At Home He Feels Like a Tourist

Blue Angels practicing for their show last Friday afternoon.

We're So Happy to See You

The door to the Rite-Spot Cafe, 17th and Folsom Streets.

Pagoda Moon

Early morning at Grant & California.

Drink Up, Lads!

I know Tom needs a martini today, because he missed out on the Guinness here yesterday.

Wind in the Trees

Another of my "Impressionisms in a Hurry." This one, made with a tripod in my backyard, is better large.

Martini Monday

Posting it early, because it's going to be a very long day before I get a real one...

Shadow Shot Sunday: Mr Coffee Hits the Street

People leave the strangest things on my street. A late afternoon shot of this abandoned coffee maker seems like the perfect entry for Shadow Shot Sunday. To see some of last week's work, go here.

Having a Bad Dream

A juxtaposition of different types of art makes for something perhaps a bit nightmarish in Myrtle Alley just off Larkin Street...

Navets

At the Marché des Enfants Rouge

Travel Thursday: National Parks

Crater Lake National Park, designated 1902 (taken August 2005)

Yes, of course ('of course' to anyone who knows me) I've been watching the Ken Burns series (still making my way through it on DVR). It's perfect for me, not just because of my love of wildness and natural beauty, but because we were raised on the National Parks.

But it's bittersweet, because the happy memories I relive as I watch it are inextricably tied to our parents. I absorbed from them the idea that National Parks were special, that the magic phrase 'National Park' meant we were in store for something amazing. At home I would browse the big book with the pictures of the National Parks and dream of visiting Crater Lake or Mammoth Hot Springs in Yellowstone or Bryce Canyon or Carlsbad Caverns.

In 1969 we did an epic family trip from New Jersey to Wisconsin to Wyoming to New Mexico to Colorado and back--visiting Devil's Tower, Yellowstone, Grand Teton, Flaming Gorge, Dinosaur, Carlsbad , Rocky Mountain, and probably some I don't recall right now.

In 1975, I first visited Yosemite on a drizzly weekend with my father and my best friend; at Glacier Point we watched patiently as the clouds parted a little at a time, revealing bits and pieces of the grandeur. In 1978, we spent a week visiting Sequoia-Kings Canyon. In 1993, all of us grown and some with children, we all got together in Yosemite. Again in Yosemite in 2003, the last time we were all together--parents, kids, and grandkids. And other trips in between.

Personal history aside, it's a great story, and Burns gives it its due. "America's best idea" might be hyperbole, but only just. The execution hasn't been perfect, but despite all the compromises, the well-intentioned mistakes, the philosophical confusion, and the often unclean hands, the National Parks idea is extraordinary and admirable.

More...

Mesa Verde National Park, designated 1906 (taken August 1969)


Half Dome and the Clark Range from the top of Yosemite Falls, Yosemite National Park, designated 1890 (taken January 1991)


Manzanar National Historic Site, designated 1985 (taken March 2008)


Point Reyes Beach in Point Reyes National Seashore, designated 1962 (taken in 2000)


Redfish Lake, Sawtooth National Recreation Area, designated 1972 (taken June 2004)


View from Moro Rock, Sequoia National Park, designated 1890 (taken August 2009)


At Chasm Lake in Rocky Mountain National Park, designated 1915 (taken August 1969)


Zabriskie Point in Death Valley National Park, designated National Monument in 1933 and National Park in 1994 (taken March 2008)


Marin Headlands, Golden Gate National Recreation Area, designated 1972


Grouse Meadow, Kings Canyon National Park, designated 1940 (taken August 1999)

Last Game of the Season

The Giants' season ended in San Diego on Sunday; my last home game was last Wednesday night. Late in the game, I took some time to wander around the concourse taking a few pictures. This one is my favorite.

Intertube

Girls Girls Girls

I see this on my way home from work every day. Yesterday I walked down to the neighborhood it's in to shoot some pictures of a crew filming an episode of NBC's Trauma, and decided I needed a picture of this place.

Martini Monday

Sorry--looks like somebody already drank this one. You'll just have to go make yourself another.

In My Neighborhood

Yeah, another shot of St. Ignatius. So sue me.

Shadow Shot Sunday

A tennis player at the Bay Club from the 28th floor of my office building.

It's fun to play along--learn how! And while you're at it, check out some of last week's.

Shadow Shot Shield

Hey, long time no Shadow Shot Sunday for me. Here's one to keep my hand in, taken at my friends Mike and Kris' place in Southern California last August. If you'd like to see some of last week's entries, just go here.

Pram

If you leave something interesting or unusual on the streets of San Francisco, chances are I'll take a picture of it.

Blue Hallways

Lobby of 180 Montgomery in San Francisco.

Travel Thursday: Chengdu Koi Pond

Just one today because I'm busy. But I think it's a pretty good one.

Mattress Detritus

Saw this on the sidewalk just outside the entrance to my building one morning last week when I was on my way out to work. The night before, a homeless person had been bundled up and sleeping on it. It was all gone, the mattress and all the junk around it, when I got home at the end of the day.

In My Neighborhood: Martini Monday is Over

...At least for this week it is. The Lush Lounge is moving to a new spot a block up Polk Street, and they're taking their signature security gates with them.

Martini Monday

Bombay Sapphire, of course, in a glass I got free with a 1.75 of Sapphire many years ago.

Wetland

One of my hobbies is fighting to protect these areas. See an alternate take of this one here.

Egghead

One half of "Yin and Yang", a sculpture by Robert Arneson at Embarcadero and Clay (which has changed a lot since this painting).

Shadow Shot Sunday explained; a selection of last week's is here.

Boulangerie

Near the Place de la Bastille

Sorry, I've got nothing, so I'll work the archives. I busted my point-and-shoot taking personal stuff recently and I just got a teeny tiny replacement. And I have an idea worth picking up the DSLR for one of these days. So I'll be back. But, damn, do I need to go on a trip.

Travel Thursday: Motels of Hwy 395

Bridgeport, CA

Highway 395, skirting the eastern edge of California for most of the length of the state, then skipping into Nevada for a while before coming back to the Golden State and heading up to Oregon and points north, is probably my favorite road in all of the US. I've spent many, many hours going north and south on that road, and expect I will log many, many more before I shuffle off this mortal coil. Here are just a few of the motel signs that can be seen on a stretch of about 100 miles of this fascinating highway, from Lee Vining, CA, to Carson City, NV.

More...



Walker, CA


Carson City, NV


Lee Vining, CA


Topaz, NV


Bridgeport, CA


Minden, NV


Walker, CA


Walker, CA


Carson City, NV


Lee Vining, CA


Bridgeport, CA

Power Lines and Clouds in Asphalt

We arrived in Bridgeport late Saturday afternoon and missed the rain by about half an hour, but there was plenty of water on the ground to let us know it had been through there. This was in the parking lot of the Redwood Motel.

We were lucky to get a room there at all, seeing as how it was the big E Clampus Vitus annual get-together that weekend. All the other motels and hotels in town were full of Clampers. Dinner at Rhino's that night was a sea of red shirts and Clamper badges.

Say Goodbye to the Sawtooths

Guess where I was last week?