A Few Days in Oakland Again

Got out of David's hair around noon-ish but not before making a ridiculous breakfast involving jalapenos and purple potatoes.
At the co-op we found one of these.

!!! Romanesco Broccoli
I feel like tiny gods must live at the peaks of each spiral.

On the way out of SF we stopped at the library for some quick google mappage.
The library here is impressive. Five stories, nicely oraganized, clean and modern. Free, no-card-required 15 minute internet access.


This statue was in a space across the street. After walking over to check it out a Korean guy asked to have his picture taken with me.
After waiting around for James and eavesdropping on this junkie's phone conversation, we were on our way out.
Met up with Emily, another friend of James and got settled in at her place.

Some Highlights:

Hot dog time


Checking out the Bone Room. They had quite the impressive collection of insects and various bones. I could have easily spent every dollar to my name here if that had accepted debit cards. Fortunately, they do not, or at least that's what I told myself.





Catfish spines



Yellow Batik Angels are jaw dropping.




Trees have ears




I guess some dirt or something got into le camera so it was acting all screwy for the rest of the time in Oakland. I got it to work with some physical manipulation, it just wont zoom in on anything now without shitting the bed.

Last Day in San Fran

Our last day in San Fran.
It's been much more interesting and enticing than expected.
Tomorrow, back to Oakland.


A hawk attemping to have some dignity after I watched him get harassed by crows for half an hour.

We rode out to a different section of Golden Gate Park with Byron and his friend whose name I've misplaced...



More climbing around in cliff-ish places




A nice stoney beach. Lots of those rad rock formations coming up out of the surf.




Byron whipping his hair back and forth.
At the top of the frame you can see where one can get on top of the cliff.


CHINA SHIPPING LINE






Found an alien infested mussel




more beach ruins




This tree was covered in a bunch of weird orange mold







Hiked back to the vehicle and at some killer pizza at Pizza Orgasmica.
No lie.

Spent the evening with the ever hospitable David Nolan.

In Search of Sutro Tower

Since spotting Sutro Tower on the horizon the day before I want to go and see this alien land cruiser up close. Almost 1000 feet high and situated nearby Twin Peaks, it is hard to miss.
And although it's not all that much of a search, finding my way there proved a bit difficult and convoluted.
Here is some interesting reading I ran across while researching:
Climbing Sutro Tower
Antenna Diagrams
and of course Wikipedia

This day of discovery being Superbowel Sunday, I stopped over at Delores Park and layed around in the grass for a good while. Quite a few people have some beverages out and a few less were having a green day.


View from the hillside at Delores Park


Mission High School

I planned to bike most of the way to the tower but immediately encountered those infamous San Franciscan hills. Begin walking.


View at 21st and Noe St? perhaps...


Other side of the hill




After a bit more walking...


Half an hour and a few wrong turns later


Resevoir


Walked over to Twin Peaks




In the center of this picture you can see the tower of Mission High School


Golden Gate in the distance


The bike ride back down was intense. There are some killer pot holes around here.
Fun part, rode by a speed measuring sign on Market on the way down. 23mph.

Into San Francisco

After a few days in Oakland we made our way to San Francisco proper, spending the next few days at former-Ashevillian Byron Browne's apartment. Hanging out at the edge of the Mission district turned out to great and we ended up hanging out on the roof quite frequently.


View from up top.

Que bike ride to the beach and Golden Gate Park.

Heading through Golden Gate Park.


A very geometric tree.


Da Beach


Some interesting concrete on a hillside while biking up the the Cliff House


"Largest Camera In the World" yeah...






If you look very closely you can spot a miniature shipping vessel stranded on the top of this rock.

Just around the corner and up the hill we ran across the Bath House Ruins, Sutro Baths.
You can climb up and all over the ruins. There are ducks and algae sludge.













Nearby there is a cave/tunnel you can walk through.






The other side


run for the hills


After scrabbling around on some rocks around the cliff we found this


The light house. There is a polar bear club that swims out to it and back to a cove around the edge of the cliff.




After all of this climbing about and biking we went in search of pizza. Delicious, savory, roof-of-your-mouth searing pizza. It was delicious.
Now for an attempt at going to the Golden Gate Bridge.
This involved biking through a golf course and ending up at the Honorary Society Museum or something like that.


Holocaust Memorial sculpture there.


Sutro Tower in the distance, busy looking like an alien ship.


more views

So yeah, we gave up on going to the bridge because it was alot farther away than anticipated. Instead we went down to Haight St.


Another view of Sutro Tower. I find it fascinating.

Decided to not go into Amoeba Records and avoid the torture.
Found this.





cool.

I think I got a sunburn.