Aug 31 Day 15

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Day 15, and yes, it's still very chilly, and breezy outside. We happened on a handful of these vehicles while we were out today. These are called GoCars. They are three wheeled critters that have a motorcycle engine in them, along with two seats. They have a GPS built in, and it is pre-programmed with a sight seeing route. You get in, drive around town going wherever it tells you to go, while along the way the GoCar explains the sights you are seeing via speakers built into the unit. Although they are not allowed on the highways, they look like a fun way to get a somewhat self guided tour of the city.

There is much less fog today, and you can see the entire bridge tower as we cross from south to north today.

We drove up a viewing hill to get a few photos as well. With the lack of fog, the shots came out pretty good.

This picture is from the north end vista point.

Even higher up the viewing hill on the north end... Kind of a neat photo with some of San Fran in the background.

This viewing area for the bridge is also where Battery Spencer was once located.

Part of the Harbor Defense of San Francisco. Battery Spencer was a concrete coastal gun battery with three M1888 12" guns mounted on long range Barbette M1892 carriages. It was constructed on top of the five front emplacements of Battery Ridge. Emplacements #1 and #2 were separated by a magazine with two shell rooms, a powder room and a shell hoist room. Emplacement #3 had it's own shell room, powder room and hoist room. This was a two story battery with the magazines on the lower level and the gun emplacements on the upper level. The projectiles were originally moved from the magazine level to the loading level with hand powered projectile hoists. These were replaced in 1908 with electric Taylor-Raymond front delivery hoists. The new hoists were accepted for service 30 Sep 1908. There were no powder hoists.

You can see one of the large gun mount areas in the photo below. These 12" guns had a 440" long barrel, and fired a 12" 1070 pound shell over 15,000 yards !!!

Below are a couple of photos of Alcatraz. This first photo was taken from the Pier 39 area.

This one was taken from the Battery Spencer / Golden Gate Bridge viewing area.

Unfortunately Lennie and I did not get to go out to Alcatraz. We knew that you needed to make reservations in advance, because they do sell out. However, we were thinking a few days in advance would be fine. Nay, nay, these tickets sell out up to a couple of weeks ahead! Oh well, a reason to come back I guess.

After visiting the Golden Gate again today, we headed a little further north to Muir Woods. Muir Wood contains a 240 acre stand of old growth Coastal Redwoods.

After Muir Woods, we headed back into downtown. Note: when you are heading north bound on the Golden Gate, there is no toll, however, there is a toll when headed back south bound into San Fran. The standard rate for a car is $6.00 Now, the tolling authority considers a motorcycle as having two axles. We are also towing a little trailer, that makes 3 axles. This means we get charged like big rig trucks... 3 axles means we had to pay $18.00 to cross that stupid bridge on the way back into down town !!!  That is triple the cost of car. Not sure they can justify that math!!

Below is a picture of a portion of the San Fran skyline.

Lennie wanted to get a photo with all of the overhead wiring that powers the cable cars.

Notice, that they also run the buses of of that grid.

Below is a photo looking downward from the top of Lombard Street.

Lombard Street is best known for the one-way section on Russian Hill in which the roadway has eight sharp turns (or switchbacks) that have earned the street the distinction of being the crookedest/most winding street in the world. The switchback's design, instituted in 1922, was born out of necessity in order to reduce the hill's natural 27% grade, which was too steep for most vehicles. It is also a serious hazard to pedestrians, who are accustomed to a more reasonable sixteen-degree incline. The crooked section of the street, which is about 1⁄4 mile long, is reserved for one-way traffic traveling downhill and is paved with red bricks. The speed limit in this section is 5 mph.

Yes, we did drive down this section.

After driving down, we took a trip around the block, so that you could clearly see up the road. You can see a number of cars working their way down in the photo below.

The shot below is another attempt to capture just how steep some of these downtown streets can be.

Lennie made a new friend. I was unsure if he was a street performer or alien... that was until he caught Lennie taking this photo and then he started begging for money...

We spent the evening down around Fisherman's Wharf, and ended up doing some shopping on Pier 39.

Pier 39 has a ton of little boutique shops, and restaurants. They also have a two story carousel.

Pier 39 is also famous for the sea lions. The sea lions have been always present in San Francisco Bay, but they started to hang out on docks of Pier 39 in September 1989. Before that they mostly used Seal Rock for that purpose. Ever since September 1989 the number of sea lions on Seal Rock has been steadily decreasing, while their number on Pier 39 has generally increased. Some people speculate that sea lions moved to docks because it is likely that the sea lions feel safer inside the Bay.

Although the reason for their migration to the pier is unclear, the refurbishing of the docks in September 1989 required the removal of all boats from that area, leaving large open spaces for the sea lions to move into. Once the project was completed, boat owners returned, but did their best to navigate around the sea lions. No efforts were made to encourage the new guests to leave. By the end of that year, less than a dozen sea lions frequented the docks at Pier 39. By January 1990, their numbers had increased to 150. Owners of the boats docked there began to complain about having to avoid the animals who can weigh up to half a ton, and odor and noise complaints began to pour in. Press releases caught national attention, and the sea lions began to attract tourists. Advice from The Marine Mammal Center was to abandon the docks to the animals, and to relocate the boats elsewhere.

Although fluctuations in the number of sea lions at Pier 39 are dramatic, as many as 1,701 have been officially reported at one time.

There is also a small stage toward the end of Pier 39 where street performers can entertain the audience.

We have spent the last 9 days in California, from the National Parks in the Sierra Nevada range, to the Central Valley floor, to the coastal roads, but tomorrow it is time to start heading back to the east. We plan to travel to Reno NV / Lake Tahoe where we will spend a couple of days.