Category Archives: California

Buskers by the Wharf

It has to be love…

The attention span and focus of their audience is minimal. Most passersby are looking for lunch.Or the next ferry to Alcatraz.  Street performers, or buskers, must relish the act of performing enough to ignore being ignored. Exposing a bit of soul-felt art in hopes of an answering smile, a bit of applause and hopefully, a dollar bill or two… This is not for the faint of heart or those desiring a steady income.

Street performance is encouraged along San Francisco’s Wharf waterfront. The Fisherman’s Wharf Street Performer Program regulates twelve designated performance locations in the public access Port area in recognition of the cultural contribution of such open air shows.  Miming, street dancing, instrumental performances and even operatic arias are but a few of the offerings one might wander past on a trek along the Embarcadero. The eclectic and energetic ambiance fits San Francisco -with her fluctuating temperatures, inclined streets and varied cultural pockets, very well.

Updated from February 1, 2010.

San Francisco Things To Do

There are numerous hotels in Fisherman’s Wharf, such as the stylish Hyatt at Fisherman’s Wharf and the Argonaut Hotel, both within a couple blocks of all the action.

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Trout Fishing at Tuolumne Meadows

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fisherman

Most of my limited knowledge on fishing was absorbed on a pier at Atwood Lake in eastern Ohio. The sunfish and blue gills were pretty accommodating and easy to catch. Unhooking them was a bit more difficult, but I’d do my best to hurriedly release my catch before grandpa could cook it. I drew the line at eating something I had personally caught. Someone else’s fish was fine. But never my own. It was a matter of some principle I can not define and could never explain.

tuolumne2

Trout fishing in Yosemite National Park is a more serious endeavor. And postcard picturesque… Tuolumne Meadows unfurls splendidly at the sub-alpine level in Yosemite’s high country.

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Enclosed by the High Sierra and laced by clear bubbling streams, the meadow offers serene fishing with vistas that just might make catching a fish of secondary concern.

To me at least.

Updated from October 21, 2009.

 

Yosemite National Park Things To Do

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Mega-Monuments

Coastal Redwoods, Muir Woods National Monument; CA

Muir Woods National Monument Map and Park Information

The first time I stepped into the hushed shadows of Muir Woods, dusk had already stretched one long arm around the towering trees.

Zach and I had spent most of that day on bikes, riding from Fisherman’s Wharf on down to the Golden Gate Bridge and then across and up the road to Sausalito. When we met up with his dad back in San Francisco in the late afternoon, we decided that there was just enough time to get to Muir Woods. Everyone had cleared out by the time we arrived, and there was “just enough time”. Not a moment more.

Coastal Redwoods 2, Muir Woods National Monument; CA

On my second visit in 2008, my friend and I arrived earlier in the afternoon to a more crowded park, but the stately Coastal Redwood trees seemed to inspire a “quiet” in those walking the trails beneath them. There was none of the scampering and screaming one sometimes encounters on flat, public trails. Instead, there seemed to be an attitude of reverence… an appreciation of being out of one’s usual “element”.

Needles; Muir Woods National Monument; CA

With the tallest redwood stretching 258 feet above the forest floor and the oldest one dating back at least 1200 years, there is plenty to inspire awe within this national monument. President Roosevelt segregated the land in 1908; its name honors naturalist John Muir, founder of the Sierra Club and a pivotal figure in the establishment of our national park system.

Me and a tree; Muir Woods National Monument, CA

Further inland are Kings Canyon and Sequoia National Parks – to be explored on a future trip and the Mariposa Grove of Yosemite National Park. The California Coastal Redwood, found only within a narrow band along the Pacific coast, is the tallest tree in the world. The Giant Sequoias are known for their massive diameters.

Updated from January 11, 2009.

 

Muir Woods National Monument (Mill Valley, CA)
Tallest trees in the world: Coastal Redwoods
Mill Valley, CA 94941-2696
(415) 388-2595/(415) 388-2596

Park Website

Park Hours: 8AM – Sunset (seasonal)

Entrance Fee: $7.00/Adult; Free/Children(15 and under) .  *Updated 1/1/12.

Annual Pass available

View Muir Woods National Monument in a larger map


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