Sleeping a little easier

San Francisco in late May, looking out from the front entrance to Legion of Honor museum. For once returning home was all about returning a happy camper. Sure there were loose ends, as usual, with the concrete pour but I could finally relax.

I finally had concrete decks, drainage etc surrounding the house for the most part. Not completely but enough so I can sleep at night. Stateside, I can't imagine a nicer place to live than Mill Valley, Sausalito, and San Francisco. Like the tropics we get a lot of rain in a short five month window. The rest of the year it is headlines if we get so much as a drop. Notice the picture above, not a cloud in the sky. In the dry season clouds are rare. Afternoon fog, that we have as the cool air rushes through the Golden Gate headed into the scorching valleys.

But back to the rain. Once you have lived a generation in the Bay area mudslides are part of your psychic make up. I brought that to St John. It never leaves you. Beautiful mountains, houses new and old sliding down a hillside. The pattern is always the same. Drenching rains spread over a couple of weeks, the grounds saturates, swells and down come the hills.

When we lived in Sausalito on 2nd street the entire hillside valley up and over highway 1o1 came down early one morning. Yes, there were several houses. It was the early 80's during an El Nino. We had been evacuated early in the am. Anyway, that night and morning never leave you when a mountanious debris pile is a couple of blocks over. Every year houses somewhere or another go over. What am I doing? Building on a fairly steep grade 1000' feet up a mountain. Go figure.

Suffice is to say I worry about accumulated rain totals all the time during this construction. Now with retaining walls and decks I can kick back and worry about other things!

This bunker houses one of the best wine collections in the world. These are in the Presidio. By decree the Presidio has to be a profit center or at least break even by some future date. This is one of the ways they plan on achieving it.

Old gun emplacements from WW II.

The new Natural history/Aquarium in Golden Gate park opposite the new DeYoung art museum. Yes, that's a garden on the roof. The picture was taken from the tower below. While I really loved the original museum that this has replaced you have to move forward. It looks so-so now but the entire exterior is copper. When the patina materializes over the next 20 years it should be extraordinary.

We walked on the roof in question. Our tax dollars at work along with monster private donations. They got us on the DeYoung. I hemmed and hawed but Denise was relentless. I have to admit seeing our names eased my chiseler pain.

To the beach. It's not St John to be sure. China camp my favorite. Have to keep the tan going over the next month.

Last of the old bay shrimping camps. This one was Chinese. Now a park.

The building houses a small descriptive fishing museum.

Basically when I come home we run around like maniacs and do things like tourists. This time we revisited Monterey Aquarium down past Carmel. Many years prior we went to the grand opening. It's a great drive we know by heart.

This was the special exhibit that drew us down there. Chances are you have never seen these guys before. That's not us talking.

After one month I headed back to St John with the standard luggage commitment. A checkable piece with tool replacements, spare parts, chilled fresh cheeries, blueberries, fresh bread, several pounds of cheese, energy bars, more music, books etc. Tipping the scales well over fifty pounds. Thank god they don't try to lift my carry on.