johnboystravelblog

Thursday I ventured in to Sausalito for the first time.  Sausalito is located along the shore of Richardson Bay, north of the Golden Gate Bridge.  There are many neat (and expensive) restaurants in town, as well as some beautiful homes.  There is also a huge marina housing a wide variety of boats.

Crowds gathered along the marina to watch this guy work.  It was fascinating to watch him raise and lower the big poles (extreme right of photo, and another at the far end of the platform) to anchor his platform and use the arm of the huge backhoe-type machine to position his rig.  He was apparently scraping the bottom of the Bay to provide additional clearance for large boats to dock.  His trusty dog had a wonderful time scurrying along his platform chasing seagulls and watching him raise and lower the mechanical arm and dump water and mud.

Now this is what I call a true houseboat!

And here is another one:

I hope these mobile homes don’t get too mobile…..

A good reason to come to Sausalito in December:

When I left Sausalito to drive to my next destination I discovered that it actually wraps around the southeast corner of the peninsula giving a great view of downtown San Francisco and Alcatraz Island.  I didn’t have time to take more pictures from this vantage point but returned on Sunday to get more photos which I will post later.

Here is the city skyline.  You can see the iconic TransAmerica Pyramid and to it’s right the new Salesforce tower, which will soon be the tallest building west of the Mississippi.  At the far left is Coit Tower on Telegraph Hill.

I was hoping to make it out to Alcatraz for a tour but didn’t make a reservation (and tours are booked through the end of July) so it will have to wait for my next trip to the area.

One of the more interesting things to see in Sausalito is the Bay Model, constructed by the US Army Corps of Engineers in the mid-1950’s.  This 1.5 acre hydraulic scale model of the San Francisco Bay and Sacramento-San Joaquin River Delta was designed to help scientists and engineers study the effect of various weather and man-made scenarios on the local environment.  Little metal strips are scattered throughout the model to help accurately simulate tides and the flow of water.  With the advent of computer-assisted technology this model is no longer used.

Here is a small (dry) sample of what the Model looks like up close:

And here are some photos of the actual Model.  It is housed indoors in a large building which covers more than two acres:

There are little signs indicating where cities, bridges and various landmarks are:

If you look closely there are two people standing just to the right of center in the following photo:

There are also large signs hanging overhead which name the general regions of the area:

I went over this bridge (the real one) Thursday morning when I drove from San Rafael over to Berkeley:

There are numerous spots on both sides of the bridge where there are overlooks affording the viewer some great photo opportunities.  Thursday afternoon I went to several on the northwest side.

Friday morning I crossed the bridge to get over to the southwest side.  While Thursday was sunny and warm, Friday morning was very different – overcast and chilly with a stiff wind – much more San Francisco-like.  Mark Twain is once thought to have observed “The coldest winter I ever spent was a summer in San Francisco” (although historians are beginning to suspect that he never actually said it.  It is a great line, regardless of who thought it up).

Thursday I visited the Marin County Civic Center which was designed by renowned architect Frank Lloyd Wright.

This complex is so big it is next to impossible to find a vantage point to get it all in one photo.  Here is a scale model of the main building (there are also buildings on the property at the fairgrounds, where the Marin County Fair just concluded with July 4th fireworks, and a nearby outdoor amphitheatre).

The original design called for the roof to be gold (to blend in with the local mountains and to conform with California’s motto as “The Golden State”) and the spire to be blue.  Those color choices were ultimately swapped, which I think turned out very well.

Thursday I visited the Marin County Civic Center which was designed by renowned architect Frank Lloyd Wright.  Here are additional photos:

Inside the building the long corridors include atriums with plants and skylights:

Workers were in the process of renovating the blue domed roof:

This is a fountain located outside the second floor cafeteria:

And a view looking out from the balcony:

More roof work:

Mr. Wright also designed the Post Office located across the street from the Civic Center:

As some of you know from previous posts I am a fan of structures designed by renowned architect Frank Lloyd Wright and try to visit houses and buildings he designed during my travels.  Well, this may come as a surprise even to FLW fans but he once designed a doghouse!  I heard about this on NPR a few months ago and learned that it was designed for a family who lived in this area.

Mr. Wright designed a home for the Robert Berger family of nearby San Anselmo.  When the house was completed Mr. Berger relayed his 12-year-old son’s request that Wright design a doghouse which would fit in with the house design but would be inexpensive enough so his son could pay for it with money earned on his paper route.  Mr. Wright wrote back that he was too busy and that they should ask again a year later.  Well they did and this time Mr. Wright complied.

The design was completed in 1957 but construction wasn’t completed until 1963 (after selling many newspapers!).

