![[SFBay view from Tel Hill]](http://towse.com/jpgs/thumbs/tn_DSCN6111.jpg)
February 28, 2007
February 20, 2007
San Francisco Street Art / Graffiti
Ryan pulled together a very well-done video collage of photos he took of San Francisco Street Art / Graffiti while he was tooling around the City on his bicycle in 2006.
Some of my favorites are here: Mona Caron’s Duboce Bikeway Mural, f’rex (visible from the N-Judah).
Some of my favorites aren’t in the collection: the mural on the side of the building at the NW corner of Columbus and Broadway (thx to karbon69 for the click) and “One Tree” by RIGO [photo by kootenayvolcano]. There are others not included, including the murals on some buildings on Bay just up from Tower Records, but I can’t find pictures. Guess I’ll have to make some of my own.
[YouTube link from a link Ryan posted to SFist/labs/contribute last month]
[note: flickr has photo pool for San Francisco/murals. Check it out if this sort of thing interests you.]
February 5, 2007
The Queen is visiting …
The Queen Mary 2 is in port, the largest ship ever to sail into the San Francisco Bay.
We walked over to Fort Mason to have a good look from one of the piers. (… and, of course, stopped by Book Bay at Fort Mason before we walked on home.)
Thousands of people lined the shore to greet the QM2 on its way in. The bay was filled with boats. Quite a turnout considering the Super Bowl was competition for all the attention at the waterfront.
The QM2 was due in at 3P but didn’t show until 4P. Just as well for us as we’d stopped on our way at Pompei’s Grotto for some crab sandwich lunches.
The story was that the waves were a bit rugged outside the Gate and the bar pilot had difficulty getting aboard. Or it may have been a different reason. Stories scattered like pigeons in front of an unleashed puppy.
What was true was that once in port, the QM2 had to spend hours hanging around off Treasure Island until the bar pilot finally docked her at 8P. The tides in the bay are pretty strong and the bar pilot wanted to bring the QM2 in while the tide was changing for full to ebb and moving least.
Tricky maneuvering. We watched as this huge mammoth inched into Pier 27 and tied up.
The bulk of the passengers offload today to spend some time in San Francisco and then head home. An equal number of boarding passengers replace those leaving and continue with the ship on its journey around the world.
QM2 leaves tonight at 8P when, again, the tides will be changing.
 QM2 comes through the Golden Gate
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 QM2 w/ greeting from fire boat |
 QM2 Boats! and the USCG helicopter
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 welcoming crowd at Fort Mason pier
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 QM2 passing Alcatraz |
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 Pier 27 night shot while docking
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 Pier 27 Monday AM
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January 25, 2007
Images … around town
The QE2 was in town today.
I wouldn’t have known if I didn’t read sfist.com
His nibs said, ya, he knew. He just didn’t know when she was going to arrive.
We heard the departure klaxon loud blast (who knew that Klaxon was an existing trademark?) blare at 9p and thought the QE2 was heading out of town.
Being in the midst of eating dinner, we paid it no nevermind.
The klaxon loud blast blared again at 10p and his nibs headed up to the deck to see what he could see.
He called me upstairs and I tried to take pictures. Note the long bow on this ship. Talk about retro!
What you don’t see is the phalanx (well, not really. We’re talking four boats max.) of coast guard boats blocking anyone from coming through while the QE2 backs out from her berth. I imagine there was a similar phalanx on the other side of the ship.
I just couldn’t get a good, un-jiggled picture. My Coolpix 5600 is a way good camera, but it’s not set up for certain things. For this picture I used the “museum” special setting. The “night” setting just didn’t cut it.
Also seen about town, a night or three ago, a very sharp car (Tennessee Highway Patrol in that STAR on the door) down at the bottom of the Montgomery Steps at Green.
January 15, 2007
Corner of Lombard and Hyde
Don wasn’t quite sure where he’d been the other day, when he wished he’d had his camera with him.
I suspect he was at the corner of Lombard and Hyde. [photos follow]
Yesterday we spent our Sunday afternoon doing the usual: looking at
(1) quaint studio cottage on Kearny, just south of Filbert, ‘neath Coit Tower. Cobbled together from four earthquake cottages. Sold furnished. $779K. No parking, of course. No views.
(2) 401 Union St #101. A nice 1BR/1BA condo at Union and Kearny. Parking. $595K, which comes to a price per sq ft of $792.28. Agent said he already had two prospective offers and another agent was bringing by a client. Good deal, he said, in a nice neighborhood, when I asked him what he really thought of the price.
(3) $6.5m house for sale up on Russian Hill (owner, she of Legally Blonde, has moved to LA). For $6.5m I’d expect a more dazzling view than just interrupted snippets of the Golden Gate Bridge. Nice roof deck. Sound system throughout. Lovely wood floors. Delightful custom artwork on the walls of the young child’s room. (Owl and the Pussycat, Dish and Spoon, piggies, &c.) Far more bookcases that I usually see in a house, but … $6.5m? I don’t care if it is huge and historic, a Pueblo Revival house designed by Charles F. Whittlesey, one of the houses on Russian Hill built for Norman Banks Livermore. THERE IS NO ZILLION DOLLAR VIEW. This place is not worth $6.5m without a view.
Wandered further until it was time to head home before heading out to dinner.
These photos were taken yesterday (Sunday) from the corner of Lombard (that crookedest street) and Hyde (where the Hyde Street Cable Car runs down to the Bay). Sunny day. I happened to have my camera with me.
Click on photos for larger images.
Looking east toward Telegraph Hill. You can see the red cranes behind Yerba Buena Island and the new Bay Bridge eastern span under construction. Cone-shaped Mount Diablo in the far distance.
Looking north toward Alcatraz.
If the day had been slower, if there hadn’t been cars barreling up Hyde from the Bay and cars inching onto Lombard from three directions, if I hadn’t had my doubts whether people would notice me standing in their way, I would’ve done what some other hardy souls did, I would’ve stood in the middle of Hyde to take the picture of Alcatraz, but, instead, you get this picture with a bit of tree on both sides.
Lovely day, though.
January 13, 2007
APOD: 2007 January 13 – Comet Over Krakow
APOD: 2007 January 13 – Comet Over Krakow
Almost caught it this morning, but the sun had already tipped up above the eastern foothills by the time I got out of bed. Headed off to Liguria Bakery for rosemary focaccia and rosemary/garlic focaccia in lieu. Ym.
Frederic Larson caught an interesting glimpse of the McNaught a couple days ago.
Update: Keera snapped it too!
Update 2: More on McNaught from msnbc.
January 2, 2007
Fog burns off
Funny fog we had today down our neck of the City.
The folks at SFist had a blog post and picture of a sunny day at Balboa and 42nd Ave and mused about why they were hearing fog horns blowing when they could see no fog.
At the same general time where we are, which is seldom foggy, we had something like this:
We watched (and I chronicled) the fog dissipate leaving us a beautiful day:
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A glimpse into my future, or so I’d like to believe.
Click on either picture for the sequence of photos.
May 13, 2005
PhotoFriday challenge: ‘Space’
PhotoFriday challenge: ‘Space’
The Greek theatre in Siracusa, Sicily. 