San Francisco ~~ March 19-26, 2013. Part 4. Cliff House, Sutro Baths, Seal Rocks, & Ocean Beach

Now it’s Monday, March 25, and the last full day of our San Francisco adventure.  It was also the day that we rode eight city buses.  With our half day transfers, it cost us a “whopping” $1.50 each to do that.  Can’t beat those prices!  Our first stop was to check out a thrift store to see how it might differ from the ones we had seen in other areas.  Actually, it differed very little except that they had a uniformed security guard.  While there, I posed the “Flats” next to a video with a warning — if they didn’t behave, they would be “Gone With The Wind”.  LOL

From there, we rode west for a while on Mission Street doing some exploring.  Then back east to Van Ness where we caught another bus up to Geary.  Then it was west on Geary until we reached the Pacific Ocean at Point Lobos.  I’m not sure why they called it Lobos since that mean wolves??  Must go back to a distant time when they roamed the area.

Down below we could see some of the formations off the coast called Seal Rocks.  We learned that the name is a misnomer since the majority of the animals hauling out there prior to the 1989 earthquake were sea lions – – not seals.   So maybe at least some of the sea lions that started showing up at Pier 39 after the 1989 earthquake came from here??  However, at this time we weren’t seeing seals or sea lions — we were seeing birds — lots and lots of birds.

This one had sea gulls on it.

This one appeared to be covered with cormorants and a gull or two. 

Here were brown pelicans on the side with a few gulls above.

Here we are looking down on some ruins with a fascinating history ~~ Sutro Baths.  It was a lavish playground with seven swimming pools, 500 dressing rooms, a grand staircase, and even an amphitheater.  It first opened in 1896.  It was prohibitively expensive to run and was eventually closed.  It burned down while being demolished in 1966.

Just to the south of the Sutro Baths ruins is “Cliff House”.  Actually, it is the third Cliff House.  The first one was built in 1893 — just three years earlier than the Sutro Baths.  It was destroyed by a chimney fire the following year.  It reopened two years later only to burn to the ground in 1907.  The current version opened in 1909.  The photo below was taken from the opposite side of where the Sutro Baths ruins are.   Unfortunately, the “Giant Camera” or “Camera Obscura” was not open when we were there.  I think it would have been interesting to see.  It was built in 1946 and produces 360 degree images of the area through a series of mirrors and sunlight reflecting off a concave disk.

We entered Cliff House where you see the people on the right side of the photo.  There is a Bistro at that level as well as a very elegant looking dining area.  There were no window seats available in the Bistro so we opted to go downstairs to another dining area.  It was pricey, but worth every penny to dine with such a fantastic view.  I had fresh cod and salad while Betty had roasted chicken breast, red turnips, and something covered with tiny seeds that we weren’t sure what it was.  She said it was good though and guess that’s what counts.

This very old carousel horse was on a little balcony in our dining room.  You can more fully appreciate the workmanship that went into it when you compare it to the plastic zebra and dragon that we rode at the double decker carousel at Pier 39 earlier.

When we mentioned that we hadn’t seen anything but birds on these Seal Rocks, the waiter told us to look again at the lower left quadrant of the rock on the left.  What a delightful surprise!!!  There lay a solitary juvenile animal ~~ not a sea lion either, but an elephant seal.  He said it hadn’t been there but a few days and was probably just weaned.  The seal would occasionally pop his head up, but then plop it right back down before I could get a shot.  Sure is a cute little guy and funny that the sea gull seemed curious.

Do you see him or her? (Lower left quadrant of left rock)

We thought these were neat looking shore birds.  I looked in the bird book, but wasn’t able to figure out exactly what kind they are.   Actually, there were quite a number of them on one of the rocks.

Some of you will know the significance of our finding a yellow rose just over the wall.

I don’t know how these two young folks got down there, but she is about to take his picture on the rock.

Looking back toward the ruins of Sutro Baths.

It was a treat to see several brown pelicans in flight.

Just south of Cliff House is four mile long Ocean Beach.  It was a cold windy day when we were there so not many people down there.  Warning in a tour book:  “Cold water and rip currents make swimming there extremely dangerous.  There have been many drownings here over the years.”

In spite of the cold and warnings, there were a couple surfers out there.  I’m sure they had wet suits or some such on to protect them from the very cold water.

Brown Pelican flying by.

Walking the dog along the beach.

From this angle, these two white Seal Rocks look like one.  If you look closely at the one in front, you may be able to see the little elephant seal.

If you put these next three pictures together, you would have a sort of panoramic view.

This was taken as we were going back up the hill to a visitor’s center and from there to catch the city bus to check out another thrift store and then to the hotel.  You can see that there is a cave on the other side of the Sutro Baths ruins.

There were two concrete lions and a deer near the visitor’s center.

What an adventure!!!  We saw so very much and yet there was so very much we did not see!  And Boo Hoo, now it was time to head home.   I hope you have enjoyed going on this adventure with us!!!   I know I’d like to go back one day….