PurpAnd

Well today I played tourist in my own city. I had some work to do early this morning, so I extended the morning into a little walkabout town. Once my work was done, I had nothing pressing, which allowed me to just wander, and that’s exactly what I did.

My first stop was Coit Tower.

I had wanted to go for a long time just to see the views from the top. When I got there, I was surprised to see all the Diego Rivera artwork in the lobby - amazing (but they don’t allow pictures).

Here’s a couple of the views from atop the 210 foot structure.

As I left Coit Tower, I took the stairs down Telegraph Hill hoping to see the parrots and sure enough I did. Man, those birds are noisy. I tried to take some photos, but none turned out too great. Here is the best of the bunch.

If you look closely, you can count at least 12 birds.

And then I caught one mid-flight, although with the combination of my camera’s age and my less-than-professional photography skills you can barely tell what it is.

After Telegraph Hill, I made my way to the Waterfront/Embarcadero and walked past the Ferry Building and out onto one of the piers to take some photos looking back at the City.

From there I headed back to the car and drove west to the ocean side of the City. I parked at the newly renovated parking lot up above the Cliff House and walked down to check out the Sutro Baths. From the observation deck, you can see the west side of the Golden Gate Bridge and below the deck you can go in a real neat cave where you can watch and listen to the waves come in.

The day was a lot of fun - just wandering around being touristy. I got great exercise over the course of the five miles I walked, and it was nice to spend some time outside. Not too shabby for a Saturday.