San Francisco Bay Area: Diversity
11-17 February 2002

Location	During my holiday in California I took pictures in San Francisco, Berkeley and Pleasanton. This page shows those in roughly chronological order, starting with two photos taken in Pleasanton. The grey photos after that are all from San Francisco, from the Pier 39 area. Then we come back to the sunny East Bay with some flower shots. The last series is from my reluctant drive to the airport and from the airport itself.
Weather	It was sunny most of the time except for the 13th which I spent in rainy San Francisco.
Click on the images to see larger versions.

	If you've spent any time around Americans you'll know just how important their local mall is to their lives, even if they themselves don't always realise it. This is Stoneridge Mall in Pleasanton. It has a JC Penney, Sears, Macys and Nordstroms. The trees are eucalyptus trees. I used to think that they would scent the air around them but they don't.
Now this is a tree that does scent the air - Acacia dealbata. It is an Australian tree that has naturalised in the US. The common name is Silver Wattle. In Europe cultivars are grown and sold to the cut flower trade. The scent is pure bliss.
	I went to San Francisco on a grey, rainy day. This is the view from the pedestrian bridge to Pier 39. The tower on the left is Coit tower and the one on the right is the Transamerica Pyramid. The Transamerica Pyramid is an office building. The "wings" are elevator shafts and stair wells. You can read more about it at skyscrapers.com. There are three American flags in this photo. More...
A look at just Coit Tower. It's supposed to remind you of a fire hose nozzle. There's a park surrounding the tower at the top of Telegraph Hill. The steps up are steep but it's well worth it for the view.
	In the other direction we find Alcatraz. It looks small and inconsequential in the drizzle.
Here we have some smelly creatures lazing about - sea lions.
	Sea lions are rarely still. They are always interacting with each other and bleating loudly. Mostly they seem to fight about space on the platforms.
San Francisco has a lot of murals. I guess it goes well with the counterculture image. This painting of a grey whale and its calf can be found on the multi-storey car park that belongs to Pier 39.
	A fire alarm in North Beach. In the background you can see streetcar tracks.
Back in the sunny East Bay, I found some flowering cherry trees near San Pablo Avenue.
	A sumptuous close-up shows ever little wrinkle in the petals.
Nearby was a yellow-flowered oxalis growing like a weed.
	On the last morning of my stay I took photos on my way to the airport. This is the Bay Bridge as seen from the Berkeley Marina. The Bay Bridge connects Oakland and San Francisco.
Here is the famous Golden Gate bridge early in the morning. San Francisco is on the left and Marin County is on the right side.
	I stopped illegally on an on-ramp to the freeway to get this picture of downtown San Francisco. You can make out the Transamerica Pyramid. The bridge on the left is the Bay Bridge.
At the airport I found this shiny postbox.
	The US Postal Service doesn't take the pride in their postboxes that Royal Mail does. While the box looks newly painted, the white logo is a sticker that has simply been slapped onto the side. It's not even straight.
The last photo from American soil shows the airside of the airport with the hills of South San Francisco in the background.

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