USS Potomac | tugster: a waterblog

Today I start heading east, although I’m as far from the East coast as is possible to get, the beach off Sutro Heights with my back to the Pacific and looking at Dutch windmill in Golden Gate Park (GGP). Yes, there were tulips and yes I walked barefoot into the Pacific, of course it was cold.

Just for the record, during my four days or so in the city at the western end of the California Zephyr–yes, this is a train/rental car odyssey–I walked at least 50 miles and took thousands of photos, of course most of them of waterborne constructions. This post is somewhat of an outlier in tugster. What would this city be without whimsy, like Gillie and Marc in the park.

Do read the info.

In Chinatown, a replica of the Goddess of Liberty stands. On the building beyond, those are

the Corporate Goddesses of Muriel Castanis.

All manner of conveyances-driven and driverless- ply the streets of the city, including the Market Street Railway vintage streetcars. The green one below once worked the streets of Brooklyn. Atop the hill just off the top front of the streetcar is Coit Tower, paid for by an eccentric SF resident. If you don’t know the story, read the link, especially the section about the benefactor and

the murals inside.

Alcatraz Island is a must. Here the ranger explains the sign above him.

A half century ago this was the center of the world for many, the eponym for new ideas.

The live music I heard as I walked the city came from this roots group and a similar, larger one.

I saw this through the window of a bus.

Windmills stand on the Pacific end of GGP, and Potomac was in Alameda. In this case it was USS Potomac, FDR’s presidential yacht.

My trip north came aboard the Coast Starlight under cover of darkness. Daybreak found us in northern California, where Mount Shasta can be seen from many perspectives, suggesting the famous Japanese prints.