The Traveling Widower

Category: travel

Default category for all travel related posts.

  • A short trip to a big city

    View looking up at a modern skyscraper featuring a textured facade and geometric architecture against a clear blue sky, with greenery visible at the base.
    Trans America Pyramid

    I’m sort of stuck in Northern California for a few months, not able to go too far away from home for medical reasons. So, I’m planning to take a lot of short trips, where I can get back home quickly if I need to. I decided to cross off one entry on my enormous (and growing) bucket list, Alcatraz. Not to check in (our president wants to reopen in for business), but to do a tour. Just something I’ve always wanted to do, but we never managed to get there all the years Jan and I lived in the South Bay. It was not high on my wife’s list. A cold,windy island with old crumbling, ugly buildings. 

    I love the City, or at least I used to – Jan and I spent a lot of time here over the years, visiting our friend who ran hotels in the area. I have a lot of good memories of times spent just wandering around in the different areas, going to great restaurants and bars, watching our friends’ new hotel going up across from Oracle Park. We even watched a Billy Joel concert..from the roof across the street. The sound was pretty good and we had much better food and wine than what is offered in the stadium. Unfortunately, we also got to watch the city lose a lot of it’s charm over time. Not what I want to get into on this post.

    For this little trip, I was planning on spending just two nights at a nice hotel, visiting the “Rock”, and wandering a bit doing some city photography. And then getting the hell out quickly before the traffic became bumper-to-bumper for 100 miles. It worked out pretty well.

    The drive to the Hilton in the Financial District was quite easy, given that I hate driving in San Francisco. Google directions were perfect, and I was lucky to hit a time when the city traffic was fairly light. No idiots on scooters or bikes cutting across the intersection, and no Waymo cars doing strange things in traffic ( I did see a couple). My room at the Hilton had incredible views:

    A panoramic view of San Francisco featuring Coit Tower atop Telegraph Hill, with a backdrop of the Bay and distant mountains. The scene includes a mix of urban buildings and greenery under a clear blue sky.
    Coit Tower

    The night time view was great as well – people who live near big hotels should put their shades down at night.

    Nighttime view of a cityscape with illuminated buildings and streets, highlighting a prominent tower on a hilltop.

    After checking in, I headed out to explore, planning to walk to Pier 33 where the ferry leaves for Alcatraz, and then wander over to Fisherman’s Wharf. It was a perfect summer day in San Francisco – about 62F, with winds about 150MPH. It was not a good day for wearing a hat.

    Flag of Pier 39 waving against a clear blue sky.

    But it was still fun wandering around, something I have not done for years. It’s such a great city for photography – so many odd buildings (and people). Fisherman’s Wharf is really awful (my opinion) – crowded with ticky-tack shops, but the views of the winds-swept bay are great, and then there is the giant sea lion colony  – smells really bad, but fun to watch and listen to all the barking sea lions.

    Colorfully painted seal sculptures in front of the Aquarium of the Bay building at Pier 39.
    A colorful carousel with ornate decorations and illuminated lights, featuring various painted scenes on its canopy.
    A distant view of Alcatraz Island with a ferry approaching, set against a clear blue sky.
    The “Rock” in the distance, from Fisherman’s Wharf

    On the way back (walking very slowly) to the hotel, I looked up and realized I was next to the Trans America building, the pyramid. And they have a really nice redwood tree park next to the building. A nice place to take some pictures looking up. I’m not quite sure why this was in the park. It’s a strange city.

    A bronze sculpture of a deer with antlers, positioned in a landscaped area with plants and trees, in front of a fountain and modern buildings.

    I finished day 1 having a great burger and a martini at the hotel bar, watching the NBA finals.The Nuggets and Warriors are out, so I don’t really care who wins.  A good start to my short trip. I’ll leave my Alcatraz adventure to the next post.

  • Part III – The long and smoky road home

    Traffic on a highway with a large cloud of smoke rising in the distance against a backdrop of cloudy skies.
    Grass fire on I-5

    Since I still had a few muscles and tendons in my legs which were not screaming in pain from the abuse of this trip, I made two stops on the way back to Las Vegas. The first was the Coral Sand Dunes State Park, which was sort of on the way out from Kanab. The park is a sort of a misplaced beach, or from a geologic perspective, an example of how all the huge sandstone formations are created. Wind driven sand eroded from the Navajo Formation blows into this area and builds up against the ridge lines, creating very large dunes. It is a perfect playground for ATV’s and other off-road vehicles. You can also rent a surfboard and slide down the larger dunes. Looks like fun, but not for me. All of this activity is well controlled by the park rangers, so it’s safe to wander around to look for animal tracks, or just enjoy the scenery. I’ve mellowed about ATV’s in my old age I guess. It was a pleasant stop for an hour or so, but I did manage to get a pile of coral sand in the car. I had to do some serious vacuuming when I got home.

    A scenic view of a sandy desert landscape under a bright blue sky with fluffy white clouds and a distant mountainous backdrop.

    Getting back to the highway to continue my journey to Las Vegas was a challenge. This was another Google Map issue – I’ve had a few this year. Google had me travel about 20 miles in the wrong direction, just to circle around and come back past the park to finally catch the correct roads to get to the highway back to I-15.Very annoying, but the scenery was beautiful, so seeing it again was not so bad.

    I decided to hit the Valley of Flames State Park one more time, since there were large sections which I did not cover on the way in. Glad I did. This really is a gem of a park. I was not up for any serious hiking, but found a number of trails I’d like to follow on my next trip out here. 

    A wide view of rocky formations in a desert landscape under a clear blue sky.
    Another formation in Fire Valley – much nicer day
    A scenic view of rocky formations against a clear blue sky, with patches of shrubs and sandy terrain in the foreground.
    A unique rock formation resembling a profile, surrounded by desert vegetation and contrasting red rock mountains under a clear blue sky.
    A large, weathered rock sitting on sandy terrain, featuring textured surfaces and layered patterns.
    A very strange rock – never seen one weathered like this

    After Las Vegas, I headed off to Westlake Village, a community NW of Los Angeles to visit family. I also made a cemetery visit, but no need to discuss that in this blog. I had a nice time hanging with my cousin, and had a pleasant cruise around the lake in their electric “party” boat. After two nights, I made the long trip back home. That should have been a boring, uneventful trip, but I had one more bit of excitement added to the trip. Driving through a wildfire. About halfway home, cruising North on I-5, I noticed a cloud of smoke on the horizon. It was extremely windy, so I was guessing there was a grass fire somewhere ahead. As I got closer, the cloud grew and appeared to be very close to the highway. Well, it was REALLY close to the highway. There were no cars in the southbound lanes, and people were pulling over to the side, or switching over to the south lanes, to avoid driving into the smoke. Cal-Fire had not closed the northbound lanes  since the fire had not jumped the median yet. I really wanted to get home, so I SLOWLY entered the wall of smoke, following behind a big rig which I could barely see. As we crawled ahead, you could see the flames on the other side of the highway, and the fire crews working the fire. I made a big mistake – I did not turn off the A/C or shut the vents, so the car filled up with smoke. Fortunately I was through the smoke quickly, but was gasping for air at the point. That hurt. It took a while, with the windows and moon roof open, to clear out the car. It took about four days to clear out my lungs. Smoke inhalation is not fun.

    Traffic on a highway with vehicles stuck in a line, smoke billowing in the background from a visible fire.

    The remainder of the drive home was uneventful…except for coughing. It was good to get home – I did absolutely nothing for two days. That felt good.

    So what’s next for me (and this blog). That will be in the next post (coming soon). I need to get this version of the blog fully functional first.