On Monday, I started out what was to be another city bike tour on foot. Reason? After the Hammett tour, supper and a look at the remains of the Folsom Fest, I walked back up to the Library to fetch my bike.
As I turned the corner at the Library all I saw was an empty bike rack and a cut cable lock. Big surprise. Bike theft is rampant here and cable locks are easy. Two things might have prevented this from happening. Choosing a bike rack at a busier location and using a "Kryptonite" style bike lock which cannot be cut with standard bolt or cable cutters. Something else I thought of while ruminating about this incident and how to prevent it in the future would be to also remove the quick release skewer from the front wheel and take it with me while the bike is parked. This would prevent someone from simply riding off on the bike after the lock was cut and may be an additional deterrent to the would be thief.
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They will be slow to load with a dial-up connection.
Knowing I could not cover the same ground on foot as by bike, I decided to the let MUNI do the walking for me.
So I caught the 22 Fillore at Texas and 18th, rode to Fillmore and Sacramento, then transferred to a #1 California which I rode out to the Richmond District at about 4th Avenue. I then walked up to Clement and headed west to 7th Avenue and home of Cha Siew Bow ( steamed BBQ pork buns) heaven.
I got my first taste of Cha Siew Bow in 1970. I was then employed as a stock clerk for Cost Plus imports in the Gourmet Foods department. Our Manager, Tommy Cheng had an arrangement to return the empty boxes to the baker who supplied our fortune cookies. We sold a lot of them so we always had a good pile of boxes to return for reuse. This saved the bakery a good bit of money.
As a "Thank you" the bakery owner would occasionally bring snacks for us to have at break time. One day he brought Cha Siew Bow. And the rest is history. Since then, I have been eating them any chance I get, which is seldom.
I have had them brought back from New York City for me and have been lucky enough to have Jeannie's delicious home made bow! I lucky guy!!
This was the same bakery I visited in 2001 and recently the week before. However, when I arrived there last week the line was long and slow and I opted for another bakery for my bow fix.
I snapped this shot when they weren't looking. When they saw me, they got upset and motioned for me to leave.
Just up the street is another Chinese bakery - Napoleon Super Bakery. An interesting name for such a place.
This is where I ended up the previous week after finding Good Luck so busy. But, they only sell baked Cha Siew Bow, I prefer them steamed. But I bought a couple ( 70 cents each) and they were quite tasty.
I notice they had Orejas pastries also. Although smaller than the "ears" I got from La Victoria in the Mission they were also only 70 cents each. I bought 5 of them and had one as I walked down Clement Street. Most excellent! This is not the first time I have found Asian or versions of Orejas more to my liking than those bought at Mexican bakeries.
In 2005 I was taken to Aurora Bakery in Nashville by my good buddy Robert who lives there. This bakery, owned by Sri Lankan native Patricia Paiva had excellent ears as well. I have found the Mexican style ears to be heavier, and more sugary than those from places like Napolean or Aurora. The latter bakeries produce an Orejas that is light and flaky and very crispy and with not nearly as much sugar. Much more to my liking. I have also tried packaged Orejas. In South Tucson I bought a "Bimbo" Orejas. It was dreadful. Soggy and laden with palm oil.
just about everywhere I went in San Fran I found these sidewalk messages. Some are quite amusing.
This message brought to you by WalMart and President George W. Bush.
I walked out Clement to 25th Avenue and then down to Sea Cliff Ave. This is in the Sea Cliff District sandwiched between the Presidio and Lincoln Park. Sea Cliff (sometimes spelled Seacliff) is a very affluent neighborhood located in northwestern San Francisco, California. It is adjacent to the Pacific Ocean and Baker Beach, southwest of the Presidio of San Francisco and east of Lincoln Park. The Sea Cliff neighborhood is renowned for the large size of its homes (which can resemble large suburban estates) as well as for the impressive views from many of the homes of the Pacific Ocean, the Golden Gate Bridge and the Marin Headlands. Lincoln Park was dedicated to President Abraham Lincoln in 1909 and includes about 100 acres of the northwestern corner of the San Francisco Peninsula and is part of the Golden Gate National Recreation Area.
