SFBC Valet bicycle parking

Hazel Dickens

Dirty Hippy

Earl Scruggs & Family

Earl Scruggs very-amateur video

Banjo Stage set list

Lady Rider

Dread natty dread

Doc Watson, kickin’ it live.

It wouldn’t be an event in SF without Frank Chu’s unintelligible signs

Man, woman, dog

A few people

Not-shy

Crowd @ Doc Watson

Nick Lowe, one of my very favorites

There has been quite a bit of trail work in San Francisco’s Presidio over the past couple of years, and we’d been wanting to see what the park folks have been up to, so when Sarah’s parents invited us to join them for a hike there, we happily joined them and Sarah’s sister.

We parked at the Presidio Habitat visitor’s center, which has a must-get map (the Presidio is very easy to get lost in), and some exhibits about the art installations and such, then hit the very obvious start of the walk.

The path veered through an overgrown field;  a sign explained:

It’s for the birds…
(and the butterflies too)

This area may look neglected.  Quite the contrary.  An area like this is valuable habitat for birds and butterflies to feed and breed.  We will resume our maintenance regimen at the end of the bird nesting season in August.  In the meantime, keep your eyes open for winged creatures.

Several chairs, one quite tall, provided a place to sit and look for critters in the field, but it was quiet out, being midday, and nothing much was stirring.

We walked along the buildings next to the field, several of which still had signs attesting to the military history of the Presidio.

Like many of the old Army buildings, these were unoccupied, perhaps waiting for seismic retrofit or cleanup before being repurposed.

This area was part of Fort Winfield Scott, and a nearby sign explained:

The new quarters are among the most elaborate and modern in the United States, and when the landscape features are completed, Fort Winfield Scott will be the finest… [and] most beautifully located army post in the country.”

- The San Francisco Call, June 18, 1912

The architecture of the Presidio’s buildings is interesting, and not nearly as drab as most military buildings!

Another art/nature installation consisted of large pots strapped to tree trunks to provide bird homes.  I don’t know if any birds had taken up residence, but it’s a cool idea, and it looks kind of neat having big blue pots dozens of feet off of the ground.

Fortunately Jim & Diane have done this walk before, as there is little chance I could re-create it on my own.  We continued through another neighborhood on the street.

Unlike Fort Winfield Scott, this area’s houses are back to their original function, and several dozen lucky families live in these pretty quarters.

A narrow footpath through a completely ivy-choked bit of forest brought us to another road.  I was fairly well lost as to where we were, and where we were going by now, but no matter.

An Army Jeep was parked alongside the road, now repurposed as a groundskeeping vehicle.

The next installation piece was a big geometric ball perched atop three sticks, intended to be a habitat for Western Screech Owls.

In parts, at least, the path was well-marked.

Plenty of people were enjoying the trails, both locals walking their dogs, as well as tourists.

A less-successful installation piece was a spiral of metal.  According to a nearby sign, it is intended to reflect the flight path of a hawk as it swoops down on its prey.  It just looked like leftover junk to us, though.

Although quite a bit of the Presidio has been restored, there are large portions that are crumbling, fenced off by barbed wire, probably due to toxicity concerns.

We walked on to San Francisco National Cemetery, which I had driven past many times, but never visited.  The footpath leading to its back entrance had stone inscriptions with an excerpt of  ”the Young Dead Soldiers” by Archibald MccLeish:

The full poem, a touching tribute to the war dead, and an exhortation to the living, can be found here.

The San Francisco National Cemetery is the only remaining cemetery in San Francisco, the rest having been relocated south to Colma many years ago.  It’s a beautiful place that I would very much like to return to alone to photograph.

The cemetery has outstanding views of not just the Golden Gate Bridge, but also Angel Island, Alcatraz, and much of the San Francisco Bay.

After cooling our heels here for a few minutes, we continued onwards.

Also in the “less successful” installation category was an imagined fox house constructed out of piled 4×4′s.  It looked like a pile of lumber to me.

The last installation we visited was also one of the best.  Straw-filled wire frames were staked into the ground, spelling out pithy sayings.  The intent is for birds to enjoy these, and they certainly were, with dozens of Dark-eyed Junco and Chestnut-backed Chickadees flitting about.

