San Francisco: Lombard Street, Sea Lions & More!

Alright, I just had to do it.  I'm not sure when I'll be back in San Francisco with a car, let alone my own, so I drove down Lombard Street.  Better yet, while I was driving Dad acted as camera man at the bottom of the hill and as luck would have it, the traffic officer made me stop to let all the tourists cross the street.  Big hint if you go do it yourself, don't get in the line on Lombard Street, pick the cross street at the top of the hill, Hyde Street going north, to beat the line.

A  big thank you to Clare for letting me stay at her place while I was in town!  This is the watercolor sketch of the house that I gave her as a thank-you, it's been in the same family for generations.  Clare and I met through our mutual friend Antonella in New York back in March.  Turns out both Clare and I have spent extensive time traveling in Italy and we both have stayed with Antonella in Assisi!  For more on my Assisi and Italy experience, check out my blog from 2007 - 2008, especially the September + October 07 entries when I spent a year studying in Rome, Italy at: teekinrome.blogspot.com I honestly didn't do a lot of the major sites in town, but rather did a lot of walking around, more like huffing and puffing up and down all the hills.  I did get a cable car ride too (sorry no picture, had two hand on the pole while standing on the outer step ledge. 

This year marks the 22nd Anniversary of the Sea Lions taking over the outer docks at Pier 39.  Twenty-two years ago a few seals decided to start sunning themselves on the outer docks and their numbers started to grow to the point where the outer set of floating docks are now their domain.  Since it was the start of August, many of the seals are farther south in warmer waters, leaving only non mating females and juveniles on the pier.  Still, very entertaining watching each seal claim his or her space in the sun.

A Work in Progress

I didn't have time to finish this watercolor painting, but I still think there's enough going on so far for you to get an idea of what the neighborhood looks like.  The view is  northeast from Russian Hill out to the Bay Bridge that connects Oakland with downtown San Francisco.  (The Golden Gate Bridge is farther west at the mouth of San Francisco Bay).  At the rate I'm going I'll need to finish this painting after I get home.