From Sea Cliff I wound my way down to Baker Beach via rather circuitous route. This a gorgeous, albeit small beach. It is well known as the local nude beach and my observations bore this out.
There are many great views of the ocean, cliffs and Golden Gate Bridge along this section of coast line.
Along this same streach of beach are the remains of batteries Chamberlin and Crosby
"Construction on Battery Crosby began in 1899 and was completed the following year. The battery mounted two M1897MI 6-inch rifles mounted on M1898 disappearing carriages. The battery was named in honor of Lieutenant Franklin B. Crosby, who was killed in the Battle of Chancellorsville, Virginia in 1863."
"During the early part of the World War II the battery was used to defend part of the defensive minefield that protected the entrance to San Francisco Bay. The guns and other equipment was removed in 1943 and the battery was abandoned."
After a period of bush whacking and cliff scrambling I came to an area where a new trail was being constructed.
The allow easy access to another beach section...
...and also more great views of the GG Bridge.
The trail currently end at a parking area near busy Lincoln Avenue near Ralston, in the Presidio.
These are some of the hundreds of structure which remain in the Presidio.
Presidio History
The often fog-shrouded Presidio of San Francisco has a long and extensive cultural history spanning back thousands of years, to when it was the home to native people known as the Ohlone. The Spanish arrived in 1776 to establish the northernmost outpost of their empire in western North America. The Presidio was under Mexican rule for 24 years before the U.S. Army took control of it in 1846. Over 148 years, the army transformed the Presidio grounds from mostly empty windswept dunes and scrub to a verdant, preeminent military post. During that period, a major Army hospital, a pioneering airfield and an extensive coastal defense system were built here. In 1994, the Presidio became part of the Golden Gate National Recreation Area, and in 1998 the Presidio Trust took over management of most of the Presidio's buildings and grounds. History continues to be made at the Presidio as the Trust turns it into the only monetarily self-sustaining national park site in the country.
The Presidio Trust: A New Model for Park Management
"Because of the Presidio’s city-like infrastructure, its nearly 800 buildings, and its expansive cultivated forest and natural areas, funding the Presidio’s operation and long-term care is much more costly than traditional parks. In 1996, Congress devised a management and funding model unique among national parks, and created the Presidio Trust to preserve the Presidio’s natural, scenic, cultural, and recreational resources, and to become financially self-sufficient. The Trust manages the interior 80 percent of Presidio lands (known as Area B), including most buildings and infrastructure. The National Park Service manages coastal areas (known as Area A)."
"The Trust receives federal appropriations that diminish each year, and cease at the end of fiscal year 2012. The Trust uses these funds and lease revenues to rehabilitate the park's buildings, restore its open spaces and historic resources, provide programs for visitors, maintain utilities and infrastructure, and fund the Presidio’s long-term care."
So, even though the Federal government is squandering billions on a war of unknown purpose of outcome it insists on "nickle-and-diming" to death the taxpayers by under funding National Parks and requiring they become self sufficient. What a sick, sad joke.
It had to happen - parking meters which accept credit cards for payment or in the event you time expires it bills it to your card. This at the parking lot for the GG Bridge visitors area.
This is looking down on Fort Point from the bridge.
Here you can see Fort Point Wharf, Crissy Field and the City.
After leaving the bridge I made my way down to the 100-acre Crissy Field which was originally an airfield part of the United States' Presidio Army Base.
That day there both running and sooccer groups from local high schools and there was a steady stram of walkers, joggers and cyclists.
My next destination was the Pasta Pomodoro on Union between Laguna and Octavia. I arrived there, tired and bedraggled after my nearly 8 mile urban and coastal trek. I had an unremarkable dinner of chicken marsala with brocolli and then trudged back to Fillmore and Union where I again boarded the 22 Fillmore for the ride back home.
Day 13 - FINIS