After taking the Anchor Brewery Tour earlier in the day and the BART back to the Powell station, I continued my walk past the Transamerica building on the way to Coit Tower, and found a locals route of stairs from the East side of Telegraph Hill up to the tower. So, I took some photos on my walk there, as well as from the observation deck at the top of the Coit Tower. During my walk, I saw a small flock (maybe a dozen individuals) of the Parrots of Telegraph Hill fly by. They are big talkers, making quite a racket in flight.... read more

After playing the Jack Fleming 9 hole course at Harding Park two days prior, I decided I would just try to walk on the Championship course today and see if I could play a round. I had no trouble getting on the course it turned out. I had a lucky birdie on one and nine, had a few solid pars, but basically limped in at the end of the round. It is quite the test this golf course. If you are in the area and have time for golf, and like challenging golf courses, this one you need to try. The 2009 President's Cup is to be played at Harding Park. It will be interesting to see how those guys play the course. It is clearly a difficult test. I shot around 80 that day, was ... read more

After playing the nine hole Jack Fleming course at Harding Park, I went looking for the entrance to The Olympic Club to see if I could buy a golf cap. As luck would have it, I did find the entrance, no one was looking, but I was wearing jeans. Luckily the guys in the pro shop turned their head for a brief moment while I bought the cap, then I got out of there as quickly as I could. I guess it helped that I ended up there in the late afternoon on a Saturday, a time when members are typically not found around the grounds much.... read more

Lands End is one of my favorite places to visit for fantastic views. Today I went back so that I could take the coastal trail from the Lincoln Park golf course area around to the West and South all the way to the Cliff House, overlooking the Pacific and Ocean Beach.... read more

On this Saturday I made the drive up highway 1 from the Muir Woods area through Stinson Beach on the way up to Point Reyes to see what I could of the Gray Whale migration. It was a great weather day, lots of sun, wind was mild, visibility was great (you could see the Farallon islands quite clearly), and thus kind of a fun day to stare into the Pacific. That day there were some 88 individual Gray Whales spotted heading North, but only a handful of them came close to the lighthouse while I was there. Of course, the majority of them were females with a calf, and thus they weren't breaching or anything nearly that exciting. I saw a lot of spouts when they surfaced to breath, but that wasn't worth hanging around for. ... read more