Marin Headlands

San Francisco

May 18, 2014

For the second day of my parent's visit, we spent the day in and around San Francisco.

Palace of Fine Arts, San Francisco, CA

Mute Swan

We started our day in Oakland at Lake Merritt looking for Hank the Pelican.  No luck.  Then, Mom wanted to see the Greek Orthodox church on Lincoln.  I had no idea where Lincoln was, but I knew there was a Greek Orthodox church right next to the Mormon Temple in the hills, so we drove there.  Sure enough, that was the one.  She didn't want to go in or anything, so we just did a drive by and headed over to the city.

Palace of Fine Arts, San Francisco, CA

Our first stop in San Francisco was the Palace of Fine Arts.  I like taking visitors here because not only is it beautiful it's also completely and utterly worthless.  One of San Francisco's most endearing traits to me is its ability and willingness to build things for no other reason than "Hey, man, it would be cool."  The Palace of Fine Arts is perhaps its finest example.

The original building was left over from the 1915 World Expo.  The people of that era liked this particular part of the expo so much that when it came time to tear it down along with all the other buildings of the expo they couldn't bring themselves to do it, so they kept it around.  That original building lasted into the sixties, but it wasn't built to last nearly that long.  It fell into disrepair, but the people of that era were no more ready to give up the building than the people from the 1910s, so they put a bunch of money together and built the cement replica that stands today.

Palace of Fine Arts, San Francisco, CA

We went to a French cafe in the Marina for lunch.  Then we headed over to Marin to take in the views from the Headlands.  It was windy up there, but the skies were clear so we could see for miles.

Marin Headlands, CA

Pocket Gopher

My parents wanted to walk across the bridge but we missed the exits and didn't feel like back-tracking, so we went to Golden Gate Park instead.  My mom and I walked from the bison paddock to the beach while Dad doubled back to pick us up.  We saw a gopher on the walk.  Not a gopher hole.  A gopher.  I don't think I've ever actually seen one in a natural setting before.

Golden Gate Park, San Francisco, CA

The windmills in the park are also good examples of San Francisco's useless beauty.  They were originally functional, supplying the power needed to pump water in the park.  They were replaced by electric pumps decades ago.  Both windmills were recently rebuilt, again because some people got it into their heads that it would be a cool thing to do.

Golden Gate Park, San Francisco, CA

Marin Headlands & Lake Merritt

March 23, 2014

I didn't have the opportunity for a big adventure this weekend.  I was able to get away for a few hours, though, so I headed over to Marin to visit Rodeo Lagoon.

Rodeo Beach, CA

I read that there are often a lot of birds on the lagoon.  Not so, at least not when I got there.  There were a few canada geese and mallards.  A common merganser made an appearance at one point.  I saw a few surf scoters out on the ocean, but they were too far out to photograph.  So, I just spent a little time relaxing on the beach.  I watched the surfers.  The waves were big and they seemed to be having a great time out there.

Great Blue Heron -- Rodeo Lagoon, CA

I decided to stop at Lake Merritt on my way home.  I was in the mood for getting some bird pictures and Rodeo Lagoon had proven to be something of a disappointment in that regard.  It was a lovely day at the beach, mind you.  I just wanted more birds.

Hank -- Lake Merritt, Oakland, CA

Hank was there, of course.  He's a white pelican from Klamath Falls, OR.  He was injured up there a few years ago and sent down to the lake to live.  I wasn't aware of this until recently, but Lake Merritt is the oldest wildlife reserve in the country.  The folks there take good care of him, feeding him fish, which you can witness first-hand if you're lucky.  I get the impression Hank is pretty happy, all things considered.

Greater Scaup -- Lake Merritt, Oakland, CA

Lesser Scaup

I've gotten better at telling greater scaups and lesser scaups apart.  Greater scaups always look angry.  Lesser scaups usually look either a little dopey or "cool" in an Arthur Fonzerelli kind of way.  Simple, right?

Black-crowned Night Heron -- Lake Merritt, Oakland, CA

Eared Grebe

A horned grebe and an eared grebe were sporting breeding plumage out on the lake.  They'll be heading off North soon, I suppose, along with most of the other waterfowl.  Not Hank, of course, he can't fly.

 Lake Merritt, Oakland, CA

Bolinas Lagoon and the Marin Headlands

Pongo Finds His Groove
June 30. 2013

Soundtrack:

• Wire Train -- In a Chamber . . .
• Heatmiser -- Mic City Sons

If you know Pongo, you know he's a bit of a nervous dog.  He's a rescue dog who was picked up as a stray when he was probably five months old.  We suspect being a stray was probably traumatic for him.  Whenever I've taken him out in the past he's been OK for a couple of hours, but then he kind of shuts down and you can tell he just wants to go home.  That all seems to have changed with our last trip to Pinnacles National Park.  He seems to have figured out that he's not going to get lost and he's not going to be abandoned somewhere.  He seemed to have a lot of fun on that trip and this one.  I can see it's going to be harder for me to leave him at home for my weekend adventures.

Pongo Assumes His Navigator Duties

We stuck pretty close to home on this trip.  With the temperature expected to be 110 degrees in Sacramento, I wasn't about to head inland.  I figured the beaches would be jammed, but wanted to stay close to the coast.  I've been wanting to check out Bolinas Lagoon and saw that dogs were allowed on a leash, so that's where we headed.

Turkey Vulture on the Mud Flat

It turns out there's not a lot of hiking to be done around Bolinas Lagoon.  Highway One runs right along the shore.  There are plenty of turnouts, though, and it's easy to get right down to the water.  So, we stopped often and I took pictures while Pongo explored the water and mud.

Harbor Seals

You may have noticed Pongo's always on a leash in the pictures.  He's actually pretty good about sticking close to me.  When he's not hunting in the bushes along the trailside he keeps a close eye on me.  When he finds something in the bushes, though, he charges hard.  I suspect if it wasn't for the leash he'd pursue until he came to his senses and realized he's lost.  Perhaps in a couple of years he'll be ready to walk without a leash.  Until then, though, I suspect we're both more comfortable being tethered together.

Who's Barking?

After watching the birds and seals on the lagoon for a while, we headed down the coast.  We passed Stinson Beach, which was packed as I'd imagined it would be.  That wasn't our destination, anyway.  I wanted to checkout the Marin Headlands, which is a place I'd been a couple of times in high school during college visitations at Simpson.

Golden Gate Bridge

The Headlands have some of the best available views of the Golden Gate Bridge.  During World War II the Army built a bunch of big gun turrets on the hills which have been retained.  They're fun to explore.

An Unfinished Turret from World War II

The Point Bonita Lighthouse is out below the turrets at the Southwest point of the Headlands.  It's a working lighthouse that requires a suspension bridge to be reached.  I say it's working because the light was on when we were there, I'm not sure it's actually needed anymore, though.

Point Bonita Lighthouse

As usual, we saw a lot of deer as we walked along the trails of the Headlands.  Deer just aren't too bothered by people in these parts.  Counting those I see while driving to work, I suspect I see a deer as often as not on any given day, and they're almost guaranteed to be seen when going anywhere outdoors in Northern California.

Columbian Black-tailed Doe

This beautiful doe was serving as a lookout.  She was with almost a dozen other deer, including a few spotted fawns.  I watched the little ones hop around like schoolchildren while Pongo searched the bushes for a bird or squirrel.

We drove home through San Francisco.  There are no more toll takers on the bridge, the tolls are all electronic.  I suppose I'll get something in the mail.  All in all, it was a nice, mellow day for me and the dog.