Playing Tourist, SSS BLOG

Yesterday I had to vacate the house for three hours for cleaning, so I decided to drive to San Francisco to take pictures and play tourist.

First stop, Treasure Island, which I thought would be a good place to take shots of the SF Skyline. For those who don’t know, Treasure Island is an artificial island built on the north side of Yerba Buena Island, which is located in the middle of the San Francisco Bay halfway between Oakland and San Francisco. Unfortunately, the island is in the middle of a massive redevelopment plan, with road closures and construction everywhere. Between that, the seen-better-times appearance of buildings that hadn’t been torn down, and the howling, unceasing wind, it was an unpleasant experience, but I took some good skyline and bay shots nevertheless.

(As an aside, the pictures were taken with a Sony a7Rii mirror-less full-frame camera and a Sony FE 24-105mm f/4 Lens that I bought in France, the image quality of which is amazing. If you’re viewing this on a regular computer, click on the caption and view the full-sized photo to see what I’m talking about.)

Golden Gate and Alcatraz from Treasure Island

After Treasure Island, I got back on the Bay Bridge and drove into San Francisco. Taking the Embarcadero exit, I drove past the Ferry Terminal, Pier 39, and the first place I lived in California, 708 Bay Street, a lifetime ago.

Traffic in San Francisco was remarkably light, to the point of being eerie. I was on the same route I took hundreds of times, from my job in the Financial District (at the very end of Market Street) to a condo I owned at the time in Sausalito. But it was all wrong, not having much traffic; nice, but wrong.

Second stop was at the bayshore in the Marina District, which resulted in a nice shot of Alcatraz and a pretty view of the Golden Gate Bridge and the Marin Headlands.

Golden Gate Bridge from the Marina District

A little further on, I stopped at a beach at Chrissy Field. Unfortunately, the main road to get to the large grassy expanse along the bay was blocked. Tant pis.

OK, you’re getting to the point where you’ve seen enough, but the next stop is one that provides some of the best views of the Golden Gate Bridge and San Francisco: the Marin Headlands. There were a few tourists about, but nothing like a normal June 16, which made the experience very enjoyable. Plus, it was a nice clear day, providing nice photos even though it was the middle of the day. Here are a few.