The phrases were mostly pretty facile (“resolve conflict with song”, etcetera), and I preferred the words standalone, which is how I photographed them.

This was the last installation we visited, and we made our way under an overpass, through a nice community garden, and back to the car.

This was a great walk, and will hopefully motivate me to do more semi-urban hiking in the Presidio.  There are plans for many more miles of trails, and the terrain and views are outstanding.

We’re having a great time here, especially since Sarah joined me on Friday. Loads of walking, wonderful sights, & food adventures galore!

With all the walking, the dreaded sandals with socks look that is oh so German (& Czech) is starting to look like a good idea, ahhhhhh!

I haven’t had any blocks of solid birding time yet, although I’ve seen a couple of lifers (jays/crows, don’t know which as I don’t have a guide for this area).

Four days of vacation remain, and they’re sure to be a lot of fun!

Until I get back, here are some iPhone snaps:

In advance of an approaching storm, Sarah & I decided to cancel a planned hike at Edgewood Park in Redwdood City, and instead went for a short walk in western San Francisco.

We started at North Lake in Golden Gate Park.  It was dark and cloudy for a mid-day, and cold raindrops occasionally sprinkled on our heads.

Birds were mostly quiet along the south side of North Lake, an American Coot here, a Mallard there, and a bunch of squirrels, anxious for a snack.  Judging from the peanut shells strewn all over, these fellows are quite accustomed to handouts!

A couple of Allen’s Hummingbirds (presumably – I suppose they could be the quite-similar Rufous Hummingbird) zipped high into the air and plunged with a popping sound, and a Great Blue Heron stood stoically across the lake.

A pair of Downy Woodpeckers hammered a nearby tree, and gave us a few nice looks before flying off.  Had I brought my SLR, I could have captured a nice photo, but the light was low and dull, so I’d left it at home.

We walked toward the municipal golf course, seeing only Dark-eyed Juncoes and a few Golden-crowned Sparrows, then continued around North Lake, now on its northern side.

A trio of Mew Gulls floated in the middle of the lake, a Steller’s Jay skulked in a dense stand of bush, and the local Common Ravens croaked and cronked in their low, rattling voice.

More common denizens of these parts presented themselves, including Ring-necked Ducks, more Mallards, a lone Pied-billed Grebe, more coots, and some Ruddy Ducks, including one looking very spiffy in his freshly-grown alternate plumage and bright blue bill.

Little else was showing itself, so we wrapped it up and decided to check out Sutro Baths to see if the oft-reported Burrowing Owl was at its place in the rock wall.

After parking across the street from Louie’s restaurant (which proves the adage that the quality of the food is inversely proportional to the niceness of the view), we walked down the path toward the ruins of Sutro Baths, then turned and looked up at the rock wall to the left of the restaurant and scanned and scaned some more, but no Burrowing Owl did we see.

Ah well….  We continued on to the parapet overlooking the bay and enjoyed the nippy stormy weather and pretty views.  Few birds were to be seen, a few Western Gulls, some Brandt’s Cormorants, and that was about it.

Below and distant, in the old bathing pool was a Bufflehead and a few coots, nothing worth walking down to check on, and the rocky shore appeared devoid of shorebirds, so we decided to call it a day and head on home.

Although we didn’t see too much, it’s always a pleasure to get out, and I did nab 5 more year birds, this due more to my having not been out too terribly much more than the presence of anything out of the ordinary for this time of year, but hey, I’ll take them!

