Day 5: Monday October 11th
I was up at 6:00 and feeling the side effects of the previous days Urban Trek. I knew my feet would be sore and my calves were keeping them company.
I did web work until 10:00 and then took a stroll back over to the de Young Museum in Golden Gate Park. I wanted to get out and move my stiff, sore legs a bit and also take another look around. I knew the morning light would probably be better for snaps and also there would be fewer people there on a Monday morning.
Click on the photos below for a larger image.
One of the things touted about the design of the de Young Museum is the blending with the landscape and how it barely peeks above the tree line. But, there is that pesky tower...
The first de Young, complete with flanking sphinxes.
Another look at the Doré Vase "Poem of the Vine" and the sphinxes which stood guard on the original museum.
This reminds me of Betsy after she has a few glasses of the good stuff!
Doré had quite the imagination.
Detail of the sphinx. Pretty fearsome looking!
Behind the bandstand, conveniently located next to the rest rooms are two of these bike racks. The are large, accessible and built to last.
These two ladies passed in front of the lens and one of them decided to perform for me.
Such agility!
On my way back to Ed's I passed this place and could not resist taking a few snaps. The Little Shamrock is at 807 Lincoln Way, near Ninth Avenue.
In 1929 Tony Herzo Jr. eventually took over the business and married his sweetheart Charlotte, and had a son and daughter. He treated his customers well and always had a big kettle of Spanish beans at the window by the front door.
Beer and shots were the standard drinks and even though he could make them, Tony tried to discourage folks from ordering the fancy ones. This became a tradition. Times were difficult during the prohibition years but there were many speakeasies throughout the city. Many of these went under the guise of cigars stores or harmless eating establishments. People who grew up in San Francisco tended not to notice these not-quite-legal activities and no one was the worse off for it; and try telling an Irishman of that time there was no whiskey.
I took a peek inside and shot this through...
... the open letter slot.
Continuing on up 9th on my way back to Ed's I noticed this poster for "
Anita Bryant Died for Your Sins" on a privacy fence.
Remember good old Anita?
"As a mother, I know that homosexuals cannot biologically reproduce children; therefore, they must recruit our children" and "If gays are granted rights, next we'll have to give rights to prostitutes and to people who sleep with St. Bernards and to nail biters." - Anita Bryant
I got back at 11:00 and after more web work, relaxing and napping I was back out the door at 3:00 for a late lunch.
Ed had a take-out menu for Good Earth Cuisine and I had noticed a "Thai Salad" which sounded pretty tasty.
Good Earth Cuisine is located at 1325 9th Ave just a few blocks from my Sunset digs. They have a good variety of sandwiches, salads, wraps and are in the "Health food" category of most online foodie sites.
The salad ingredients: cabbage, red onions, bell peppers, carrots, mandarin oranges, crunchy noodles, almonds, cilantro, strawberries and spicy peanut dressing.
I don't think I have ever had a salad before which had fruit in it. Unless it was a fruit salad. It was a great combination of tastes and textures and the sauce was spicy.
This poster was on the Good Earth Cuisine's bulletin board.
Steve Silver's Beach Blanket Babylon, the longest running musical revue in theatre history, is a zany musical spoof of pop culture with extravagant costumes and outrageously huge hats. With sold-out performances since 1974, Beach Blanket Babylon is an internationally acclaimed San Francisco institution. With more than 12,000 performances in San Francisco, the show has performed for standing room only during its London and Las Vegas engagements. Beach Blanket Babylon continually evolves in its hilarious parodies of current events and popular icons as todays headlines unfold.
Source: Beach Blanket Babylon
After that tasty and satisfying lunch I again walked over to Golden Gate Park, past the de Young Museum and out to Fulton and 9th and then up 9th to Geary. I then walked a block west on Geary and caught the
38 Geary bus outbound.
The bus took me through the now familiar Richmond District. From the bus window I spotted the
Moscow & Tbilisi Bakery Store and almost got off for some treats. But I resisted.
I got off the bus at the
VA Hospital at Lincoln Park then walked down to Point Lobos Ave and past Sutro Heights the site of the old Sutro Bathhouse.
