St Augustine Final Day

When we woke up on our final full day in St. Augustine, we discovered that Shawn's other tire was now flat. That's a grand total of five flats between three bikes.  So, he went to the bike shop (again) and dropped us off at the beach. 

Summer had pointed to the southern tip of Vilano Beach the day before and said that she wanted to go there. So, there were went. Shawn drove us on the beach (as far as he could) and let us out. We walked a little farther on so that we could be in a less inhabited section, where the beach was powdery and very gradual. 

Nicholas found a discarded shovel and started to dig. 

Summer spread out her towel and decided to soak up some rays. (She has NEVER before done that!)

Ahhh...lovely!  I chose to make a tiny mermaid out of the sugary sand and used the coquina sand for her hair. She was quite a little doll. But, as I shaped and patted her tail a few raindrops started to fall. 

Thunder barked in the distance. Clouds thickened and built up behind us. But, this happens in Florida. Many times the sun is shining and it's raining!  I figured that it would pass. After all, the sky was perfect to the left, center, and right. 

But this was no dainty little sun shower. We were getting soaked!  And there was no letting up!  Lightning was flashing all around us.  I told the kids to stay low and explained that since we weren't the tallest thing on the beach, we would be ok. Until...a pop of lightning bolted across the sky in a cloud to cloud strike that was so close we could feel the heat!

Still trying to stay low, we scurried to the life guard stand. He suggested that we would be more safe under the pavilion just a hundred or so yards away. 

I finally had a moment to safely take out my phone to check the weather.  The red bullseye had just passed over. I suspected that contained the lightning that nearly cooked us. 

We waited for the storm to rain itself out and returned to the beach. Rather than walk all the way to the southern tip again, the kids were satisfied with the higher surf of the area nearby the entrance to the beach. 

At this point the beach was made up larger pieces of coquina without the powdery sand dusted over the broken shells. The section where the cars drive and park is elevated and then there is a six foot drop off to the surf.  Since the tide was almost high there wasn't any space for me to sit except at the top of the cliff. So, I spread out our soaking wet towel and watched the kids play. 

"It's all fun 'n' games until someone ..."  Nicholas was quite worried that he was bleeding a lot and that he'd get sand in his cut. So, he sat out for a while. When he finally gathered his courage to return...

...WIPE OUT #2!  Summer got tossed around in a wave and received a...

... A butt cut!

Luckily, at this very moment, Shawn pulled up to rescue us!

We went back to our hotel, tidied up and headed out to Ripley's Believe It Or Not.

 Nicholas and his doppelgänger.

In my obsession to "out" all typos...two small ones:

1.)  The F in Florida should be lined up with the left margin.

2.)  There is no need to capitalize the M in million. 

It's a cool sculpture. Where does one get a million dollars of macerated money anyway?

These folks generously agreed to be a part of our photo. 

Once we were done with Ripley's we went on to dinner at a Japanese steakhouse.  The flaming onion/volcano is always my favorite!  

We had a great time in St. Augustine. Time to move on down the coast, taking A1A. Next stop:  Flagler Beach?  Ormond Beach?  Daytona?

Finale in San Fran Part 2

The following photos are my favorites. I couldn't just pick one or two, even though they are basically the exact same picture over and over. The eerie fog set the tone perfectly for the ubiquitous Golden Gate Bridge and Alcatraz shots.   In the foreground is the top section of an old weathered dock piling - the part that is sometimes covered with a metal cap to keep rot out and to prevent birds from roosting there. That recognizable driftwood  added to the haunting image. But, I LOVED that there are webbed footprints leading up to and then away from the once forbidden perch. I image the bird thinking, "How's that piling cap workin' out fer ya' Mister Man?" 

As I continued to walk towards the bridge, I came upon an old wooden breakwater, covered in sea weed and barnacles.  It made for a nice frame for the bridge. (I had to time the waves to get the shot without having my feet soaked!)

Under a dock I found a lovely letter N to add to my collection.

This is about as close to the bridge as I could get. Although the tide was out, I just couldn't traverse these slimey rocks for long. So, I turned around and headed back. 

It is my general beach combing rule to not walk the same path out and back. If I walk along the water's edge on the way out, I walk the wrack line on the way back. But this time I literally combed the beach. I scanned the lapping waves, turned around after about 100 yards, moved up the beach about a foot and walked back, then repeated that same out and back process until I did another 100 or so yards. In all, I walked the beach four times:  out, back, out again, back again, and then moved on to do the grid for the next chunk of shoreline. 

This is my total haul from Alaska and California. The California sea glass was mostly very old and fully etched. The inland waters of Alaska aren't able to produce enough wave action to smooth the edges, but the chances of my return to Alaska are slim, so I kept just about every piece I found. (Normally I throw back what isn't fully cooked.)

Finale of San Fran "The End"

Once my pockets were sufficiently full of sea glass I went on to see "the crookedest road". I walked along the marina until I found a cross street that would intersect with Lombard Street.   From there I went up...and up...AND UP!  (Needless to say, I was finally able to start shedding some of my layers of clothing!) I got there, snapped a pic, and  started down hill to our hotel. 

