Scattered Thoughts . . .

Our visit earlier in the day to The Palace of Fine Arts was beautiful and, honestly, I could have spent another few hours there just shooting photos of the gardens, architecture and wildlife.  I am drawn to classic architecture and this architecture is classic, immense and not something you see often on this continent.  Additionally, there was plenty of wildlife to capture in images all day long as well.   The environment, as a whole, was peaceful and comfortable while the weather was sunny and beautiful especially since we were still mostly accustomed to the snowy, wintry weather we had departed just a week earlier.  Unfortunately, our time in San Francisco was very limited since this was just one city of many we visited during our long cross-country journey by rail.  We had a lot to fit into two short weeks so there was no lingering to be done during any of our sightseeing excursions.  Before long, we needed to get going.  We had one more thing planned for our day after walking a

After our exciting and memorable walk across the Golden Gate Bridge, we boarded a Presidio shuttle bus to make our way to the other side of Crissy Field to the Palace of Fine Arts. Because this iconic landmark is right outside the gate of Crissy Field and the large dome is seen from many points on The Presidio, I was constantly being drawn to it.  This was definitely a place I wanted to visit and to photograph. This landmark, which is seen in many movies and television shows, was built after the great earthquake of 1906. As fires burned throughout San Francisco and spread across the eastern parts of the city, survivors moved west toward The Presidio.  The Presidio set up refugee camps which housed 16,000 or so residents as the city recovered and rebuilt.   Within four years, the people of San Francisco were eager to show the world that they "had risen from the ashes".  In 1910, the city's leaders decided to host the twentieth century's first great world's

After spending some time walking the trails along the Pacific coastline at the western shores of The Presidio, we leisurely made our way to the Golden Gate Bridge.   The weather was beautiful so we were in no hurry.  It was sunny, the skies were deep blue, and temperature was comfortable in the upper 80s but bordering on uncomfortable if we were in the sun and out of the cool Pacific breeze.  In those situations, it felt like it was 100°!  Considering it was still wintertime and we had at least four feet of snow at home, this was very welcomed weather for these northeasterners.  A leisurely stroll on a trail overlooking the Pacific Ocean sounded like a great way to spend a day in San Francisco! We took our time exploring some of this coastline, hiking from overlook to overlook.  We scrambled up embankments and ladders to historic big gun batteries fortified along this western coastline with spectacular views of the Pacific Ocean.  We continued to get closer and closer to the