Shelagh's Lens
Bringing Vancouver and the world to inspired travellers
On the Waterfront – San Francisco
It occurs to me that most of my posts this summer have been reflections of life on North America’s west coast. You’ve seen a series of images from Spanish Banks, which is my favourite home town beach. We did make our way up Grouse Mountain for photos of one of the grizzlies who call the mountain home, but it’s likely apparent that we fell in love this summer with Oregon’s Cannon Beach.
So, while we took a detour yesterday with images of Granada’s exquisite Alhambra, I thought I’d revert to the west coast theme today and take you back to San Francisco. As you’ll see above, I love getting out to explore cities when only the earliest of risers are up.
The city is also breathtaking throughout the day, and we enjoyed great weather for our first visit to the City by the Bay. When it’s windy, though, you’ll want to be bundled up.
Above and below are peeks at the San Francisco Ferry Building, which has its own marketplace that s the city’s counterpart to Vancouver’s Granville Island Market; the upper image is the view from our room at the Hyatt. I enjoyed strolling along this area, and poking (and spending my way!) through the Ferry Building Marketplace shops.
Depending on when you visit, you’re likely to encounter crowds of people at Fisherman’s Wharf. If you’re like us, you may also see a number of these characters. Apart from lolling in the sun, pushing off any interloper who got in one another’s way seemed to be the order of the day.
Chinatown is certainly worth a visit, and perhaps even more so at night.
If at all possible when we visit the US, I love attending baseball games, and it’s tough to have anything but a great time at AT&T Park. The evening game and gorgeous waterfront locale were great, and the home team Giants won.
What have I left out that visitors will want to consider? Plenty, including the bridge – and so I’ll follow up another day with a look at that, the city’s Painted Ladies, and a reminder that chocolate lovers will not want to miss visiting Ghirardelli Square.
In the interim, have a look at the works of San Franciscan photographers Laura Macky and Dan Shehan. They both produce beautiful images that will give you locals’ perspectives on this city that merits a return visit – I just have to figure out when!
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Lost in the Alhambra
These are the windows, and the view, that saw me losing sight of my husband, our tour guide Juan, and the rest of our group inside the Alhambra, just before the Patio of the Lions.
I was among those laughing, at the outset of the tour, as Juan encouraged us to stay together, even as he explained that it was rare for a tour to conclude without at least once person going astray from the group.
Well, the laugh was on me. We’d booked one of the first available tours of the day which, in theory, meant there would be less crowds through which to find your way.
We were right, but it turns out that “less crowded” is a relative term. Before making our way into the Nasrid Palaces, our group began with Generalife, a series of exquisite gardens and more. I’d have thought that, if anything would distract me or cause me to lose sight of our group, it would have been the opportunity to photograph the Alhambra’s plant life.
We were all equipped with headsets to hear Juan’s interpretations of the different areas we toured, and it was clear that range was limited. If Juan’s voice was overtaken by static, you knew you’d better get a move on. While I was taken with the gardens, and captured plenty of images, they were not my undoing.
It was those gorgeous windows, the surrounding tiles, and the views both within and without, that caused me to pause a moment too long, just as a half dozen or so groups converged on the Patio of Lions. Each group, of course, consisted of at least a couple of dozen people.
Could I spot my husband, or find a familiar face? No. Could I hear Juan through the headset? No. Was I going to ignore the beautiful geometrics everywhere around me? Again: no. They were too beautiful, varied, and abundant, to ignore.
So, while the mass of people in which I was immersed also grew, I made my way through the remaining rooms and courtyards of this UNESCO World Heritage Site with both ears attuned for Juan’s voice through the headset. After the first few minutes, I gave up on the notion of attempting to spot a single individual through such crowds. Should I have sped up? Slowed down? Made my way to the exit and work backwards if need be? Nope. Once you exit the palace, you can enjoy the rest of the grounds, but you can’t go back in.
As it turned out, and despite thinking I was straggling far behind, I must have passed our crowd somewhere inside the palace, as I did make my way back to the gardens before the rest of the group. A half hour or so later, I finally saw familiar faces. This wasn’t, however, without more than a few moments of frustration or cringing, even now, at the thought of being the tourista who lost her group !
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Night Falls
… on the Oregon coast, with summer strollers eking out every minute of light as clouds sweep in over the waters.
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The Night Shift
Yesterday, I published the lower image below, of a lifeguard on duty during the early evening hours at Vancouver’s Spanish Banks.
This new image will give you a glimpse of one of the lifeguard’s colleagues later the same evening. Perched under the umbrella in the lower left of the photo, the lifeguard is basking in the glow of a perfect Vancouver evening.
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A Job With A View
How are these for working conditions?
Perched above the sands, the life guards at Vancouver’s beaches keep a watchful eye over people splashing and swimming in our waters. Here, in an image captured following our Friday night barbeque at Spanish Banks, you can see that the setting is one of the perks of the job.
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Go Fly a Kite
…. by the Pacific Ocean, and enjoy the sun dropping over the horizon.
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Daybreak Over the Pacific
It’s two weeks today that we returned home from the Oregon coast, and its expansive beauty still strikes me. For all the water babies out there, here’s a look at the start of a new day at Cannon Beach, on the shores of the Pacific Ocean.
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Your Advice, Please
May I have your advice, please, readers?
I’m about to submit some images for an exhibtion, in which up to a maximum of three pieces of each individual’s work will be shown. The first time I participated in an exhibit at this gallery, the exhibit committee selected my images of Lion’s Gate Bridge in the fog, reflections of the Vietnam Veterans Memorial in Washington, DC (a stark and haunting image), and Arizona’s Grand Canyon.
This year’s exhibit theme is Avocations, with a call for works that reflects contributors’ passions. Some of mine include travel and gardening/florals, and those are joined by a gravitational pull to the beach and bodies of water.
I’ll be submitting not more than five images for consideration. If you have a minute or two to scan these images, I’d be grateful if you’d scroll down to the “Leave a Reply” option at the base of the screen and type in the numbers of up to four of the images below that appeal to you. Thank you!
1. Beachcombing (Whytecliffe Park)
2. Tangles (Jericho Park)
3. Birds of Seven Mile Bridge
4. Cannon Beach Haystack Rock
5. Spanish Banks Watch
6. Cannon Beach Sunset
7. Market Roses
8. Gardenia
9. Orange Poppy
10. Cypress Pink
11. Red Poppy I
12. Red Poppy II
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Cannon Beach Morning
There are definite advantages to being woken by seagulls shortly before 6:00 a.m. – at least, there are if you’re staying oceanside at Oregon’s Cannon Beach.
This was a great opportunity to catch the beach in early light, and without clusters of people here and there. Having said that, I did want to capture this brightly attired early morning stroller and her three pooches, simply to offer some contrast to the gentle reflections of sky and clouds in the shallow waters of the beach.
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Walking on the Edge
… the edge of Oregon’s Cannon Beach, looking out over the Pacific Ocean. And who wouldn’t, with the sun dropping so spectacularly over the horizon? I appreciate this shot, too, for the perspective on how small a part of this planet each individual is.
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