Friday, February 20, 2009

Foto Friday # 6- San Francisco California

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TGIF!!! This week, even with the holiday has been jam packed! Work is picking up and I’ve been quite tired at the end of the day so I haven't been very motivated to do any stamping. I did have a nice visit with two of the nurses I worked with a few years back, we still keep in touch.

The weather in London has been quite dreary this week. We often share weather with our sister city in Britain-RAIN! Rain in February is quite odd, it melted all 4 ft of our snow and now the Thames is running over its banks; city parks are flooded, as are basements, I’m sure. These are the times I’m thankful I live in an apartment building. Today brought high winds and a bit of snow, but they’re calling for more rain and possibly a thunderstorm for tomorrow (I love thunderstorms, so I wouldn’t mind).

I thought some nice palm trees and sunshine would be nice to look at, so I’m going to share some photos from my trip to San Francisco. I went with a friend in August of 2007, and we’re planning to go back to California this August.

As with my pictures from New York, I picked my top 5 from San Fran and had them enlarged and framed- they take up the main wall in the hallway of my apartment. I’ve picked those and a few more to share with you today.

Fisherman’s Wharf

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These are some giant steel statues, they’re found all over San Fran, some were lying on top of buildings. These were by the waterfront, the Bay Bridge is in the background. This picture was taken from the top of the double decker bus, to give you some sense of size.DSC01456

The Golden Gate bridge, from the Sausalito side. DSC01769I should tell you I have a terrible phobia of bridges. It’s irrational and I’m not sure how it developed, but I was a wreck crossing this bridge. On the way back, the fog came in (it’s incredible how fast fog rolls in, if you’ve ever been to San Fran, you know what I mean) and I couldn’t see my hand in front of my face. That terrified me as I thought the driver also couldn’t see, and I was convinced we were going to crash into something or drive right off the bridge. Irrational, I told you. I survived the Brooklyn and Manhattan Bridges in NYC, but that was nothing compared to the Golden Gate. You’re at the mouth of the bay at the Pacific Ocean; it’s incredibly windy and you’re very high above the water. I tried to distract myself from my fear by taking a video as we crossed, but the fear consumed me and the video is of my feet for most of it, ha-ha! I can laugh now, but it was not funny then!!

Here’s a video of us approaching the bridge, you can see how windy it is…turn off the sound, it’s just static

Postcard Row (taken from the park in the opening shot of Full House)DSC01940

These Hearts are all over San Francisco. This is in Union Square, the ‘Fifth Avenue’ of San Fran if you will…our hotel was only a block away…can you tell this was a vacation with lots of shopping in mind??

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AT & T Park, drinking water American beer in my Barry Bonds cup.

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If I remember correctly this is city hall…it’s Earthquake proof because it actually hovers above the ground by approximately 1”. You can see a gap between the bottom of the building and the ground, but from the bus it was hard to take a picture, and this wasn’t a tour stop.DSC01498

Cell in Alcatraz. This was a freaky place when you stopped to think about it. It also smelled, it’s now a bird sanctuary and you can imagine how many seagulls live here.DSC01599

Lombard street, the turns really are at 45 degrees. And these are people’s houses here! cars line up at the top for a chance to drive down. Nothing on TV can actually capture how steep some of the hills really are.DSC01870

The famous street car.IMG_1025 We rode the street car, only once because it’s very expensive ($5.00 one way!) and coincidentally the day we chose for our street car adventure was “Spare the Air” day in California, which meant public transportation was free. So the cars were jammed packed! As I said, there’s no way for a picture or film footage to capture how steep San Fran streets really are. The only thing stopping you from careening uncontrollably down a 45 degree slope is a giant man, the size of a San Francisco Giants linebacker, pulling a handbrake as tall as he is from the floor in the car. I don’t care how lovely it looks on TV, you could NOT PAY me to hang off the side of the street car. It was terrifying!! but an experience nonetheless.

Happy Friday!!

Ciao for now,


PS- for my TwilightTuesday.com friends, we connected through Pheonix, here's the airport, you really could get lost, or lose a few vampires in that place ;)

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