Location:     GGP - Chain of Lakes (S., Mid., N.)
Observation date:     3/21/09
Number of species:     20

Mallard - Anas platyrhynchos     4
Ring-necked Duck - Aythya collaris     1
Ruddy Duck - Oxyura jamaicensis     8
Pied-billed Grebe - Podilymbus podiceps     2
Double-crested Cormorant - Phalacrocorax auritus     2
Great Blue Heron - Ardea herodias     1
American Coot - Fulica americana     5
Mew Gull - Larus canus     3
+ Rufous/Allen's Hummingbird - Selasphorus rufus/sasin     3
+ Downy Woodpecker - Picoides pubescens     1
Black Phoebe - Sayornis nigricans     1
Steller's Jay - Cyanocitta stelleri     1
Common Raven - Corvus corax     8
American Robin - Turdus migratorius     2
+ Cedar Waxwing - Bombycilla cedrorum     30
+ Yellow-rumped Warbler - Dendroica coronata     3
Golden-crowned Sparrow - Zonotrichia atricapilla     4
Dark-eyed Junco - Junco hyemalis     7
Red-winged Blackbird - Agelaius phoeniceus     1
+ House Finch - Carpodacus mexicanus     1

Location:     Sutro Hts / Baths / Land's End
Observation date:     3/21/09
Number of species:     7

Bufflehead - Bucephala albeola     2
Brandt's Cormorant - Phalacrocorax penicillatus     20
Red-tailed Hawk - Buteo jamaicensis     1
American Coot - Fulica americana     5
Western Gull - Larus occidentalis     50
Black Phoebe - Sayornis nigricans     1
White-crowned Sparrow - Zonotrichia leucophrys     2

+ = year bird (65 so far)

This report was generated automatically by eBird v2(http://ebird.org)

Haight Street Fair, 8 June 2008:

After breakfast, Jim, Diane, Sarah & I took the Subte to the Plaza de Mayo. It being rush hour, the Subte was very crowded; given its 1.3 million person daily ridership, this was not a surprise.

Buildings around the Plaza de Mayo

Plaza de Mayo is the political center of Argentina, site of the Casa Rosada (president’s offices) and a large square, where most demonstrations occur.

We’d briefly skirted the area shortly after our arrival, but I wanted to come back to see the main civic buildings (and to re-visit a store that had very nice maté gourds and straws).

Casa Rosada

During our visit to Argentina, there were blockades and protests over Argentine President Christina Kirchner’s plans to tax exports (mainly soy) to encourage more growth of locally-consumable foods, and in response, she held rallies in the Plaza de Mayo practically daily. So it was no surprise that security was fairly high, with an obvious police presence.

As an aside, I found it fascinating and sad that at a time when we in the US were debating whether or not the country is “ready” (whatever that means) for a female president, both Argentina and Chile currently have one.

Plaza de Mayo

Metropolitan Cathedral

General San Martin, considered the founder of Argentina and, along with Bolivar, a leading force in South American independence from the Spanish crown, is interred in the Metro. Cathedral, and an eternal flame burns in his honor.

I got a lovely maté (the gourd used to drink yerba maté) and bombilla (the filtered straw you drink it through),

Since we hadn’t really explored the antique stores of San Telmo the previous Sunday due to the huge crowds, we decided to return there, hoping it would be quieter on this Friday afternoon. It was, and we enjoyed walking around Plaza Dorrego.

We lunched at a touristy Bar Plaza Dorrego, where I had a very good Lomito Completo, a huge and delicious sirloin steak, perfectly cooked, topped in inimitable Argentine fashion with, you guessed it, ham and cheese, and with tomatoes, hard-boiled eggs, and lettuce on the side. Sarah was fairly horrified by the thing; I found it delicious, but preferred not to consider its caloric (or fat) content! At only AR$12 (about US$4), it was a great deal indeed.

We returned home, rested, and then Sarah & I took a cab to Barrio Norte to check out the many shops along Ave. Santa Fe. Nothing jumped out at us here, and the street was very smoggy both due to it being a hazy day in general, and there being a lot of diesel vehicles on Santa Fe.

At the intersection with Puerreydon, we decided to walk towards Recoleta, and stopped off for yummy gelato at a Freddo branch. Nearby I spied some belts in a cobbler’s window, so we went in, hopeful to find a souvenier. Working around some minor language differences (I speak little Spanish, the shopkeeper spoke no English), I wound up with a nice gift belt for my dad, and an interesting horse leather belt for myself.

Buenos Aires University’s School of Engineering

We again walked by the huge neo-gothic School of Engineering, then hailed a cab back to the apartment.

After our last sunset, we walked out and decided to try out Canal, a nearby parilla (steak-house). It was decent, but had the unusual “feature” that only the Spanish-language menu had prices – the English-language one had none!

