I spent a very happy hour wandering and peeking into all the dark corners of Fort Point on my recent visit. While there I shot more than 100 pictures and encountered only a handful of other people. The Fort is normally open to the public only on Fridays, Saturdays, and Sundays, so if you prefer to miss the crowds of […]
Climbing up and down the narrow, twisting staircase in a hostel isn’t too bad when your room is on the fourth floor; but if you’re booked into a room on the eighth floor, it’s not long before that slow, creaky antique elevator with manually operated doors starts to look pretty good. For some reason, last year I’d convinced myself that […]
As I hiked along the California Coastal Trail, skirting the Presidio in San Francisco, I found an awful lot of stairs. There were plenty of steps accessing the old concrete structures like Battery Chamberlin, not to mention those on the trail leading down to Marshall’s Beach. I’ve always been fascinated by staircases ever since I was very young; growing up […]
Most anyone who rides or walks up the bike trail toward Beals Point at Folsom Lake will have noticed the old foundations (which I mentioned yesterday in my post here) off their left elbow, just before the trail really starts climbing. I’ve been fascinated by these ruins for years, but until reading Kevin Knauss’ blog post I never realized there […]
My absolute favorite part of my visit to Alcatraz last August was exploring the area beneath Building 64 — the area known as “China Alley.” The upper (concrete masonry) portion of Building 64 wasn’t built until the early 1900s, some 40 years after construction of the arched brick foundations. Those upper levels were built to house the military and prison […]