked out great.

Mike was trying some new things related to the Starlink to see if we can get it running again. Nothing he did here worked. 

The RV beside us has a Starlink set up, and so we asked if we could borrow their cable to see if that changed anything. Ours didn't work with the change of cable, and so we've eliminated that as the source of the problem. 

It has to be one of the electronic components that has gone bad. Mike thinks it somehow leaked water and shorted something out. Starlink can only be contacted via their website. Although he wrote to them early yesterday morning, we've not received a response yet. Hopefully, we'll hear something today. It's good that we'll be parked for two weeks between the 7th and the 21st. If something needs to be shipped, we'll be able to receive it. It changes nothing for you, and we can go back to our old slow way of getting internet access via the hot spots on our phone. We'd still like to get the Starlink working again though. And so we wait for some response. We have to be patient, I guess. When it comes to internet access, my patience quotient is short.

My morning yesterday was spent finishing off the 7th Kittens block.

Here are the blocks I have for this quilt so far:

Now I'm ready to start on the first block for Grandpa's Bridges, and I'll probably have time to take the first stitches this morning.

By then, we'd run out of ways to kill time, and so we decided to go first to see the Painted Ladies in San Francisco. When we left the kitties they were taking care of their morning's business. Sadie was flaked out on the couch.

Smitty was comfortable in his window hammock.

We had about a half hour's drive. We passed by this barn.

And it didn't take long before signs began to appear indicating we were heading in the right direction.

We passed through this tunnel renamed for Robin Williams. From 1937-2015 the official name of this tunnel was The Waldo Tunnel, since it is located on the Waldo Grade. (Waldo was a 19th century California politician). In 2015 the State renamed the tunnel The Robin Williams tunnel, in honor of the late actor and comedian who grew up and lived in the area. I've linked to an article about the various permutations of the tunnel, and I would encourage you to click on it and read the story. It has been through a lot of changes since it was built.

Okay, and shortly after passing through the tunnel, we crossed the Golden Gate Bridge. 

I once sailed under this bridge when my family sailed to Hawaii to my dad's next duty station at  Marine Corps Air Station Kaneohe Bay on the island of Oahu. Beyond that barrier is the Pacific Ocean.

We didn't have far to go on surface streets, but it was harrowing nonetheless. My picture below doesn't do justice to the steepness of the grades where we were driving. Also, it's a tangle of overhead wires and cables. These are for electric buses.

There's one now.

When we stopped at traffic signals, I took the opportunity to photograph some of the homes. I absolutely love the architecture in San Francisco.

Wouldn't it be fun to tour one of these homes inside? I'm very curious what it's like to live in something like this.

Before we left the RV, I took some time to figure out the place we were headed. When driving on narrow city streets with steep grades, forewarned is forearmed, you know. As it turns out, the Painted Ladies even show up on Google maps. The information I read said they were on Steiner street, which is on the eastern side of Alamo Square Park. We drove in on Hayes Street (to the south) and even found a parking space right away. We parked where I've marked with a red dot at the bottom of the image. From there, it was just a few steps to see the object of our desire, the Painted Ladies.

AND THERE THEY ARE!!! I was so excited to see this, although I'm not sure why. The charming architecture was only part of the draw. They're sometimes known as "Postcard Row, and are also known as the Seven Sisters. The houses were built between 1892 and 1896 by developer Matthew Kavanaugh, who lived next door in the 1892 mansion at 722 Steiner Street.

For whatever reason, it thrills me to no end to see the street that inspired the quilt pattern. 

Okay, so that took all of about five minutes, including parking time. We decided to stroll around the park for a bit. Everything in San Francisco seems so crowded together. This park was a little like being in New York's Central Park, albeit a whole lot smaller. There were some lovely cypress trees.

Turning around from that spot, we had an expansive view of the city. The Painted Ladies are at the bottom right corner of the image below.

And flowers were blooming. These yellow clusters were about as big as a tennis ball, and so you can imagine how small the blossoms were.

This next one appears to be some kind of lily.

And the California poppies are just beginning to bloom. It should be a banner year for them.

Okay, and then we back-tracked the way we came. This time we headed downhill on the steep grade. We had a beautiful view of the bay.

I couldn't resist taking pictures of some more houses.

We had a better view of the Golden Gate Bridge from this angle. The Golden Gate is a toll bridge, but the toll is only paid going in one direction. For us, it was $9 to cross. Steep, but it was the only money we shelled out for our travels to the area.

Here we go...back again.