Our last dinner in South America over, we returned home, packed our bags, and went to bed.

Saturday, 5 April:

We enjoyed our last morning in South America, sipping coffee on the terrace of our apartment, then attempted to pre-print out our boarding passes (not possible if you’re flying w/AA internationally). Thwarted, we returned home, finished packing, and fixed up sandwiches from some of the meat leftover from our parilla the previous night.

With the remainder, we walked a few blocks back to the Jardin Botanico and fed the scraps to the cats, who, as you can see above, were VERY happy to have them!

At 12:45 we caught a cab to Palermo SoHo, and had quite possibly the best meal of our entire trip, at La Cabrera.

Lunch at La Cabrera!! Wow!

Along with the superb meat, and quite unlike most other places we ate at, La Cabrera does a wonderful job with vegetables, and we had at least 15 different dishes of veggie preparations to accompany our meats, including quite possibly the best french fries I have ever had.

Ciao, Argentina!

Totally stuffed (and a little buzzed), we returned to the apartment, said our goodbyes to Jim & Diane (who were staying in BsAs another week and a half), and caught a cab to the airport for the long trip home.

Although I’d read that getting through the maze of Ezeia International Airport is a nightmare, we found it quite easy. The only possible catch is that you have to pay a US$20 “airport exit tax,” and this can only be paid at a few counters, however, everyone was very clear on this requirement, and where the counters were, so it was no problem at all.

Lots of travel, and a day later, we arrived home in San Francisco to our VERY happy-to-see-us kitties.

Having said so very much in the course of these 15 installments of travelogue, I have no final deep thoughts, so I will end this chronicle with: “What a trip!.”

Trip Index:

Part 1: Getting to Patagonia
Part 2: El Calafate & Laguna Nimez
Part 3: Glaciar Perito Moreno
Part 4: El Calafate backcountry excursion
Part 5: Goodbye Argentina, hello Chile
Part 6: To Torres del Paine!
Part 7: Lago Pehoe and Paine Grande
Part 8: Mirador los Cuernos
Part 9: To Rio Verde and Punta Arenas
Part 10: Pelagic, Penguins, and farewell to Patagonia
Part 11: To Buenos Aires
Part 12: BsAs’ Sunday markets and other diversions
Part 13: Colonia del Sacramento, Uruguay
Part 14: Buenos Aires’ Jardin Botanico and Costanera Sur
Part 15: There’s no place like home <– You are here!

A Peregrine Falcon got the day off to a good start as it flew close overhead while I had coffee on the terrace of our apartment. Although I’ve seen Peregrines a number of times before, this one provided good looks.

After a light breakfast we all walked to Avenida Santa Fe and caught the Subte green line to downtown Buenos Aires, an area also referred to as “microcentro.”

Microcentro (downtown)

We shopped, strolled the long pedestrian mall on Florida, which was full of cheap touristy junk for the most part, except for the very chi chi Galleria Pacifico. Jim & I were looking for leather jackets, but found prices too high in the galleria (US$600′ish), and the styles too flashy.

After a pretty good lunch at nearby Fila we walked around Pza. San Martin and after dropping in at a few more leather stores, found what we were looking for at Juan Lopez, where Jim & I each bought nice simple leather jackets for US$160 (minus a 10% discount for paying cash!).

The world’s first official Barbie store. Yay?

We caught a cab back to our apartment, picked up our laundry (side note, although when traveling we normally do our laundry in the sink and hang it to dry, at US$3/load at the laundry in the ground floor of our building, we saw no need to do it ourselves!), and rested for a bit.

After cocktails and a cheese plate, Sarah & I were feeling peckish, so we walked more or less randomly around our neighborhood and wound up having a surprisingly garlic-free mediterranean meal at Garbis. I love garlic, mediterranean food is just not at all good without it!

Our sleep was interrupted at 12:30am by a very loud party several buildings over. Although it wasn’t particularly close to our building, we could clearly hear the words and recognize the ’80s songs they were playing, and when I got up to see where it was, a flat about a block away had disco lights flashing. Fortunately, the party didn’t last too long and we slept unbothered for the rest of the night. Given the Porteños very late-night lifestyle, I imagine this was probably just a pre-party before everyone headed out to a club, many of which don’t even open until 2 or 3am.

