Travel notes: Carmel? Monterey? Pacific Grove an ideal in-between getaway Posted: May 23, 2021 Beach rock formation. A plaque honoring the memory of singer John Denver, who died in a plane crash at the site.
Last year, Alaska Airlines introduced a direct flight to Monterey, Calif. We have often visited that locale, particularly when our son attended Santa Clara University and then started to work nearby for Apple. (Now, he’s been working for Apple for a dozen years, far away in Cork City, Ireland, but that’s another story). Our prior routine was to fly to San Jose, say hi to him, then drive a rental car to a place just outside of Carmel. We were among the first to register for the new air service. Well, that new option didn’t come to be as we cancelled because of COVID-19.
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History of the Point Lobos Marine Exchange Building.
The Octagon House at Land s End The old octagonal Marine Exchange building at Lands End, February 1927. -
by John Martini
September 2009
Nearly engulfed by trees above the Land s End parking lot is an overlooked piece of San Francisco s maritime history, the octagonal-shaped Point Lobos Marine Exchange Lookout Station. Completed in early 1927, it was the last of a series of stations that stretched back to the Gold Rush whose function was to watch for approaching ships and announce their arrival. Once a ship was spotted, the lookout relayed the information (especially the ship s name or company insignia) to the Embarcadero where a small army of stevedores, tugs boats, taxis and drayage companies waited to unload the vessel s cargo and transport her passengers.
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The story of the creation of the Golden Gate Bridge.
Streetwise - Birth of a Bridge
by Frank Dunnigan Frank Dunnigan, WNP member and columnist. -
From the mid-1840s, when Captain John Fremont declared California’s independence from Mexico, local land speculators were eyeing the hills of today s Marin County, and wondering just how the area could be linked to the community of Yerba Buena, as San Francisco was then known for both public and personal benefit. A bridge was the ideal solution, but the swift currents and the depth of the waters at the entrance to San Francisco Bay, along with other factors, presented insurmountable challenges for decades.
The secrets of the San Francisco Columbarium
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The Columbarium, 1 Loraine Court, San Francisco.Andrew Chamings
Most Bay Area folk know the oft-repeated fact that the Colma has more dead bodies than living ones it s true and it s not even close. The town, formed in 1924 as one of America s only necropolises, has a living population of about 1,700, but entombs about 1.5 million bodies.
The reason that the little town a few miles south of San Francisco is one big graveyard is the mass (and pretty gruesome) movement of bodies that occurred a century ago.
But one beautiful building in San Francisco, hidden down the end of a dead end street just north of Golden Gate Park, still stands as a vestige to a time when the city was covered in graves.
Frank Dunnigan, WNP member and columnist. -
Last New Year s Eve-December 31, 2020-was a sad day in San Francisco, marking the permanent closure of the historic Cliff House. As the sign s individual letters were removed and lowered to the ground one-by-one, a crowd gathered to witness the momentous occasion. Sad as that scene was, though, prior generations of San Franciscans have witnessed similar events at the very same location many times before.
From its first incarnation in 1863 (not 1858 as some assert-that date refers to a restaurant of another name in a different location), the Cliff House has attracted San Franciscans seeking food, drink, and entertainment. In spite of many news reports, however, there has NOT been 158 years of continuous fine dining at the westernmost point of San Francisco s continental shore.