On this visit out to Denio’s swap meet in mid August, I didn’t shoot as many photos as I normally do, and I didn’t buy anything. But it did feel good to get out of the house and spend an hour or so wandering the property, checking out the wide range of colorful and sometimes strange items offered up.
Back in August I shared some of the images I shot during my visit to San Francisco’s Maritime Museum Visitor Center. I wasn’t sure what to expect when I first walked into the building, but it wasn’t long before I was wandering very happily through the numerous exhibits which included ship models, interpretive displays, historic photographs, and cherished artifacts from […]
There’s so much to see in this one-hour episode of California’s Gold, originally aired in May 2008. The USS Midway and the USS Hornet are both veterans of the Second World War, but they’ve seen many other types of service over the years. Both ships are still in open to the public, the USS Midway in San Diego and the […]
At the Maritime Museum near Hyde Street Pier in San Francisco I discovered dioramas, ship models, and remnants of the wooden ship Niantic. California’s 1849 Gold Rush spelled the end of her varied career at sea; once arriving in San Francisco Bay, the crew deserted to search for gold. Like so many other ships, Niantic was abandoned in the bay. She was later converted to an onshore hotel — only to be destroyed by fire in 1851. More than 120 years later, Niantic‘s remants were rediscovered during a routine excavation. You can click on any of the images to enlarge and read the text.
I guess this is the time of year when I usually start looking forward to August — when I spend a week in San Francisco, using public transportation to get around and exploring various parts of the city. Part of the fun is photographing some of the views from my window seat on the Amtrak California Corridor train. Empire State […]
This episode of California’s Gold, originally aired in August 2001, finds Huell discovering two very different pieces of history relating to California and China. I’ll admit when I read about the bonsai I was confused at first, since I’d always heard that it was Japanese in origin. However, it turns out that the related Chinese art of penjing is just […]
Any able seaman knows that a healthy ship needs continual care and maintenance to ensure long life. Constant exposure to the marine environment will wear away at the sturdiest vessel — even when she’s spending her retirement years docked in a safe harbor. So when I arrived at the San Francisco Maritime National Historic Park at the Hyde Stree Pier […]
San Francisco’s Maritime Museum wasn’t exactly what I’d been expecting when I walked in the door. For one thing, the upper floors were closed off and only the main level was open (although it was free to look around). The friendly docent behind the desk told me that if I was interested in maritime artifacts I should check out the […]
Do you know the difference between a Victory ship and a Liberty ship? I didn’t, even though I’ve actually visited a Liberty ship — the SS Jeremiah O’Brien, currently docked at Pier 35 in San Francisco. Victory ships were larger than their Liberty ship predecessors and were powered by steam turbines for faster speed, as opposed to the earlier steam […]