Len Bridges and David Schultz
On May 1st, David Schultz led a happy band of twelve club members into the Pacific Heights region of San Francisco for Stairway Hike #4. This hike hadn’t been done by the club since July of 2010. Considering the beauty of this hike, it was long overdue. The weather was gorgeous and it was a very clear day.
Starting in the Marina district on Yacht Rd., we walked across the street to the Palace of Fine Arts, where the old Exploratorium used to be. The Palace of Fine Arts is always impressive. It’s like being thrown back into ancient Greece or Rome. Walking among the huge columns and rotundas, you might expect to see people wearing togas. Actually, there were some ladies in full white gowns, since the Palace is still very popular for weddings.
This photo gives you an idea of the scale of the buildings.
|
As we exited the park, we stopped for a group photo. Sunscreen anyone?
|
David had the maps and the path laid out by club member Hoyt Nelson. Of course one could conclude that David was only the titular leader, as knowledgeable ladies in the group took part in directing us in different directions. This was fine with Dave and the group was congenial, fun, and hung together as a team.
As we walked into Pacific Heights, the hike became challenging and even more fun. We traveled up some really steep steps, and plenty of steep streets as well. The hike was also educational. In the photo below, we walked past the home of Henry Casebolt, an inventor in the 1870’s who made it possible for one cable car track to cross another while maintaining control over the train car. He also invented a better grip and lever for operators to slow and accelerate the cable cars. As you can see, he obviously made a good living and built a fabulous house on Pierce Street.
|
We saw beautiful maintained neighborhoods, with staircases full of gardens, flowers, and expansive, exhilarating views of the marina and the bay.
|
We passed consulates of foreign governments as well as home of famous people. We started our descent back to the Palace of Fine Arts at the intersection of Lyon and Pacific streets. Here begins one of the most famous stairways in all of San Francisco – the Lyon Street stairs. Postcard views don’t come much better than this.
|
The stairways eventually drop down into a neighborhood of Italian Renaissance style homes before passing alongside the Presidio.
|
Before getting back to the Palace, Hoyt’s instructions had us turn left into the Presidio at Francisco Street. Within a short distance we reached the Letterman Digital Arts Center. This four-building complex, finished in 2005, is the headquarters of Lucasfilm and houses Industrial Light & Magic (the company responsible for so many movies’ special effects). In front of the complex is a pretty park with a pond, ducks, a Yoda statue, and plenty of large rocks for sitting on or hopping over. The pond was a nice spot for a nice break before the group split up.
|
Most people went home after leaving the Letterman Center, but five of us went to a restaurant called the Squat & Gobble that Maggie Chang recommended. We walked there via Chestnut Street, which actually has a lot of restaurants. The menu at the Squat has so many interesting items — it was difficult to choose. Len picked the fruit crepes with double scoops of ice cream (hey, it was a challenging hike and there was a need to replace calories, you know). Dave had a florentine omelet that was disguised as a salad. All in all, we had a fun time filling up on the fine food.
 |
 |
 |