Sunday, 30 March:

Sunday is fair (“ferria”) day in BsAs, so after a quick breakfast we caught a cab to La Boca. At AR$20 (about US$7), this was one of the most expensive taxi rides we had while in Buenos Aires – not bad at all compared to San Francisco’s high-dollar cabs!

La Boca is a “colorful slum” if you will, and I had mixed feelings about doing the touristy thing and seeing the area, famous for its brightly-painted buildings (and Boca Juniors soccer team). We arrived and walked around the closed-off market area, which featured some nice handmade crafts amid the tourist-trap trinkets.

La Boca

La Boca’s buildings were originally painted in these bright colors because the residents, unable to afford quantities of paint, begged leftovers from boats at the nearby port, and so a colorful patchwork arose.

La Boca

It is not clear to me how much of that original motivation remains vs. keeping the area colorful to lure in tourists like us, but at any rate, we enjoyed strolling the cobbled streets until …. at least a half dozen huge tour buses unloaded, and callers sprang into action trying to entice folks into a tango lesson, lunch, or both.

La Boca musicians

I stopped and listened to two guitarists for a few minutes, as they were very good, and seemed to be enjoying what they were playing. We soon reached the critical level of our touristy meter and decided to quit La Boca. As usual, a cab was at hand practically instantaneously, and we headed towards the city center to the San Telmo district, known for its Sunday antiques and crafts fair in Plaza Dorrego.

Plaza Dorrego vendors

The San Telmo market was much more our speed – amid the many obvious tourists like us were plenty of locals out enjoying the lovely day. The outdoor market, for which several city blocks are closed off, was less antiquey and more of a flea market. For what reason I do not know, seltzer bottles were featured prominently among the goods on offer.

Jim & Diane went their own way while Sarah & I went ours, and the two of us enjoyed meandering around the booths and poking into the great many antique stores lining Plaza Dorrego, although the prices seemed pretty darned high for many items.

Lasts forever! (sorry, couldn’t resist…)

We relaxed for a bit over a beer and some nuts at a dark, comfortable, quiet bar nestled in a corner of the square, then re-met up with Jim & Diane and had a tourist-oriented, but very tasty, lunch.

Plaza Dorrego

We’d about had our fill of large crowds after lunch, so we took a cab to show Jim & Diane the Recoleta market, which Sarah & I had stumbled on during our one day layover at the start of this trip. It was our favorite market of the three, and featured many more craftsfolk selling goods they had made themselves. An unremarkable lunch and a short cab ride later we were back at the apartment.

Palermo district and the Rio de la Plata

It was lovely weather, and I enjoyed the views from our rooftop deck out over the greenbelt and to the very-sedimented Rio de la Plata. S & I went around the corner and enjoyed some delicious gelato at Menta e Cannella, then we regrouped and decided to take a cab to the Las Cañitas neighborhood, where we had a tasty dinner at Campobravo. Here we had a proper introduction to the way many Argentine restaurants serve mixed drinks. I had a whiskey and coke and Sarah a gin and tonic. In both cases they brought us a bottle of the soda, then proceeded to fill a tall glass with the liquor until we said “when.” I was a little slow on the uptake, and wound up with a tall glass mostly full of rum! At least nobody there can be accused of short pours!

After our tasty meal we headed home and to bed. It was interesting how different the 3 Sunday markets were from each other – the homogeneity that characterizes, say, farmer’s markets and street festivals in the SF area was not present here at all, leaving each market to have its own character.

Monday, 31 March:

Sarah wanted a quiet morning, so after breakfast, Jim, Diane & I took a cab to the Puerto Madera district to check out Cavallo’s Puente de la Mujere (“Bridge of the Woman”).

Window-washing, the old-school way

En route I spied a team of window-washers whose job looked much more “exciting” than that of their counterparts in the US! I was also amused to see the offices of the company I work for in a nearby high-rise. Also nearby were Microsoft & IBM, so guess this is the tech district.

