And, then there are the days when you don’t win the breakfast lottery and today was one of them. Firstly, it was difficult to find the place and our maps and GPS gave contrary locations. Secondly, we ordered scones, and the wait person reached into the cabinet, put them on a plate and served them. I had obviously forgotten to tell her that I wanted it with my meal. Then, when I asked if she could heat it up, she told me that they had no way to do this. Then I bit into it and found that it was dry and had been overbaked when it was first baked. Dry, cold and before my meal. Shucks. Oh, well.
The meal itself - was ok but nothing special. Finally, the price for the whole meal came to $23 and change, $10 more than breakfast at Kate’s Kitchen. And, Kate's was much better.
So, that’s my whine for the day. We won’t eat there again and we have lots more to our day. Let’s get moving.
Our weather for Wed. thru Friday is a bit chancy: rain and showers and thunder storms are predicted. Tuesday night it rained something fierce and the wind gusted so much that we were rocking and rolling a bit in the RV but in the end the weather turned out pretty well on Wed. Last night was the same: heavy rains and winds but they had stopped by 7:00 and we chanced going out. But we had our raincoats with us in case.
Our first stop of the day is at Mission Dolores. Well, that is the popular name, the real name is Mision San Francisco de Asis after St. Francis of Assisi but is situated near a small stream named Arroyo de Nuestra Senora de los Dolores. And, of course, the city of San Francisco gets its name from this mission.
The Mission, pictured on the left here, is the oldest building in the city of SF and is the only intact mission in the chain of 21 missions. It was built in 1782 - 1891 with the ‘help’ of the local Ohlone Indians. Reportedly it took 36,000 hand made adobe bricks to complete it with 4’ thick walls. Here is a glassed-over section of the wall opened so that we could all see the original construction. Interestingly, the mission survived the earthquake and ensuing fire of 1906 but the church built next to the mission later did not.
We parked near Dolores Park on a hill, natch, and, since we were headed up the hill, we turned our front tires into the curb as did everyone else along the park. IT IS THE LAW here in SF, you must turn your tires into the curb and use your manual emergency brake when you park. People get so used to this rule since they park on hills most of the time that they turn their tires even when they have parked on flat ground. Well, better this than forgetting sometime.
Since we were on a hill, we had a beautiful view of the city with Dolores Park in the foreground. SF Parks and Rec has just finished redoing the park and it is a great place for kids to play.
The Mission was another neat Mission. Though the ceiling has been repainted, the design, based upon Ohlone designs, is the same as the original and how vibrant is this?
Here is the original altar with the hand-carved, gilded and painted wooden center and side altars brought from Mexico in the late 1700’s and early 1800’s.
The statuary around the altar is as beautiful and detailed as the altar itself.
Next door to the Mission is the Basilica which replaced the church which succumed to the 1906 earthquake. The stained glass windows are colorful and detailed.
The stained glass window of St. Francis is also.
Yes, the Mission was a beautiful historical part of early San Francisco but the Native Americans, the Ohlone, were often not treated as well as they could have been, were often used as slave labor to build the missions and, in the end often succumbed to diseases brought from Europe. But this is not the only instance in which the Native Americans were treated poorly. Treatment of Native Americans certainly is not the best chapter in the American History book.
Though we have had sun for part of the morning, more clouds are rolling in but they don’t look like rain clouds so we decided to continue on with our plan for the day.
Nexr we are heading to the Castro district, where there are some vibrant murals painted on the sides of many buildings. Murals are everywhere but one of the most decorated sections of the area is Balmy Alley. Here there are just a few of the garages murals at the beginning of the alley.
We saw one garage painted white covered with grid lines with this message: ‘mural in progress. Please do not touch’. We actually talked with the owner of the garage who has been approached by many painters who want to use his garage for a mural. He has refused them all until now and he then showed us the design which is going on his garage. He was pretty excited about his new mural. His is the one under the ‘REJOICE’.
We saw quite a few more in this area. And, again, just like in San Diego, these murals are not defaced with graffiti. Lots of pride in the murals here. There is even an Association and an office where they have maps of the murals with artists.
We noticed that the sky was getting grayer but we have our raincoats and we continued on.
