Wacko Beach
Mar. 23rd, 2012 07:34 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
peterbirksI had about 90 minutes' rest after my hill trek before setting out to catch the bus to Ocean Beach. After all, the weather had been beautiful Wednesday morning.
I'd had the idea to walk out to Lands End, part of a trek to the north of Ocean Beach that includes the Legion of Honour Museum, and then bends round to the north and to the right towards the Golden Gate Bridge. If you carry on along the coast line you get to Baker Beach and China Beach -- more protected from the ravages of the Pacific, but still vulnerable to mist. Oh, and it's also naturist in places, gay in places, and both in places. Just sayin'.
Instead of walking east to Powell and Bush, I turned left at Mason and Bush, a block earlier. The difference is palpable. You are on the edge of/actually IN the Tenderloin here, and if you look west along Ellis as you walk down the hill, you can see the handout station.
Staying at the Hotel Frank is not such a great idea at the moment. That picket line has apparently been their forever in some kind of union dispute with the hotel. And they are VERY LOUD.
I caught the 38 bus on Geary St, heading west. One thing that the maps don't evoke (because they seriously compress everything west of Twin Peaks) is how far it is to get to Ocean Beach, even though you stay on Geary Boulevard the whole way. It's about six miles is my guess. Certainly far enough for the weather to change. San Francisco is about 200 different microclimates, I think.
See how the weather changes.
At Geary and 48th, this is the Ocean end of the Golden Gate Park. That isn't smoke; it's fog.
A view down to the abandoned Sutro Baths. Not a Roman relic, but something that was popular 100 years ago, and only this now remains.
Looking south along Ocean Beach at about 5.30pm.
That wave at the back was about 10 feet high.
Looking North, although the fog made it hard to tell.
Something for Mr Webley
Warning, artistic mode ahoy.
These fires can be lit between entrances 15 and 20 on Ocean Beach.
I had walked a mile or so south along the beach. The Golden Gate Park is on my right.
And suddenly the sun comes out again!
I turned left and walked back into town along, er, Lincoln I think, with the south side of the park to my left. I then turned right around 37th Avenue, finally reaching the north end of Sunset Boulevard.
On Sunset Boulevard.
Sunset Boulevard ... unfortunately the northern, less interesting end.
Then I caught the N-route streetcar home. This becomes an underground train before it gets into town, which explains why I had only ever seen the F route on Market Street! They are clearly heavily used commuter routes, because even at 7.30pm the streetcars going the other way were very crowded.
I then went to watch Glengarry Glen Ross at the Actors Theatre of San Francisco, which is next door to the hotel. Not cheap at $38, but San Francisco is an expensive place to live. Indeed, looking at the prices of 'reasonable' but not excessive properties, it seems to me that the price of property is about 150% that of my apartment in London. That would make San Francisco, pound for pound, significantly more expensive than Nice.
I'd seen the film of GGR, but never the stage version. This play had the disadvantage of it being a small co-operative, so a couple of the roles weren't quite right, age-wise. But there were a couple of excellent performances. On the other hand, a couple of the actors were performing as if they were in a 500-seater rather than an 80-seater.
After that it was a quick pizza takeaway from Uncle Vito's This pizza place (and a few others, I suspect) is run by Hispanics, rather than Italians. Pizzas still good though. Although, once again, not cheap.
After that I was happy to crash out. For Thursday my plan was to hit Twin Peaks.
++++++++++++++++
I'd had the idea to walk out to Lands End, part of a trek to the north of Ocean Beach that includes the Legion of Honour Museum, and then bends round to the north and to the right towards the Golden Gate Bridge. If you carry on along the coast line you get to Baker Beach and China Beach -- more protected from the ravages of the Pacific, but still vulnerable to mist. Oh, and it's also naturist in places, gay in places, and both in places. Just sayin'.
Instead of walking east to Powell and Bush, I turned left at Mason and Bush, a block earlier. The difference is palpable. You are on the edge of/actually IN the Tenderloin here, and if you look west along Ellis as you walk down the hill, you can see the handout station.
Staying at the Hotel Frank is not such a great idea at the moment. That picket line has apparently been their forever in some kind of union dispute with the hotel. And they are VERY LOUD.
I caught the 38 bus on Geary St, heading west. One thing that the maps don't evoke (because they seriously compress everything west of Twin Peaks) is how far it is to get to Ocean Beach, even though you stay on Geary Boulevard the whole way. It's about six miles is my guess. Certainly far enough for the weather to change. San Francisco is about 200 different microclimates, I think.
See how the weather changes.
At Geary and 48th, this is the Ocean end of the Golden Gate Park. That isn't smoke; it's fog.
A view down to the abandoned Sutro Baths. Not a Roman relic, but something that was popular 100 years ago, and only this now remains.
Looking south along Ocean Beach at about 5.30pm.
That wave at the back was about 10 feet high.
Looking North, although the fog made it hard to tell.
Something for Mr Webley
Warning, artistic mode ahoy.
These fires can be lit between entrances 15 and 20 on Ocean Beach.
I had walked a mile or so south along the beach. The Golden Gate Park is on my right.
And suddenly the sun comes out again!
I turned left and walked back into town along, er, Lincoln I think, with the south side of the park to my left. I then turned right around 37th Avenue, finally reaching the north end of Sunset Boulevard.
On Sunset Boulevard.
Sunset Boulevard ... unfortunately the northern, less interesting end.
Then I caught the N-route streetcar home. This becomes an underground train before it gets into town, which explains why I had only ever seen the F route on Market Street! They are clearly heavily used commuter routes, because even at 7.30pm the streetcars going the other way were very crowded.
I then went to watch Glengarry Glen Ross at the Actors Theatre of San Francisco, which is next door to the hotel. Not cheap at $38, but San Francisco is an expensive place to live. Indeed, looking at the prices of 'reasonable' but not excessive properties, it seems to me that the price of property is about 150% that of my apartment in London. That would make San Francisco, pound for pound, significantly more expensive than Nice.
I'd seen the film of GGR, but never the stage version. This play had the disadvantage of it being a small co-operative, so a couple of the roles weren't quite right, age-wise. But there were a couple of excellent performances. On the other hand, a couple of the actors were performing as if they were in a 500-seater rather than an 80-seater.
After that it was a quick pizza takeaway from Uncle Vito's This pizza place (and a few others, I suspect) is run by Hispanics, rather than Italians. Pizzas still good though. Although, once again, not cheap.
After that I was happy to crash out. For Thursday my plan was to hit Twin Peaks.
++++++++++++++++