Puente de la Mujer by Santiago Calatrava

Puente de la Mujer was a nicely-architected pedestrian bridge. Apparently it’s meant to be a pivoting bridge to allow larger boats to pass, but lacks the funds to complete the work.

We walked through a business park, seeking Costanera Sur, a large urban refuge in east-central BsAs, and eventually found it after winding our way through quite a lot of towering building construction.

Rufous Hornero nest

Although we’d found the park, what we didn’t find was its entrance! We walked along the road bordering Costanera Sur’s east side for rather a ways toward a promising-looking levy to the south.

Bay-winged Cowbirds / Tordo Músico

We didn’t see many birds along the roadside other than Eared Doves and Rock Pigeons, but did spy a pir of Bay-winged Cowbirds (LIFER!). We finally found an entrance gate to the reserve only to find … it’s closed on Mondays – argh! It never occurred to us that a public park would actually be closed any day of the week, but it was.

Annoyed, we hailed a cab to the Buquebus terminal to purchase tickets for tomorrow’s ferry trip to Colonia, Uruguay. This entailed waiting in two lines, one to give our passport information, and another to actually buy the tickets, which at US$60/each, were rather expensive.

Seeking a break from the fast, cheap, and convenient taxis of Buenos Aires, we boarded the #152 bus more-or-less at random, as it seemed to be heading in the right direction. It got us to Palermo SoHo, not really close to our apartment, but a district we’d been in, and we sought out La Cabrera to make reservations for later in the week. We couldn’t find it, however, as a commercial filming was taking place, and it turned out the restaurant was camouflaged!

The three of us cabbed back to the apartment, picked up Sarah, and we all had a pretty good lunch at nearby Zulu.

Jim took an afternoon nap, while Diane, Sarah & I visited the nearby Jardin Japonais (Japanese Garden).

Rufous-bellied Thrush / Zorzal Colorado

The garden was both smaller and less interesting than we’d imagined, but was at least very close to our apartment, and at AR$5, was quite inexpensive. The ponds were full of very large coi, and the birding was fairly good.

Great Kiskadee / Benteveo Común

By the lake I spotted a Great Kiskadee (LIFER!), which gave us good looks before flying off. This handsome, large flycatcher behaved much as flycatchers are wont to do, alternately perching and flitting about.

Picazuro Pigeon / Torcaza

Also present were Rufous Horneros, Neotropic Cormorants, Picazuro Pigeons, and Rufous-bellied Thrushes.

Funky caterpillar!

A strange-looking caterpillar was in the middle of the path, so we moved it aside, although its chances of survival were not very good, what with all of the Thrushes and Horneros, both of which are grub feeders!

Butterfly

Jardin Japonais

Despite the birds, it didn’t take very long to get our fill of the garden, so we headed home.

Peregrine Falcon / Halcón Peregrino

The local Peregrine Falcon made another fly-by, then perched right across from us! We all enjoyed good looks at this lovely raptor, and hoped that our neighbors in the adjoining towers didn’t think we were peeping toms!

Sunset over Buenos Aires

We had a tasty diner in the Retiro district at Grand Bar Danzon, which, at a mere US$30/ea, was one of the most expensive meals of our stay in BsAs! Stuffed and a little tipsy, we retired early to rest up for the next day’s day trip to Uruguay.

Trip Index:

Part 1: Getting to Patagonia
Part 2: El Calafate & Laguna Nimez
Part 3: Glaciar Perito Moreno
Part 4: El Calafate backcountry excursion
Part 5: Goodbye Argentina, hello Chile
Part 6: To Torres del Paine!
Part 7: Lago Pehoe and Paine Grande
Part 8: Mirador los Cuernos
Part 9: To Rio Verde and Punta Arenas
Part 10: Pelagic, Penguins, and farewell to Patagonia
Part 11: To Buenos Aires
Part 12: BsAs’ Sunday markets and other diversions <– You are here!
Part 13: Colonia del Sacramento, Uruguay
Part 14: Buenos Aires’ Jardin Botanico and Costanera Sur
Part 15: There’s no place like home

Click below for more street stencil photos