And, then we were off for our 3rd goal of the day - more stairways. Big problem with finding these stairways (and they are all over the city) is that the word stairway usually implies height. You know when you go on a stairway search that you’re going to be walking UP 1/2 of the time. We began our search by walking up an extremely steep hill. In fact it is so steep that the 'sanitation engineers' put the garbage cans on their sides after emptying so they won’t roll down the hill.
Some of these stairways are pretty plain but many are not only lush with plantings so that it feels like you’re walking through a garden but they also have artistic details like split sidewalks, one going up one side of the hill, and the other going up the other side. And, of course, there are often gardens or bushes or trees in the middle. The first and third pictures here have sidewalks going up each side while the one in the middle is a graceful ’S’ up the slope.
We certainly are having fun searching out these stairways. It gives us an opportunity to explore the city in places where most tourists never venture and see parts of the city that most do not. We also get a real appreciation of the hills and slopes here.
Does Gary look suspicious?
And, as we were heading back to our car and for our final stop of the day - at the Golden Fire Hydrant, it began to lightly rain. We had been watching the sky all day but had never felt that rain was imminent.
Oh, yeah, back to that hydrant. Now gold implies that this is a special fire hydrant, right? Well, it most certainly is - it is the best fire hydrant and each year volunteers come out and give it a new coat of gold paint every April 18th. Why? you ask. Well, here’s the story. Back in 1906 when the earthquake devestated the city, not only were buildings demolished by the tremors but the city’s water pipes were broken and fire hydrants could not work. As fire swept the city, people watched helplessly as their homes burned then fled southward towards safety, many towards Dolores Park near the mission. The fire also rushed southward, fueled by the wooden buildings until it hit the Mission area around Dolores Park.
The exhausted firemen of Engine 27 wanted to make a stand but, when they tried the hydrants at the bottom of the hill, they were either dry or broken. John Rafferty, a city blacksmith, remembered that he had seen firemen using the hydrant near his home up the hill earlier in the day and notified Engine 27. Engine 19 came over to help but the horses could not pull the 2 fire trucks up such a steep hill so hundreds of those refugees from the fire who had gathered in Dolores Park, eager to fight back against the fire which had ravaged their home, rushed over and pushed the fire trucks up the hill themselves. The firemen hooked up their hoses and - sure enough - water streamed forth. Houses on the north side of the street were torn down to make a fire break while homeowners on the south side were on their roofs beating out small sparks with whatever they could find.
Doors from the destroyed homes were used as heat shields. When firemen dropped of exhaustion, volunteers rushed in to man the hoses. Nurses were there to help the exhausted. The battle raged for 7 hours between the fire and the fire fighters and, by 7:00 the fire fighters and volunteers had won the day. The fire, which surely would have continued on, was stopped in its tracks. And this hydrant has been recognized ever since. There is even a plaque on the sidewalk commemorating its valiant work.
We took pictures of the hydrant, saluted its efforts and continued down to our car on the other side of the hill. Home then.
Tonight as we were sitting here at our computers, we saw the sky light up and the thunder rumble. A new wrinkle. We haven’t heard thunder nor seen lightening since we left Iowa in September. How do people drive up and down the steep hills of SF in such heavy rain? How much traction do you have in a downpour?
And, then, at 9:23, we hear a knock at out door. Gary went over, opened the curtain to look out and then opened the door to an older woman (I think in her late 60’s and that’s ‘older’ to me), shaking with cold or fright, who knows, who asks if we could move our car so her husband could pull into their site, next to ours. They have been out on the highway driving in an RV in this downpour. OMG. How frightening. We’ve been warm and toasty and comfy inside and they’ve been out on the road.
Gary went out to help them and came back in, soaked, after 30 minutes. They have a large 5th wheel which in good conditions, would be difficult to maneuver into the space near us, but in the dark, in the rain and in the wind would be impossible. So, Gary suggested that they park alongside the fence that the resort put up to keep people off the sites near the cliff. They’re nowhere near the cliff since the fence was put quite a ways in from the edge of the cliff. When Gary returned he told me that they had 3 flat tires in the last week (once one tire goes, the chances that another might go are high) and then their GPS had gotten them down a dead end road in the dark and they had to back out. No wonder they are here late and she sounded at the end of her rope.
And, by the way, did I tell you that it is pouring outside?
7.2 1645
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