thedeadlyhook

It is a terribly romantic city, though, no denying that. Probably the affect of all that nice architecture. : )

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toysdream.livejournal.com

Consider yourself, like, totally encouraged! Come play with us!

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herself_nyc

Oooh, an invite from the husband. Oooooh!

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Toys is just terribly friendly. And not in a creepy way.

...or, rather, at least I don't think so. ; )

But anyway, he just beat me to the invite because he got home first. So again, consider yourself encouraged! We love showing off the city. We're giant show-offs.

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herself_nyc

SF is now high on my list for '05.

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Woo! Sights will be seen.

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herself_nyc

What's the best time of year to visit SF?

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Pretty much any time of year is good for weather, other than January-February, which are typically cold and rainy... late spring and early fall are both good options that avoid the worst of the summer tourist crowds. July and August are high tourist months and to be avoided.

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Ah, you make me miss San Francisco! My favorite place was Land's End, up by the Palace of the Legion of Honor museum. I moved away before the transformation of the Presidio -- shucks, I moved away before it stopped having a working army hospital. :)

Those cliffside trails weren't for the vertiginously-inclined, though. I was always amazed a good rain didn't simply wash them away. Nostalgia...

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I moved away in 95. When did you leave?

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*counts on fingers* I came home from the army in '91 on convalescent leave (broken hand -- got it checked at Letterman Hospital in the Presidio), then went back to the army and was discharged a couple months later... and moved from SF to New York a few months after that. I think it was still 1991. That sounds about right.

I did stay overnight at a friend's house in the Sunset in '98, but didn't visit any old haunts.

*sniff* I loved that town so.

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I walk out to Land's End fairly frequently - I live in the Richmond, so it's basically where the neighorhood ends. It's such a dramatic locale that you can't help but come over inspired, just to stand in that stand of trees and overlook the ocean...

shucks, I moved away before it stopped having a working army hospital.

It's all shut down now. Quite sad, actually.

Those cliffside trails weren't for the vertiginously-inclined, though.

No joke! When I first moved to the city, I used to climb just about everything, including the trail up to Coit Tower, which is almost vertical... but the older I get, the more nerve I lose for the serious cliff-climbing...

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It's all shut down now. Quite sad, actually.

:( Tempus fugit. I was living in SF when the flatulent-but-fabulous sea lions first moved into the anchovy slips at Fisherman's Wharf. The merchants raised a terrific ruckus -- until they realized the sea lions were attracting more custom, at which point everything got nice and matey. Except for the displaced anchovy guys. I never did hear where they ended up.

Are the sea lions still about?

I used to climb just about everything, including the trail up to Coit Tower, which is almost vertical

Ooh, Coit Tower. Good times. That was one of my first things too. I remember they had a contraption there, a machine that squished pennies. You put in your penny, and the machine ran it through a sort of mangle, and it came out wafer thin. One side was stamped with a tiny Coit Tower. I wonder if it's still there. The machine, I mean, not my penny.

Another rambling reply. Heh. I've been battling the deadline dragon, and it's really doing my head in. :)

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I remember the sea lions moving in too - I set up shop in the city back in '89, just in time for the big quake, which of course seemed terribly exciting then. I had no idea how big it was, since it was my first quake ever. Come to think of it, I don't know what happened to the anchovy fishermen either, but the sea lion pier is extremely popular. There's even a quite nice aquarium there now, where you can walk through a tunnel of water to see bay marine life, like manta rays and small sharks.

I've haven't been up to Coit myself years - it was open the last time I was there, and I was fortunate enough to see the Diego Rivera murals, v. gorgeous. (There's a similar, but lesser known set up at the SF City College theater.) I'd expect the machine is still there, or at least there's a representative of its type at the Museum Mechanique, which used to be out at the Cliff House (finally being remodeled, and the new version looks gorgeous with modern Deco lines and lots of glass) and now takes up a big pier shed at Fisherman's Wharf. All antique amusement machines, plus the old Playland "Laughing Sal."