All told, I walked over 9 miles. And that is WITHOUT the four passes along each section of beach. AND that was before 10:00 am! 

The planned adventure of the day was to visit Alcatraz. We took the ferry over. 

(While we were in San Francisco, the trials for the America's Cup were taking place.)

We had to listen to a park ranger tell about the rules since this is actually designated as a National Park. 

I tried to get the sun's rays at the very corner of the roof, but I guess I didn't quite line it up and/or moved my phone as I snapped the picture. Oh, well...it's still a cool looking shot. 

Photo taken while waiting for the family to catch up or  (more likely) while the family was waiting for me to catch up. 

Burnt out remains of the Officier's Club that currently is a nesting ground for sea gulls. (The chicks are SO cute and fuzzy!)

Spooky figure inside a newly opened building. 

Bashed in toilets. 

Broken windows with rusty wire. 

I took this picture of this fan/vent and then I saw a display of what the place used to look like.  (See below.)

OMG!  The very same vent!  This building was the laundry facility. So, I took a picture of the photo they had on display and then I tried to recreate the exact shot (below).

This is the famous sign on the building that you see as you first come into the island. 

The Officer's Club from another angle. 

The residences for the families of the people who worked and lived on Alcatraz. 

The lighthouse and gunner's lookout. 

Inmate Wolf

D-Block

They said that when the breeze was just right, the prisoners could hear the San Francisco parties on Christmas, New Year's, and the like. How horrible!

A typical cell. 

We took the final ferry off the island and then had dinner at a restaurant in the marina district. And that was the end of the trip.

21 days away from home...

50 years of marriage...

1 big THANK YOU to my folks for being so generous with how they chose to celebrate their anniversary!

Finale in San Fran Part 1

On our final day in San Francisco I was bound and determined to walk the beach. I'm not even sure I've ever dipped so much as my toe into the Pacific (except for the inland waterways of the Alaskan cruise's path).  I also wanted to beachcomb to look for all kinds of goodies that are not the typical find on the Atlantic or Gulf of Mexico shore.    Before I went to bed, I consulted my handy dandy and now quite shabby map I received upon check-in from the hotel's concierge.  I knew it would have an approximation of the distance to the coast from the hotel. The map had "condensed" several sections and after closer inspection, I realized that it was about 15 miles "as the crow flies" or about a $35 cab fare. Nah.  The Golden Gate National Recreation Area (National Park) would have to suffice. I looked up the tide and sunrise for San Francisco and both were at about 5:00 that morning. So, I went to sleep. And then I woke up early to go visit the beach. 

A few days earlier I saw a sign about how the Embarcario was the tsunami evacuation route and that made me laugh at the rediculousness of having a road along the water's edge on a manufactured seawall on reclaimed landfill as the "safest" road to drive on during a tidal wave...  But this sign is even better!  If there is a tsunami and you are enjoying time at the beach, climb to higher ground. 

From what I learned about San Francisco, the marina district used to be tidal marsh flats.  Ships wrecked there and/or were abandoned once the gold rush folks got to California, shacks, and other small structures were built.  And then, a massive earthquake in 1906!  What didn't fall down or burn down was covered with dredged sand and more debris and was built upon again. And once more, an earthquake hit in 1989 and further destroyed the place. So, the land under the fancy homes and expensive sky scrapers is currently just flattened out debris mixed with sand. Therefore, if one finds oneself in the general vicinity of the marina district during a tsunami, go to higher ground...which is actually quite far away...if not sucked into the slurry of liquefied "soil" first.   Who were the city planners?  As an elementary school teacher, I know better. This city is doomed. So, I'd better go exploring!  

Apparently, people also swim in this water. I had always heard that the water was cold and shark infested AND prone to one heck of a strong tidal current. But, we saw a number of open water swimmers over the days we were in San Francisco. In the above picture the small white specks just to the left of center are two swimmers. Neither one were wearing wet suits...just bare chest and trunks.  

After marveling at the swimmers and what seemed like a kind of long walk, I reached the "beach". Wearing sneakers, socks, a skort, a turtle neck, a short sleeved shirt over that and a wind breaker AND a scarf and hat AND carrying a little purse with a map, my room key, ID, debit card and my phone and earbuds, I set off to comb the beach at my beloved low tide. Ahhh...  The Golden Gate Bridge to the left and Alcatraz to my right. 

The following pictures are from my initial walk through the sandy tidal flats. The area is also fed by a marshy stream and so the landscape was quite unusual for me. At times the sand was hard like cement but at other times it was streaked with rivulets of fast moving water bordered by quick sand. 

No one else was really walking around, but it was a regular work day and quite early. The people who I did see were pretty much all like clones of one another. They all wore Wellies, jeans or Under Armour type leggings, a windbreaker jacket and carried a tennis ball and/or tennis ball throwing device for the accompanying dog. I bet in the time that I walked in the beach, if I saw 100 people, only 10 were without a dog ...or two ...or more! There weren't any joggers and only one set of youngish women who appeared to be walking for fitness. Odd. But totally fine with me!  I love friendly dogs and prefer my human interactions to be ...  Well, I prefer not to interact with other humans while beach combing.