I am known among my friends for reserving my weekends for biking and things other than “work.” My regular job during the week contains a large proportion of volunteer [read free] work, and most people do their volunteer work on the weekend, so sometimes it’s hard for folks to understand my pattern.
I usually put the bike on the car and go to a favorite trailhead – because riding from the house down 800 feet of elevation is fine, but at the end of a day of biking it can be a real drag climbing the 800 feet back up Twin Peaks to the neighborhood…) Imagine my surprise after loading the bike on the roof of the car and starting down the block when I reach the corner and find several dozen gawkers looking out at the bay. Usually this kind of behavior is related to Fleet Week when the Blue Angels thunder around in our skies. It’s not fleet week.
I continue across town toward the bay, where I frequently start my bike trips, and traffic gets heavier and heavier as I go. Not great. So I park the car, unload the bike and continue on two wheels rather than four.
As I approach San Francisco Bay the shore is crowded with thousands of people. This is unusual…
On a nice Sunday, which it is today (temp almost 60F), things can get pretty crowded down by the Bay, but not like this. Even on a hot day!
Turns out the Queen Mary 2 is about to come in for a 24-hour docking. First time the QM2 has ever been here. The timing was chosen because it’s low tide and otherwise the stack of the ocean liner would not clear the bridge. (The deck of the Golden Gate Bridge is 220 feet above mean high water.) This liner is huge!
It’s carrying 2,700 passengers and over 1,000 crew. And it’s 1,300 feet long.
That’s the excitement of the day in San Francisco. And a diversion from the usual business of this blog.
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