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My sistah! I too was there for the quake in 1989. And I was so impressed by how well-behaved everyone was. No looting, no unseemly displays. No gouging at my little corner market, which stayed open without power so people could buy candles (and booze :). I lived above Union Square and went down to stand in the milling throng, and saw a man in a business suit handing out quarters to strangers so they could call home.

(Wow. No cell phones. I'm going to go off and reel over how long ago it all was.)

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I actually lived in the Tenderloin then, because it was the only neighborhood I could afford. The apartment quite nice, though, and in three years, no one ever disturbed me or hassled me. The neighborhood was the picture of quiet on earthquake night - no looting at all, whereas when I walked to the Marina to see the big fire, I could hear people smashing things on Green St. Irony!

One of the sale reps at the old photo lab I worked at had a cell phone that she let people call home with. It was the kind you kept in your car, the big ones. I spent the next few days after that in Berekeley, where a friend of mine lived, because the East Bay had power. But that first night... aftershock-o-rama.

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I moved to SF in '76 when I was just shy of twenty. During the Loma Prieta quake I was living in the Outer-Sunset. It was around 5pm and I'd stopped at the neighborhood post-office after work. I remember how the standard calm, alert, yet blase reactions we all seemed to share (everyone inside the post- office) changed as along with the mounting shaking and rolling beneath us came the mounting realization that this was not just another two-bit trembler, but a Big-Deal. In the aftermath, I too was conscious of how helpful,cooperative and friendly everyone was. One or two weeks later my friends and I had to go down to Santa Cruz for a wedding - or maybe the wedding was South of Santa Cruz - in any case, Santa Cruz was on the way. We stopped and walked around of course - the destruction was pretty overwhelming. We'd also walked around the Marina, where most of the damage in the city (SF) was, but I remember that a good part of Santa Cruz seemed leveled.

After the tsunami it occurred to me, when a great natural disaster strikes, people across international boundaries respond with a generous outpouring of concern and aid, but when the disaster is inflicted by humans upon other humans, most people don't want to know.

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My God! We were neighbors, and never knew it.

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I remember going to Pier 39 to see the sea lions after they first moved in. Everyone was all WTF about it (but in a nice way) - the way they just took over - lounging all over the docks and the pleasure craft moored there. It was so cool the way the city or the pier management (whomever it was) made the decision to eightysix the boats and leave the docs to the sea-lions. I don't know if they ever arrived at any concensus of what led them to take up residence there, rather than just migrating through as normal. Whatever - it certainly didn't hurt the tourist industry in the area.

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That was the cool thing about San Francisco-- somehow we all just nudged ourselves aside and it all worked out. God, I LOVED that town. Loved it like nothing else. It was like living in a soulistically liberated amusement park.

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God, I LOVED that town.

Me too. Who knew that within two years after I left the cost of living there - always among the highest in the country - would have shot so quickly to such dizzying heights that I became effectively shut out from returning if I wanted. Going back for visits is bittersweet (high on the bitter, low on the sweet). I lived there nineteen and a half years, and returning as a visitor is hard because I'm there on streets that used to be mine but are no longer. Always too sensitive for my own good - since I left - I kid you not - I can't even read books or watch TV or movies set in SF. It's too depressing.

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I went to the pet cemetery with some friends when I lived there - what a magical place. We spent hours reading all the markers and memorials - many quite moving. I can't quite remember where it is now, but you've made me come over all nostalgia again.

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It really is a quiet and peaceful and emotional place... which is strange, considering how close it is to the freeway overpass for the Golden Gate bridge. (The Parks Dept. has added some standing maps of the entire Presidio scattered throughout the area, and that's how I found it - otherwise, I just remembered that you could catch a glimpse of it from the ramp approaching the bridge.)

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toysdream.livejournal.com

and the base "Pet Cemetery."

What does it say about me that it took me a few seconds to remember that this is the correct spelling?

Nothing you don't already know, I'm sure. :-)

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