From Pacifica, With Love

Nope, this isn't a spy thriller ... tho it does have a rugged, handsome, brave and astoundingly capable hero and a resourceful, sexy heroine.

This is in fact a love story. A story of how we love Pacifica. And the Bay Area and our friends.

Start with this so it becomes the cover photo for the blog.
A view of Linda Mar and Pedro Point
from atop Mori Point

Our heroine enjoys the view of Linda Mar

A view up Sharp Park to the famous pier and our former house.

Mori Point from the Rockaway Quarry.
You may remember this view.
It is where Harold drove his Jag-Hearse off the cliff after Maude died.
When we first came to Pacifica, you could see the car body at the base of the cliff
But it has rusted away. At least I can't find it anymore.

The Rockaway Quarry supplied the limestone for San Francisco's City Hall.
The Quarry and surrounding area have been restored as wetlands
and are a popular walking spot.

At the entrance to the Quarry

In the Quarry there are traces of the limestone and other rocks extracted long ago.

A close up of the Quarry wall.
Don't know why, I just like this.

Back on Sharp Park Beach, this old drainage pipe made the news.
Normally this is covered with sand but winter storms have scoured the sand away.
When we first moved there, the pipe was exposed like this every winter,
then covered again in the summer.
But with so few winter storms recently, this is now an unusual and therefore news-worthy event.

Near the drainage pipe there once was a boat landing.
And above it was a restaurant and a gas station.
And the entire coast was covered with WWII bunkers.
Now all that remains are concrete canvases.

I know this was part of a bunker.

While I was playing photographer, this hawk landed silently about 5 feet from me.

I chatted him up while snapping a few pics.
Later he (she?) followed me, I imagine hoping I'd scare up a mouse or mole for lunch.

A hundred years ago a rail road ran along the coast.
Here are the remnants of the railway as it entered Linda Mar.

And here is the railway looking out to sea.
It has mostly eroded away.
In fact, it eroded away even as it was being built.
In 35 years of operation, it was open for business only one year.
Mostly it was closed for repairs.
So when they closed the railway, the state chose to use the right-of-way
for the new Hwy 1.
That didn't work so well either, so in many places the highway was quickly routed inland.

See, here are some remnants.

Rocks like this would fall onto the part of the tracks that hadn't washed into the sea.

Awww ... so sweet

The hotel in Rockaway.
At high tide large waves crest over the sea wall and smash the side of the hotel.
Even small waves get the unwary wet.

The hotel had a workout room I used several times.
Yep, those are my workout clothes.
The hotel insisted I had to wear something and this was all I had.

We arrived in red tag season.
Winter storms erode the sand cliffs.
People build houses and apartments and businesses on the sand cliffs.
Eventually they get red tagged and demolished.

A demo crane.
The yellow house in the middle is red tagged.
The apartment you can see is ok and it will be a few years before it is red tagged.

See, you can still rent an apartment here.

A pile of apartment bits.

Here is the back side of the RV park we've stayed at in the past.
Cyndi didn't want to stay here this trip.
She was afraid the RV would fall into the sea.
Actually, only one row of RVs fell into the sea this season.

Back near the pier, a hole opened in the seawall and started sucking the road into the ocean.
They tossed sand bags the size of NFL linemen into the hole.
The bags just tumbled thru the hole into the sea.

You can rent this small one bedroom for only $2600 / month.
It's across the street from the hole in the seawall.
So you might get sucked into the ocean, too.
But for the Bay Area, $2,600 / month is pretty reasonable.
Consider it.

I just like this picture.

To end on a note of hope, flowers bloom amid the destruction

We did venture outside of Pacifica.
Pigeon Point

And we visited the Botanical Gardens

Where Cyndi enjoyed herself a little bit too much

And we saw lots of flowers like this one.
If you like this and want more,
check out my slide show at youtube

They even had birds !!

And trucks

I'm considering re-painting the RV.

And finally, the main reason we came.
A Hawaiian Roll.
Cyndi ate all this. And a salad. And a bowl of pickled umeboshi and daikon.

It had been raining for two weeks before we arrived in Pacifica,
but the rain stopped as we were checking into the hotel.
We had sunny skies for most of the week.
But we had lived in the fog for so many years, we looked at it as a friend.
So we were actually happy for it to be overcast on our last day.

Ah, this is more like it.

Black and White and Grey All Over
A Sause Bros oil barge is towed by a Sause Bros tug into the Golden Gate

Always cautious, Cyndi uses a Cypress Tree to shield herself as she watches the tug labor against the current.
Because, like you never know when an oil barge might explode

And with that, I thank you for taking time to share this with us.

Lilly, 2000 - 2016

We found Lilly on Union Square when she was two years old and brought her home to be a companion for our 8 year old cat Suerte. Lilly was an excellent companion, very sweet, quiet and never complained.

She outlived her companion by a year and enjoyed being the queen kitty but too quickly she had to leave us. I miss her nightly 7:30 pm visit to be scratched behind her right ear for 20 minutes before leaving to lie in bed to await our arrival.

Now the bed is cold and the house empty and we miss both our kitties.