Mom's turn: Fabulous finds in San Francisco

Day 8 Well, it was a balmy 48 degrees with heavy wind gusts on the mountain top overlooking the Golden Gate Bridge…so we opted not to walk across it today either. We did drive to the top of a lookout point and take a small walk through a tunnel where we saw some California quail, the lighthouse, and a very curious raven.

After admiring the bridge as much as we could stand we got in the car and drove on across to the Presidio. We spontaneously stopped at the San Francisco National Cemetery admiring its somber view of the bridge in the background. While there we noticed a very strong, yet strangely familiar smell and then discovered the tiny flowers all over the drive. Later we determined their point of origin to be the large and beautiful trees I had been admiring all along the roads. They were Eucalyptus trees!

We moved on to the Palace of Fine Arts. What an amazing building!

This is a Palace with a pedigree. Designed by Bernard Maybeck for the
1915 Panama-Pacific International Exhibition, the Palace of Fine Arts has become
one of San Francisco’s most enduring icons. But over the last few decades,
our treasured landmark has become a shadow of its former glory: crumbling,
unsightly, and unsafe.

We left there and stopped to see Alcatraz and feed the albatross. The girls had the idea that the birds were “cute”…until they all converged on them and they realized just how big and aggressive they were!! They ran squealing – GIRLS! They did get a tickle out of a sticker on a van parked next to our truck, though.

Okay, finally on to China Town…shopping ‘til we dropped and then we shopped some more! We arrived around lunch time and were lured by an ancient Chinese lady on the corner to a little hole in the wall that housed an authentic Chinese restaurant. There were no typical pictures accompanying numbers for lunch specials and our waitress didn’t speak English – so we were left winging it! I ordered “su mi”; it turned out to be a sticky steamed dumpling of sorts with an unidentifiable meat in the middle. It was DELICIOUS! Everyone enjoyed their meals, but I couldn’t tell you what they had. Afterwards – shopping!!Chinatown is the best for that because their prices are exceptionally cheap.

Teeny said, "I can make these." Uh...then WHY did I buy them???

We purchased all sorts of goodies then headed over to the beginning of my Hippie roots on Haight/Ashbury – Mom would be proud!! The irony was not lost on us that the beginning of the love movement started on a street called Height (pronounced hate). There were a surprising number of young homeless people all over the place…guess they were looking for their chance on easy street. Of course we couldn’t escape without getting some piece of tie-dyed clothing; that led to another discussion with Mao about how it was made. I feel a home project coming on when we return because everything was surprising expensive!

The final stop for the day was Alamo Park. We had just seen a post-card with the infamous houses on the front, so we wanted to show Mao what all the fuss was about. They are truly beautiful, but there are so many other amazing places in San Francisco that I’ve never understood the fascination with this row of houses. I also found Dorothy’s shoes outside the park bathroom…just in case she’s missing them!

I have a friend!

Right outside my bedroom window there is a tree and we can not figure out what it is! I think it is the first tree my dad actually doesn't know! Well, I heard a funny bird call. When I first heard it I actually thought it was a cat, but I could not see one. Finally I spotted the bird that was responsible for this funny call. It was a wooodpecker! I took a couple of pictures of it, and then we looked it up in my mom's bird book. It is a red-naped sapsucker. It is very pretty. The book also says they are not supose to be down here! So this one must have gotten a little lost. Poor guy.

The National Geographic Field Guide to the Birds of North America says this about it:

They Red-naped Sapsucker is very similar to the Yellow-bellied Sapsucker, but has variable red patch on the back of the head; spotting on back more clearly organized into two rows. On male, extensive red on throat penetrates the surronnding black "frame"; on female, the throat is partly red to almost entierely red on some birds. Juvenile is brownish over-all resembles adult by first fall exept for lack of black chest. Range: common in desiduous forests.