A Few Snaps of San Francisco, August 2021

[fumobici]

I was in SF for the past week visiting family that lives there. Took very few photos but I'll show you most of them.

The first is a shot I took of my little city, Bellingham, from the plane as I flew out. Our volcano Mt. Baker is in the background. If I'd been on the other side of the plane, the photo would have shown the amazing San Juan Islands.



When I got there I shortly headed out to nearby Golden Gate Park to explore yet again. The shot below is from Hippy Hill near the Haight St. end. The spidery thing peeking out in the background is a big communication tower atop Sutro Hill. I call it "the pickle fork".



Onward to The Conservatory of Flowers. Non-SF residents pay a fee to go inside, but a free sauna is included.



It's as you might expect chock-a-block with strange and unfamiliar tropical plants. This particular orchid (one among many) caught my eye.



This rather bizarre-looking bloom, a Tacca chantrieri aka Bat Flower, actually startled me.



Nearby just in front of the excellent De Young Art Museum I saw this impressively vulgar enormous ten-foot tall Gustave Doré wine urn with a Ferris Wheel set up in the park behind it.



Waaaay at the other end of the huge park there's a "bison paddock" I hadn't seen since I was a wee lad. Only one bison got (arguably) close enough for a portrait. At least for my non-telephoto phone camera.



I wasn't the least tempted to.



A couple of snaps from the top of the Lyon St. Stairs right beside The Presidio, a US Army base since 1776(!)





And for those who've made it this far I'll end this postcard from SF with a couple of snaps from the summit of Corona Heights Park on a sunny afternoon.





I'll never understand how people can ever not love SF or even feel ambivalent about it. It is a glorious city, one of my very favorites I've seen and one I've adored since I was very small.

[mickthecactus]

I was lucky enough to visit SF in the early 70’s and it made a big impression. Lovely city.
Thanks fumo.

[bixaorellana]

Wow, Fumobici ~ gorgeous pictures, including some astounding 3D botanical shots!

I am perfectly happy with the side of the plane where you sat. The Bellingham view with the volcano in the background is a knockout. Did you open the plane window? The picture is so beautifully clear.

The bison paddock is a big surprise, as is the fact that the Presidio is that old. Technically, the US only had a provisional government then.

You totally showed why San Francisco is such a magnet for visitors.

[onlyMark]

I lived and worked just over the bridge in Sausalito for a while. Always enjoyed walking round the city.

[questa]

Only ever went there in my dreams in my Beatnik/ hippie days. It looks more lovely than I imagined.

[bjd]

It certainly looks nice and the reputed foggy weather does wonders for the plants.

[kerouac2]

A sunny afternoon in August? In my experience, the sun doesn't shine in San Francisco until September.

Those wine imps are disturbing, but the bison is very nice.

[lagatta]

Thanks bixa, I was wondering how the US could have a military base there when it didn't become part of the US until much later. I thought it was Mexican at the time, or...?

It is certainly one of the most attractive major cities in the US. I suspect much of the "ambiguity" about it refers to the galloping corporate hypergentrification of a place that had been a mainstay of bohemia well before the 1960s hippie movement.

[bixaorellana]

Mexico was still a colony of Spain in 1776 and indeed, presidio is a Spanish word. That made me even more doubtful about the installation belonging to the US back then, so I looked it up:

The Presidio has served as a military reservation from its establishment in 1776 as Spain's northern-most outpost of colonial power in the New World. source

[fumobici]

The official sign on the main entrance to The Presidio (now I think 99% if not 100% a public park) says proudly that it's been a US base since 1776. I should have taken a photo of it.

[kerouac2]

Wikipedia says this :

It had been a fortified location since September 17, 1776, when New Spain established the presidio to gain a foothold in Alta California and the San Francisco Bay. It passed to Mexico in 1820, which in turn passed it to the United States in 1848.

That's quite a discrepancy in dates if the US claims to have held it since 1776.

I have forgotten quite a bit of the US history that I learned in school since it was not at all my favourite subject, but I don't think anything called "United States" had even reached the Mississippi River by 1776.

[casimira]

Gorgeous photos of a gorgeous city. I had seriously considered living there back in the early '80's but even then it was cost prohibitive.

Just as with NYC, San Francisco has fallen victim to gentrification. 
It has always been one of the most expensive cities in the US and now even more.
The homeless population there is appalling for such a wealthy city.

The pic of the "Bat flower" is spectacular.

Thanks for sharing these with us.

I also enjoyed seeing where you reside. My husband remembers spending some time there while he was dodging the FBI for draft evasion in 1971 and was on his way to a small island in Alaska.

[onlyMark]

[kerouac2]

...but not by the United States.

[fumobici]

Typical Americans taking all the credit for work latinos did.

[lugg]

Thankyou Fumobici - really enjoyed your photos and info about SF. The images of the city in your last couple of photos are spectacular. I have only transited through ( from LA to Redding) and sadly the fog was prevalent during my transit.

Your first photo of Bellingham - wow - I guess it must be a lovely place to reside.

[lagatta]

Bellingham looks like a lovely city, and if you want larger, it can't be very distant from Seattle and Vancouver.

A problem in America (all of it, from Canada to Chile and Argentina) is the dearth of passenger railways.

[lagatta]

fumobici, I haven't done the calculation, but aren't most Americans Latinos? (Mostly Hispanic and Lusophone, some French and French Creole (from Québetc/Acadia to Haiti and the French islands?) Obviously I'm not counting people from Greenland to Tierra del Fuego whose first language is an Indigenous one, nor later migrants who are still most comfortable in another language...

[kerouac2]

I believe that the Unites States generlly uses the term "Hispanic" rather than Latino and does not include European ethnicities in this category.

[fumobici]

It should have been perfectly obvious by context what I meant by the terms "Latino" and "American" above. I never understood the compulsion to deliberately not understand someone.

[tod2]

Lovely photos fumobici - I have been to SF in the 80's and of course saw everything they show the tourists.....even the Alcatraz visit. I found the cooking of crabs quite a pong down near the shore. Now-a-days I would buy some crab, but I was not well travelled then. My most memorable meal was in Chinatown, and taking a tram felt so weird.
The city looks more beautiful in your photos than when I was there.

[htmb]

I have fond memories of San Francisco as the first large city I was able to explore by myself. When traveling with family when I was fifteen, I convinced my mother I should be allowed to explore the city using the bus system and enjoyed several hours wandering around downtown. Just a few years later I drove up and down those hills and did a pretty good job of navigating the city streets by car. Not something I’d want to do now!

Thanks for the nice pics, fumobici, and for bringing back some memories.