Ed Batista

Six-Word Memoir

Tagged by Paul Hebert, I'll play along--although I'll take the liberty of adding a 7th word, courtesy of Dennis Hopper and the Golden Palominos:

A little older, a little more confused.

As proof, here's me over the past two days in Point Reyes National Seashore:

Driving out to Tomales Point on Sunday.

At the very tip of Tomales Point, which we only reached thanks to Amy's determination.  (Serious wind that day.)

Today on top of Arch Rock at the end of Bear Valley Creek--I'm smiling because I'm just 6 miles in and don't realize that the remaining 4.5 miles out (on top of yesterday's 9) will hurt.

Point Bonita Lighthouse

We visited the Point Bonita Lighthouse in the Marin Headlands today.  It's always beautiful, but Saturday, Sunday and Monday from 12:30 to 3:30pm you can actually walk out to the lighthouse itself.  Incredible views, even on an gloomy overcast day like today.  There are a few more shots in my San Francisco album, and here's some audio of the Bonita Cove Surf (MP3, 35 seconds).

California Academy of Sciences

Amy and I visited the California Academy of Sciences today--our first trip to the temporary location in downtown San Francisco.  A new facility is under construction in Golden Gate Park--we walk by the site almost every morning and watch it progress day by day.  The temporary facility is a nice afternoon diversion--sort of a pocket museum.  The most interesting thing about the much-hyped dinosaur exhibit is watching the kids ooh and aah over the giant skeletons.  But the real treasures are the animals in the Steinhart Aquarium collection, like the seahorses above--there are a few more shots in my Miscellany album.  We missed the penguin feeding today, but if you can stand lots of squealing from the waist-high audience, I suspect it would be highly entertaining.

At Oak & Broderick, San Francisco

Alcatraz from Crissy Field

It was beautiful in San Francisco this past weekend, and I took a walk along the Crissy Field shoreline.  And this is what I saw.

Life's been somewhat chaotic and stressful the past few weeks, but that's no reason not to be grateful for all the blessings I receive on a regular basis.  I don't hesitate to point out San Francisco's many faults--it's hardly the utopia some of my head-in-the-sand neighbors make it out to be.  But there are plenty of days when I'm just so happy to be here, and sights like this are just one of the reasons why.

Bentley, Union Square

Quail in Strybing Arboretum

After years of decline at the hands of Golden Gate Park's feral cat population, the local quail seem to be making a comeback.  I have no idea why, but it's heartwarming--they're just so damn cute.   (Here's another view.)  And I know that Strybing's new name is the San Francisco Botanical Garden, but I'm just old skool that way.
 

Golden Gate Park

Crystal Springs

Crystal Springs Reservoir is about 20 miles south of San Francisco, a bucolic gem right in the heart of the Bay Area.  Although the 23,000 acre watershed operated by the S.F. Water Department and Public Utilities Commission contains miles and miles of trails that remain off-limits to the public (an outrage that the S.F. Chronicle's Tom Stienstra has covered on a regular basis), you can access the Sawyer Camp Trail at its southern terminus near the middle of the reservoir, just north of Hwy. 92.  (Apparently it runs all the way up to San Bruno, but we just took a brief stroll today.)  If you squint at the lower left corner of the pic above, you can see a faint telephone pole.

It's a strange, lonely thing, long since stripped of any wires it once carried.  I love relics like this, artifacts of the Bay Area's historical transition from outpost to demi-metropolis. You see it in rundown fences and isolated posts on mountaintops, you see it enshrined in monuments, you see it everywhere once you start to look for it.

Sutro Heights and Mile Rock Beach, Lands End

tags: sutro heights mile rock beach lands end