Category: Places

Categories
Photography Places

Don’t breathe!

Recovered from the Wayback Machine.

 

Today, four cranes made their way underneath the San Franciscan Bay Bridge, necessitating closure of the bridge temporarily. The closure was to prevent the weight of the cars from lowering the bridge span, an undesirable effect considering that clearance between the cranes and the Bay Bridge is only 22 inches — a very squeaky fit, indeed.

Since San Franciscans are always on the lookout for a good party, several folks showed up to witness the crane passage, and the sky was full of helicopters.

Luckily, no one breathed and the cranes made it safely through.

(See related story in SF Gate.)

Categories
Places

Embarcadero

Recovered from the Wayback Machine.

The doctor is in. I’ve prescribed myself a daily walk along the Embarcadero, gradually extending the distance until I walk the Bridge to Bridge — Bay Bridge to Golden Gate Bridge and back. Over 12 miles. I figured I’ll make my goal by end of May. 2004.

If you’ve never been to San Francisco, the Embarcadero is the road that follows the Bay, providing access to attractions such as the world-famous cable cars, Ghiradelli Square, Fisherman’s Wharf, and Pier 39. The sidewalk along the water side of the road is extra wide, providing plenty of room for bikers, walkers, joggers, inline skaters and skate boarders.

Palm trees line the road, and the sun and breeze are in your face. There’s plenty of breaks between the waterfront buildings to stop and watch the seagulls, pelicans, and other sea birds, as well as the sailboats and freighters. If you get tired of watching the water-based wildlife turn inwards toward the road and watch the stretch limos, stretch Humvees, and stretch SUVs flow past.

Near the Ferries, I walked behind three backpacking kids, tattooed and body pierced to the point that you wonder how they can hold water when they drink.

At Pier 23, a bike passes to my left, ridden by a guy in a red athletic suit, wearing a gold crown with color coordinated red velvet lining. Yesterday another bike rider had a basket attached to his handlebar containing a black cat, front paws on the basket edge, nose into the wind.

Near Pier 30, skate boarders have claimed a wide section of the sidewalk, testing their agility against the cement blocks that are placed all throughout the Embarcadero. The California rite of passage — skate boarding without pads, daring each other to wilder and wilder maneuvers. Strangely graceful. Oddly beautiful. Brainless.

I stopped today at Pier 33 and stood leaning against the wooden fence, looking out into the Bay. I noticed a very old motor-powered wooden boat heading towards me, riding very low on the water. As it got close to shore, the pilot turned the boat so that the side faced land and I saw it was loaded with tourists, all with cameras pointed straight towards me.

What?

I looked behind me and noticed that I was between the tourists and a great shot of Telegraph Hill and Coit Tower.

Oh.


Categories
Connecting Diversity People Places

The kindness of strangers

If you know San Francisco than you know the Castro district. It’s colorful, interesting, lively, unique, and the center of gay activities in a city that’s known to be very gay friendly. All in all, it’s a fun place to walk, shop, whatever, because the people in the area are about the friendliest there are in the city.

Every year, the citizens of the Castro area throw a huge Halloween party. Cross dressers will spend months creating the outfits they’ll wear this night, and travel — by limo — from place to place showing off their finery. Over time, the straights discovered that, hey, the folks in Castro are having a great time. Next thing you know, the street party in Castro is _the_ place to be, Halloween night.

Unfortunately, the last few years, there’s been some good Christian boys who have deemed it their moral duty to show up on Halloween in order to attempt to beat to death anyone gay they might find.

It’s interesting, but in my quest to see how many people I can piss off with my “left coast leftist liberal” bias, I’ve talked about every “right” in this weblog except gay rights and the right to die. I’ll leave the right to die to another day.

Gay rights: I’m straight. I have gay and straight friends. I don’t understand homophobia. And the government and everyone’s neighbor does NOT have to be involved with how a person practices their own form of sexuality as long as the practice is between consenting adults. And if two people want to get married, let them. End of story.

I was in Castro today to go the clinic. My doctor was wonderful. In fact, the clinic is full of doctors who entered medicine because they care about people rather than to make as much money as possible. Gives one a lot of hope for the medical community.

Categories
Places

Nice Day

Recovered from the Wayback Machine.

I heard a rumor that the weather has been a bit nasty in parts of the country. Since we all know that I’m a sharing person, I thought I would share this absolutely beautiful spring like day in San Fran with those of you who are suffering from cold, snow, biting winds, and various other acts of Mother Nature going “Think you’re hot, huh! Well, take this!”

I went for a walk along my favorite beach, and grabbed a few pics for you all. One’s down below, and the others are Walk pic two and Walk pic three.

No, no. You don’t have to thank me for this act of sharing and generosity. Glad to do it.

Guess what! The Bloggers with Attitude weblog ring now has 28 member weblogs!

Categories
Travel

Trip home

Only a few pics from this trip. I’m saving one for a story I’m trying to write. Photos were from Kansas (which can be both pretty and interesting if you look at it the right way) and Colorado. I didn’t even try and get anything from New Mexico or Arizona — both of which are just too beautiful for words.

Perfect weather all across the trip. Vistas like you wouldn’t believe. There was a sunset over Gallup, New Mexico, that sprayed Mercurochrome pink and violet and orange all over the sky. On I25 through Colorado, deep rust meets brilliant blue skys and cool green and pristine white of snow, lavendar of moutains. You can literally wrap yourself in the color. North of Santa Fe the Rockies meets the Grand Canyon — two worlds mixing.

If you’ve taken I25 or I40 or there abouts, you know what I’m talking about. If you haven’t, then get off your butt right now and plan your trip.

I’ll be your tour guide.