All that remains of the once fabulous and sprawling Sutro Baths.
On March 14, 1896 the Sutro Baths were opened to the public as the world's largest indoor swimming pool establishment. The Baths were built on the sleepy western side of San Francisco by wealthy entrepreneur and former mayor of San Francisco (1894–1896), Adolph Sutro. The vast glass, iron, wood, and reinforced concrete structure was mostly hidden, and filled a small beach inlet below the Cliff House, also owned by Adolph Sutro at the time. Both the Cliff House and the former Baths site are now a part of the Golden Gate National Recreation Area and operated by the United States National Park Service.
Source: WikiPedia
In the distance can be see the Cliff House.
Cliff House has had five major incarnations since its beginnings in 1858. That year, Samuel Brannan, a prosperous ex-Mormon elder from Maine, bought for $1,500 the lumber salvaged from a ship that foundered on the basalt cliffs below. With this material he built the first Cliff House. The second Cliff house was built for Captain Junius G. Foster, but it was a long trek from the city and hosted mostly horseback riders, small game hunters or picnickers on day outings.
With the opening of the Point Lobos toll road a year later, the Cliff House became successful with the Carriage trade for Sunday travel. The builders of the toll road constructed a two mile speedway beside it where well-to-do San Franciscans raced their horses along the way. On weekends, there was little room at the Cliff House hitching racks for tethering the horses for the thousands of rigs. Soon, omnibus railways and streetcar lines made it to near Lone Mountain where passengers transferred to stagecoach lines to the beach. The growth of Golden Gate Park attracted beach travelers in search of meals and a look at the Sea Lions sunning themselves on Seal Rocks, just off the cliffs to visit the area.
Source: WikiPedia
This was taken on the south side of the Cliff House and looks down the Great Highway and Ocean Beach at low tide.
The condominiums on the east side of the Great Highway occupy the former location of Playland. This was a popular 10-acre seaside amusement park that operated from 1884 and closed the year the Breiding Clan left San Fran - 1972.
Playland in it's heyday.
This is the promenade looking north back toward the Cliff House.
One of two windmills which were used to pump water.
The windmill began pumping water in 1908, three years after Murphy donated $20,000 to the city for the building.
It was the second windmill erected in the park, joining the Dutch Windmill, which was built in 1902 in the northwest corner.
Together, the two windmills pumped 70,000 gallons of water an hour into the irrigation system that helped create the park out of a vast expanse of rolling sand dunes.Source: © 2010 Hearst Communications Inc
This is the Beach Chalet. I had been by or near here many times over the years but this was the first time I had ever gone inside.
The two-story Beach Chalet faces the Great Highway and Ocean Beach at the far western end of the park. It was opened in 1925 in Spanish colonial revival style as a city-run restaurant and included changing rooms for beach visitors. Elaborate murals were added to the first floor as a 1936 Works Progress Administration project. After several years of closure and following a renovation completed in 1996, the building now houses the Beach Chalet Brewery and Restaurant on the second floor. Its sister restaurant, the Park Chalet, is an open-air dining room facing the park.
Source: WikiPedia
Lucian Labaudt was the artist who painted the Beach Chalet Mural.
Labaudt (1880-1943), a native of France, studied in England before coming to the United States in 1910. He was one of 26 artists to paint frescoes in San Francisco's Coit Tower under the PWAP. He also completed murals at George Washington High School (1936) and the Beach Chalet (1936-7), both in San Francisco. Dunng World War II he went to Asia as an artist correspondent, and was killed in a plane crash enroute to China from India.
WOOF!
Last shot of the day. From the Beach Chalet I continued my walk down the Great Highway to Lincoln where I turned left then an immediate right on La Playa street and then two blocks down to Judah and the N stop. This is the end of the line for the N and there is a turn around at this point.
Imagery: Google Maps
I got back to Ed's around 5:30 and he was watching an exciting, edge-of-your-seat Giants game. While watching the game I had a supper of beer and Trader Joe's multi grain tortilla chips. Finally, the excitement was more than I could stand and I went to bed - at 8:30.
Bye, bye...
