San Francisco: a morning with Painted Ladies

Feeling like a seasoned traveller here in San Francisco, on and off the Muni, destination Alamo Square, a historic precinct with colorful Victorian row houses. The park has a view across to downtown San Francisco that is immortalized in a photo taken from this spot of the city burning after the 1906 earthquake. Its a peaceful place.

Alamo Square with the view across the Painted Ladies to downtown.

San Francisco is known for residential streets lined with highly decorated Victorian Era row houses dating from 1860's through to 1900. They are narrow, regularly spaced with lavish decorative wood elements and beautifully painted.

Queen Anne houses, most photographed in San Francisco

and they are so worthy of all the attention!

Narrow in the front and deep into the stand below, how well they manage the hill.

Walking around the square was a visual treat and sometimes

just a little bizarre.

This is the view from Alamo Square back towards Stanyan Street, below the trees in the centre of the photo - home for the week.

San Francisco: Alcatraz

A warm sunny day in San Francisco for a ferry ride across to Alcatraz, all looked inviting...

As we got closer and the buildings come into view the mood changed.

Until one lands.
Immediately I noticed the lack of color, the signage becomes really grim and a reminder of what the history of the island over the last few centuries.

The all seeing guardhouse as sentinel along the pathway to the cell house.

Desolation of crumbling buildings and the story starts.

Infamous cell house from the exercise yard, I am cold and windswept in this photo and feeling low.

The wardens lived in this mansion with a glorious view towards San Francisco but a few steps away from the cell house

Final image which says it all….

San Francisco: Alcatraz Cellhouse

The highlight of the Alcatraz visit was the audio tour of the Cell house, narrated by ex prisoners and the  guards.

The Cell house was smaller than we expected but also looms so large when you are inside, the 3 levels rise in steps above you with skylights letting in cold watery light.

Its bleak. The cells are narrow with a miniature loo and basin.

The kitchen that apparently served its captives well

Walking out into the exercise yard against the force of the wind made my eyes water.
This was a privilege?

Steps to the exercise yard.

Fred in isolation in D facility, tempted to leave him there!

Solitary, 'the Holes'

Home to 1576 prisoners over the 30 or so years before closing in March 1963. These cells held about 260 prisoners at any point in time. The photos of the 4 wardens that managed Alcatraz over the years looked even more intimidating than the prisoners…

Oh my, I left feeling low and it took a long walk along the Embarcadero to cheer me up.

PS: we visited on the 11 June which is also the date of the infamous escape in 1962, where the 3 prisoners dug through their vents with spoons, which took over a year….

San Francisco: a lifer on Alcatraz

The island a strange mix of life and color from the breeding birds and the loving tended gardens and the sombre tones of the crumbling buildings with their history of human suffering.

My unexpected lifer on Alcatraz, Brandt's Cormorant in full breeding plumage, sky pointing his bright blue throat pouch.

California Poppy

We were driving out along Point Reyes National Seashore and John pointed out the quiet fragile beauty of the California Poppy, the state flower. Treat to find some this late into summer and the field of yellow is quite a sight.

And how different from the suburban flowers we have been seeing along our city walk.

Hanging baskets on the Promenade, San Francisco

Bougainvillea and 'beetle' juniper trees, San Francisco

Secret garden along a stairway, Telegraph Hill

San Francisco: Ferry Building and Chinatown

Two quite different shopping experiences, produce from Stockton Street in Chinatown, in your face smells and chaotic. Versus the gentile organic upmarket produce from the revamped Ferry Building in downtown San Francisco. 

Fred has been missing finding pies here in the US, so very excited to pick up a beef pot pie from the Golden Gate Meat Company in the ferry building.

Graceful Ferry Building, San Francisco

San Francisco: Cable Cars and Stairways

Oh boy the map of San Francisco does not show the hills. And such steep hills too. No wonder it has become a city of many staircases connecting cul de sacs, streets and neighbourhoods. Some of them secret linkages with lovingly tended gardens, others purely functional.

But the hero of the hills has to be the cable cars, whether grinding up Nob's Hill or navigating the Hyde - Powell line, the trickiest of them all. What a treat to sit and watch the city at work and at play.

The vision and foresight to preserve and to continue to invest in the cable cars makes San Francisco so unique.

Fred hanging on, camera in hand loving the rides.

The Cable Car Museum, a must to understand how they run!

'Flying' down California Street at 9.5 miles an hour

Foodie Interlude: Sonoma Valley

How I love the intersections and circles of life. 

Shawni and Craig bought me a luscious jalepeno olive oil when they were traveling in California after Craig's JIT in New York a few years ago. That oil, as well as reading Tom Mueller's 'Extra Virginity' has set me on a path to try the best olive oils that I can find. So yesterday I was at The Olive Press in Sonoma, buying the self same oil for Shawni and me.

I am finding different olive varietals here to try and I bought a robust Koroneiki evo oil, quite sublime, green and peppery. Pared with a fig balsamic, yum, now looking for organic leaves and baguette...

 No visit to Sonoma must pass without finding good food paired with delicious local wine. Our choice was a win, the girl and the fig. Our San Fran hosts John and John were fun touring and lunch partners, thanks again for making this week possible!

"Country food with a French passion" is the way I describe the food at the girl & the fig.  We are blessed to live & work in a beautiful place, with fertile land, and talented producers.  We know where most of our food products are coming from, and many of these ingredients are actually farmed by our own staff. Join us at the table with your friends and family - relax, have a nice meal with a glass of wine or a cocktail. Tell a story, laugh a bit, create a memory and share our passion.

San Francisco: Golden Gate Bridge

San Francisco in the summer is about the fog and the mood it creates around the Golden Gate Bridge.

I am enthralled by the swirling, fast moving fog, the digital foghorn and this most gorgeous red bridge. We have arrived and are excited to spend the week here.

               Fabulous Golden Gate Bridge viewed from Golden Gate Park

Golden Gate Bridge from the Marin Headlands