On the far side of the bridge, we pulled off at a designated view point. Some folks were selling hot dogs there, and we were hungry. Looks pretty good, huh?

And I'm telling you, this was shaping up to be a perfect day.

From there we had a good view of the Oakland Bay Bridge and Alcatraz Island.

Here's a little close-up of Alcatraz. For those who aren't familiar with its story, Alcatraz has a many-layered history: Civil War fortress, military prison, federal prison, bird sanctuary, first lighthouse on the West Coast, and the birthplace of the American Indian Red Power movement. Nowadays, Alcatraz Island is a designated National Historic Landmark for its significant contribution to the nation's history.

After we'd snarfed down our hot dogs, we headed to the Point Bonita Lighthouse. For that, we passed through this one-lane tunnel. There was a traffic light at both ends with a sign that read "Five minute red light." Okay, so as we waited a short line of cars came through from the opposite direction, and then it was our turn to go.

Once there, we walked a path to reach the lighthouse. The Point Bonita lighthouse is considered a jewel of the Bay Area. It was built in 1855, and it was the third lighthouse built on the West Coast to shepherd ships through the treacherous Golden Gate straits. The lighthouse is still active and is maintained by the U.S. Coast Guard. 

From here, we had more stunning views of the bay. In the image below, look out past Mike, near the middle of the image, and you can see the foot bridge that leads to the lighthouse.

Along the way, this sign was posted.

And, oh my. I couldn't stop taking pictures of the seals lounging on the rocks below.

This one appears to be posing.

Also, we saw cormorants.

My pictures weren't that good.

I found this one on Creative Commons.

("Double-crested cormorant 2a" by gurdonark is licensed under CC BY 2.0.)

The hillsides were covered in wild calla lilies. We walked down a steep trail to the tunnel you see below.

Looking back, we could see the city and the bridge.

Okay, now before we continue, let's get the rules straight. If you're walking your dog, you'll need to tie it up here. And if you're on a bike, you might want to lock it up.

And how many times do we have to go over this, my friends? Please keep your arms and legs inside the trail limits at all times.

We walked through this short tunnel.

And voila! THERE IT IS!!! I'VE WANTED TO SEE THIS FOR SOOOOOOOOO LONG!!!

Walking to the other side of the bridge, it looked like this.

And here we go. Let's walk on out there.

The light is operational, although I wasn't able to capture its light as it blinked.

The structure below once housed a boiler room that operated the fog horn. 

There is a maximum of 50 visitors allowed across the bridge at any one time. We were easily under that yesterday. The ranger told us that Mondays are the best times to visit.

And check out the rust on these cables holding the bridge. Thus the 50 person maximum, although admittedly, that seems like a lot.

Inside the light structure there were some interesting signs. In the one below, we're standing at Point Bonita and looking back toward the bridge.

Here's a little display about how the light was powered through the years. It started with a whale oil lamp, and then "modernized" to a kerosene wick lamp, and even more modern with an incandescent oil vapor mantle lamp, to an even more modern electric incandescent lamp. As of 2023, it is powered with an LED.

And here's the lighthouse keepers home and family. (Sorry about the glare from my flash.) Sigh. I'm sure I was born about a century too late. I would have loved being the lighthouse keeper's wife, and Mike would have been well-suited to be the lighthouse keeper.

Looking north, it looks like this. That's the edge of our continent, my friends.

Walking back, we noticed these little mini daffodils. 

And blooming ice plant.

I don't know these next two, and I didn't think to ask my phone to tell me.

I already mentioned the wild calla lilies. They were so pretty.

Back home, we got Smitty outside for a walk of approximately 12 seconds. It gave him a chance to don his activewear to see if it still fits his ample bod. No problem.

And that was the end of a very good day. We couldn't believe our good weather fortune. The Point Bonita Lighthouse wasn't at the top of my bucket list, but it has been on the list for at least ten years. Nice to get a chance to see it after so many false starts.

So, we're still waiting to hear from the Starlink folks. Grrrrrrrrrrrrr. It's good to know they're located in Redmond, Washington, rather than some other far-flung place. I just want them to respond in a timely way, and more than 24 hours seems like too long, if you want my opinion. Maybe today. And speaking of today, we'll be moving on down the road a short distance. We're only traveling about 130 miles today, and so we can enjoy another leisurely morning. We are two days away from Escondido, where we will park for two weeks while we see some of our old stomping grounds and meet up with dear friends. There is still much to see on this trip, my friends, so sit tight.