Here is a photo of the original doghouse:

(Photo credit: wikipedia.org)

The doghouse was thrown out after it was no longer needed but was later reconstructed following the original plans (note that it is sitting up on a dolly so appears taller than it actually is):

(Photo credit: sf.curbed.com – courtesy of Marin County Civic Center)

(Photo credit: J. Michael Welton)

Wednesday was the 4th of July and I spent the day at the Airbnb where I am staying in San Rafael for the week.  By the way, the locals pronounce the name of their town San ra-FELL, not San raf-A-el as I have been saying.  My Airbnb hostess had a holiday cookout which included her boyfriend, parents, and about 10 of her neighbors and friends.  I made “Fire & Ice” salsa (watermelon + jalapenos as the main ingredients) which seemed to be popular and it was nice to spend a relaxing afternoon visiting with her friends and getting ideas on additional things to do both here and next week when I continue heading north along the coast.

Thursday morning I headed out to several destinations in the area.  Here are some of the things I saw:

I learned what “hatched” means as it pertains to streets and parking lots:

I also learned that the Marin County Jail is located mostly underground (what a neat idea!):

By the way, the county name is pronounced ma-RIN, not MARE-in.

I made a short visit to Mission San Rafael Arcangel, in what is now downtown San Rafael.  It is close to what is now a city street and it is very tall so it was tough to get a good photo of it.  The first one was taken (quickly) while standing in the center of a busy intersection, carefully timed to avoid moving vehicles!

Here is a two-shot panorama – top to bottom:

And these are some of the ferries which shuttle people to and from downtown San Francisco from Sausalito.  The “Mendocino” was just arriving:

I will probably be riding one of these on Monday when I head over to San Francisco to visit the Museum of Modern Art.  I was also hoping to visit Alcatraz while I was in the area but unfortunately tours there are booked through the end of July.  I had no idea it would be such a popular destination.

 

Tuesday I left Sparks, Nevada to head west towards San Francisco.  Shortly after I crossed back in to California I stopped at this rest area along the dreaded interstate.  I knew this was going to be along my route this year and wanted to get more information.

Let’s talk about the Donner Party.  Actually, first let’s talk about me.

For those of you who don’t know, my last name is Dahnert.  Our family prefers to pronounce our name DAY-nert.  The most common mispronunciation is the result of people transposing the h and the n, making it DAN-hurt.  Another variation is DAHH-nert, which is also technically correct.  DAHH-nert  <–>  Donner,  Donner <–>  DAHH-nert.  Hmmmmm….

The area I was in Tuesday morning, near Truckee, California, was near the site of the demise of much of the Donner Party in the winter of 1846-47.  The group (actually consisting largely of the Donner and Reed families) started their ill-fated trek west from Independence, Missouri in Mid-May of 1846.  They were partially doomed by starting about a month later than they probably should have, given the distance they were traveling, and the fact that they decided to take the untested “Hastings Cutoff” shortcut, which Mr. Hastings hadn’t even tried.  One of the journals later found contained this quote from one of the members of the group: “I am beginning to feel alarmed at the tardiness of our movements”.

They became stranded in a huge, early snowstorm near Truckee Lake (now Donner Lake).  Some in the group felt they had to resort to cannibalism in order to survive.  Of the 87 people who started the journey, only 48 survived (although most who were lost were to illness, exposure and other factors, not from being eaten).  Another quote found in one of the journals: “Mrs. Murphy said here yesterday that [she] thought she would commence on Milt and eat him.  I don’t [think] she had done so, yet it is distressing”.

There are actually many things in this area named after the Donner family – the rest area I was at, the lake, the Pass, a ski area, a state park, etc.

I suppose if this had happened across the state line in Nevada there would even be a Donner Casino (I’d be very careful what you select from the “All-You-Can-Eat Buffet”…  Personally, I think I’d stick to the salad bar).

I didn’t venture off to see any of the other Donner sites, as I was traveling my myself and wouldn’t have anyone, pardon me, I mean anything to eat if I became lost.

I am making jokes but this was actually a serious, sad chapter in American history.

Tuesday while on my way to San Rafael, CA from Sparks, NV I stopped in Sacramento to visit this museum.  This very large facility, which exhibits mostly full-size train engines and cars, is located right next to “Old Sacramento”.

Outside there was a small roundtable, which an engine can be “driven” onto and then mechanically turned around to reverse direction.  There was a full-size roundhouse (a roundtable surrounded by a building with little “garages” for trains to be kept in for maintenance) at a museum in Jamestown CA, just south of Sonora, which I tried to go to while I was there a short while back but they had stopped giving tours for the day (2 1/2 hours early!) and I wouldn’t have been able to see it so I didn’t pay to go in.  I did see one in Durango CO last year when I rode the Durango & Silverton Scenic Railroad.

Oops.  Looks like someone zigged when they should have zagged…

 

There was a display of small models of very fast trains currently being used in various foreign countries (China, Japan, Korea, Italy and France):

Upstairs there was an area displaying toy trains, train memorabilia and model trains set up as a large village.

And a place for kids to play…

… while the “big kids” watched their young’uns burn off some energy:

Tuesday as I drove west towards San Rafael I stopped in Sacramento to visit a railroad museum (which I will post photos of later).  Right next to that museum is an area called “Old Sacramento,” which has original buildings that have been restored to contain restaurants and shops.