San Francisco Weekend

Having been driven mad by the insanity that is Los Angeles, I decided to go to San Francisco for the weekend to visit Sean, Katie, and Jennifer.  The yucky sick feeling and constant sweating of Los Angeles was soon replaced with the cool glory of clean and foggy San Francisco.  Two days later I headed back south to the misery of LA.

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At the 24 hour donut shop near Sean and Katie’s apartment.  It was 1am and we needed sugar.

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I chose a chocolate maple bar with cream filling.  They put in a bunch of hot white sticky cream while I waited.0724092332

OMNOMNOMNOM

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Back at the apartment enjoying a martini before calling it a night.

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The barber shop around the corner from the apartment where I got my haircut.

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The donut shop is down the street from the barber.

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Having breakfast near Sean and Katie’s house on my first full morning in San Francisco.

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Crazy cubic modern museum building that seems to have landed in the city.

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JEWS ON VINYL

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Looking across a cool courtyard toward the MOMA

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There’s that crazy cube!

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We found Waldo on the roof of a building across from MOMA.

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Entrance to China Town.

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Cable car tracks!

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Cool cathedral on top of the hill.

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Fog trying to creep back into the city.

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Cable car museum

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Some of the big flywheels underneath the street in front of the cable car museum.  They redirect the cables to the engines that power the whole system.

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The cable car engines doing their thing.  Each of the four lines has its own cable and motor combination.

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Part of the maintenance shop.

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Tension wheels.  They keep the cables taut.  They’re setup on local springs to keep constant tension on the cables.  As the cables stretch past the local spring limits, the wheel assemblies are moved further away from the engines.

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Cable car going by on the street.

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Another cable car.

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Walking through a tunnel.

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A Google map dot on Monk’s Kettle.

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The San Francisco Mission.

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Inside Monk’s Kettle.

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Jennifer decided to join us at this point.

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Waiting in line for pastries.

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A sign outside the  bakery.  Bender likes advertising.

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The fog rolling over the hills.

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Castro Street.  It was very colorful there!

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Fuzzy-wuzzy bunny cuteness attack near Castro.

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OMG FOGPOCALYPSE!

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We decided to go up to Twin Peaks to check out the fog.  San Francisco is just through the fog bank.

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It was even raining a little at the top of the mountain.

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I was very happy to be in the fog!

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The next morning we went to the California Academy of Sciences.  Across the street is the de Young museum.

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Cal Academy has an albino alligator.

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Looking down into the California coast aquarium.

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The outside of the rain forest biodome.

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An entire chunk of rain forest was transported from Costa Rica and plopped down inside the big glass sphere.

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The bottom level contains a flooded rain forest exhibit.  Beneath the water is a big glass tube that people can walk through.

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The top of the dome.  Natural light is supplemented with electric.  Fog machines provide the humidity.

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Looking into the tube under the water portion of the exhibit.

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Looking into the California Coast exhibit.

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Sting Rays doing their thing.

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The de Young across the mall from Cal Academy.  We decided to go up the tower.

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Fog bank sitting at the edge of the coast.

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Looking toward Twin Peaks and Cal Academy.

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San Francisco University is located near the basilica in the right middle of the photo.

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Before I said goodbye to Sean, we went up to Twin Peaks again to see it in good weather.

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On one of the peaks they were shooting a Bollywood movie.

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Downtown San Francisco.

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The Golden Gate bridge peaking through the fog.

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Before I left town I made a quick stop to pick up Jennifer and found myself out at the Golden Gate Bridge.

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The bike and hiking path goes under the bridge!  So cool!

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The fog decided to come in and pay us a visit.

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Yes, these signs (and phones) really are located all along the bridge.

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At the Legion of Honor Museum / World War I Monument.  Across the street and to the side is also the Holocaust Memorial.

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In front of the Legion of Honor.

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The golf course at Land’s End.

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