Not to rub it in to those of you still experiencing winter weather, but I can't help it. This weekend in San Francisco was gorgeous! Sunny & in the high 60s. On Saturday I went for an urban hike (sounds better than a walk doesn't it?) and walked hiked from my apt to the GG Bridge so the engineer/Michigan freighter watching* side of me could see this.
I wasn't the only one there to watch it. There were a ton of people taking pictures. Every parking lot was full and people were parked on the road and hurrying up the road to see the cranes. They are two new cranes for the Port of Oakland for unloading freighters. I find it fascinating that they build the cranes in China and ship them over completed. This boat crossed the entire Pacific Ocean with those huge cranes on it. Amazing. They build the cranes as big as they can be yet still fit under the Bay Bridge.** Then they wait for a calm day*** and at low tide they lower the ship and slow/halt the traffic on the Bay Bridge so it rises just enough to let the cranes pass. I think there was something like only 5 feet to spare. Of course I was running late so I didn't get to see the approach but I got there just in time to see it coming under the GG bridge. I even thought about walking/busing to see it go under the bay bridge but I couldn't work out how to get there in time with public transit so I walked a long circuitous & scenic way home. It was a lovely long walk that satisfied several things, my need for exercise, my longing to spend time outdoors in wonderful weather and the nagging feeling that I haven't been enjoying the city enough. I am homebody at heart (hello knitting anyone?) but I pay so much to live in SF that I feel guilty if I don't get out and enjoy it enough.
On the way home I stopped at a park and started reading my book club book. I remember when I first moved to the bay area I went on a walking tour and someone pointed out Danielle Steele's house. Now 4 years later I was thinking maybe I was sitting across from her house.**** Could she see that I was NOT reading her books? I hoped so.
*My parents have a cottage on Lake Huron and we always yelled out if a freighter was spotted. You'd think it didn't happen like 5 times a day or something. On the way back to the suburbs sometimes we'd stop in Port Huron just so my mom could watch the freighters up close as they went under the Blue Water Bridge and into the St. Clair River. So maybe it's more my mom's influence than anything.
**The Bay Bridge is lower and therefore a tighter fit, but the GG Bridge is more scenic & closer to my house so that's why I went there.
***This ship waited for a few days just outside of the Golden Gate waiting for a calm enough day.
****On retrospect and map looking, I don't think it was her house. I had my parks mixed up.
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