My Last Day in San Francisco

I almost forgot to post my photos and info from my last day in San Francisco. That was, of course, last Friday, February 18th. First of all, for the first time all week, the weather was BEAUTIFUL! I couldn't have asked for a better day. It was mostly sunny, with a slight breeze and the temperature in the mid-60s. So after the final conference sessions were over in the morning, and with about 4 hours until I needed to be back at the hotel to catch my ride to the airport, I headed out for a little sightseeing.

The pictures from the trip are here. Sorry they're not very high quality; I don't have a high-quality digital camera. I only have the one built in to my smartphone, so at least I had a camera I could use. Everything I describe in this account has photos with it, so you can follow along.

First, I got to ride one of the old-style trolley cars, the Rice-a-Roni/Mr. Rogers kind. They use WOODEN brakes, and it's interesting to smell the charring wood when they apply the brakes on the hills. It's also interesting to watch the crews park the trolley on the turntable and MANUALLY push the turntable around so that the trolley may be turned around to go back the way it came.

I saw the Golden Gate Bridge and Alcatraz (both from a distance but still very cool). Again, you can see the Golden Gate Bridge in movies and pictures and such, but you can't appreciate the immensity of it until you see it with you own eyes. I saw an awesome 256-foot square-rigged sailing ship from 1886 called the Balclutha. It is docked at the old Hyde Street Pier, which used to be part of Highway 101 and ran a ferry across the bay until the Golden Gate Bridge was built. I saw apartment/condo buildings with huge balconies on their roofs, presumably for the lucky people in the top-floor apartments, and I wondered what they would cost. A top-floor apartment with a roof balcony that looks out over San Francisco Bay and the Golden Gate Bridge? I'm thinking at least both arms and a leg, with the option of a breast or testicle in lieu of one of the arms (they have flexible payment plans).

I saw a Chinese guy on the beach, creating pillars of rocks by balancing them one on top of the other; that was amazing in itself. I walked by once and he had only three or four pillars built, but when I walked back by he had six or seven pillars built. You'll see him in the pictures.

It was a very good day. Thanks for reading along.