Walking to the Mist Trail through Yosemite Valley in mid-morning
Trailhead
Dancer, photographer
Coming through
Snow bunny
El Capitan
Yosemite Valley
Red-twigged bush
Trusty steed
Bridalveil Falls with rainbow
Half Dome
Yosemite Valley from Tunnel View
In action
There was 3' - 5' of snow on the way to the giant sequoias
Skis?
Giant Sequoia, Mariposa Grove, Yosemite
Mini waterfall (2' high)
Bark and burn
Incense cedar
Giant sequoia
White fir
Ponderosa pine
Sugar pine
Lichen (moss?), snow and stone
Manzanita bloom
Roadside talus
Windmills from 580
Descent into bay area
Connecting TV in the postmodern era is not child's play
Coincidence? The test brought up Stephen Colbert with a monkey
Arriving at the Sir Francis Drake Hotel, Union Square, San Francisco. The doorman is a fixture; has worked there for some 30 years. (There are 3 doorman to spell each other)
City
Lights Bookstore, North Beach, San Francisco. Founded back when by
poet Lawrence Ferlinghetti, who published Alan Ginsberg's "Howl" (the
poem) back in 1955; the bookstore was favored in the 1950s by the beat
generation, Jack Kerouac and that lot. Ferlinghetti was thrown in
prison as Howl was considered obscene. In 1957 it was found in court
not to be obscene and it was the most popular poem of the beat
generation. City Lights Bookstore never was a hippie sorta bookstore
as far as I know and these days a sort of wanna be beat type favors
it. It has only good books. You can go in and buy a book with your
eyes closed and be happy. Le Famous Quote:
I saw the best minds of my generation destroyed by madness, starving hysterical naked,
dragging themselves through the negro streets at dawn looking for an angry fix;
Angel-headed hipsters burning for the ancient heavenly connection
to the starry dynamo in the machinery of night.
At Ghiradelli Square. Chocolate was bought.
Bay Bridge from the pier at night outside the restaurant The Slanted Door inside the Ferry Building, San Francisco; we had a fabulous dinner there, highly recommended. Make reservations long in advance.
The one view of GGB that includes flowers and "green". I heard a young woman tell her beau to take her shot with the SF buildings in the background but none of that "green" (a certain disdain in her voice). Whatever! I guess the world is not populated by greenies.
Angel
Island from the vantage point of Golden Gate Bridge, San Francisco.
Angel Island is the left coast's Ellis Island where Chinese immigrants
were sometimes detained in poor, wet, cold, hungry conditions for many
months. It doesn't have a warm glow of nostalgia sorta history like
Ellis Island does but it is also a landmark and tour for the
interesting (and ongoing) history of immigration. I hope The American People (as politicians call us for some odd reason) remember America is a country of immigrants looking for a better life - not just political asylum - in the upcoming congressional battle to give workers without whom we would not eat strawberries from California a working permit and chance at housing that has running water, etc. If you don't believe me about immigrant conditions, check out the novel "The Tortilla Curtain" by T.C.Boyle which incidentally is an easy and interesting read. I don't think the Mueller ancestors had a green card ... wonder about the history of how they got "legal."
It is also a fabulous place for hiking and picnicking. I believe the whole island is a park. SF and the bay area generally does a great job keeping parts of the area undeveloped, no matter how desirable they would be to people who could afford what the price of the view would be.
View of
Pacific Ocean from the Cliff House restaurant, San Francisco. Mark
Twain stayed here and wrote a great essay about the oddities of San
Francisco - check that essay out, it's hilarious and of course so well
written it's a pleasure to read - go ahead, take the time now to read
it - it's found online at
http://www.twainquotes.com/Era/18640703.html
and is titled "Early Rising, As Regards Excursions to the Cliff
House." It is only 3 screenfulls long. Is that the same as 3 pages?
How do we talk about how long anything is anymore? I guess it doesn't
matter since no one reads anything on a web page if it isn't on the
burst page.
View of
downtown San Francisco from City Lights Bookstore, North Beach, San
Francisco
And so ends Spring Break ... the Texans head back home to school and work and I resume various projects. Absolutely gorgeous days and wonderful to see everyone. I look forward to any of the Texans dropping by for more Yosemite hikes or explorations of the bay area or Palo Alto and Stanford.