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The small boat we saw in the rain a couple of days ago is still bobbing in the Bay this sunny morning. Sausalito is visible in the background.
samedi 31 mai 2008
Pendillement dans la baie
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The small boat we saw in the rain a couple of days ago is still bobbing in the Bay this sunny morning. Sausalito is visible in the background.
vendredi 30 mai 2008
Le Vendredi "Sky Watch"
Another view of the Golden Gate Bridge, three days after her 71st "birthday". Englarge for detail, note the ships under the bridge.jeudi 29 mai 2008
Le pont Golden Gate a ouvert 27 mai 1937
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The Golden Gate Bridge has become as iconic for San Francisco as la tour Eiffel has for Paris. At 71 years, this lady is still as lovely as she was on her debut on le 27 mai 1937!
mercredi 28 mai 2008
ABC Mercredi - "S" - Sous-marin
"S" as in Submarine!
Sous-marin!
One of the historic ships around San Francisco Bay is the submarine U.S.S. Pampanito (SS 383) at Pier 45, San Francisco.
Pampanito is a Baloa-class submarine built in Portsmouth, New Hampshire. Pampanito's keel was laid down on 15 March 1943 and she was launched the following 12 July. Following launching, work continued fitting her out and on 6 November 1943 Pampanito was commissioned to officially became part of the U.S. Fleet.
World War II submarines typically carried a crew of 70 men and 10 officers. The submarine service was a small, well trained, elite group. They represented less than two percent of all U.S. Navy personnel, and yet they were responsible for fifty-five percent of all Japanese tonnage sunk, including one third of their warships. This was not without cost, for the submarine force recorded the highest percentage of men lost in the U.S. military, 24%: more than 3500 men in 52 submarines did not return. They are said to be on eternal patrol. To this day all submariners are volunteers.
On her third war patrol, Pampanito, operating in a wolf pack of U.S. subs sank a Japanese ship carrying (unknown to her) British and Australian POWs being transported to Japan to be slave labor in Japanese copper mines. Returning to the scene a few days later in search for another convoy known to be heading to the area, Pampanito discovered surviving POWs in the water. She performed a heroic rescue and saved 73 of the POWs.
Pampanito is dressed in bunting in the photograph here - "Louis" et Mme. la Vache visited her on Memorial Day. Pampanito is part of the National Maritime Museum.
• Balclutha
• Red Oak Victory
mardi 27 mai 2008
Bonjour! - Et adieu à la lune...
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The rising dawn seems to be pushing the moon into the Pacific behind San Francisco this morning.
lundi 26 mai 2008
Jour Commémoratif: les amirals
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Directed the war in the central and upper Pacific. A man of uncommon integrity.
Commanded the U.S. Navy Submarine Service in the central and upper Pacific. By 1944, Lockwood's submariners had virtually destroyed Japanese shipping to the home islands and were wrecking Japanese shipping in the home waters.
Richmond Kelly Turner, California, 1885-1961Known as "Terrible Turner" for his hot temper and surly disposition, Turner became the "amphibious admiral" and carried out the landings at Guadalcanal and Iwo Jima with distinction, though the actual taking of both turned out to be far more difficult and bloody than U.S. planners anticipated.
Spruance commanded U.S. Naval forces during two of the most significant naval battles in the Pacific theater: the Battle of Midway and the Battle of the Philippine Sea. The Battle of Midway was the first major victory for the United States over Japan and is seen by many as the turning point of the Pacific war. The Battle of the Philippine Sea was also a significant victory for the U.S. Spruance was known for his keen intellect and his ability to remain calm under pressure.
For Memorial Day,"Louis" leaves the Bay, but not the Bay Area, and takes you to the Golden Gate National Cemetery at San Bruno on the Peninsula south of San Francisco. At San Bruno you will find the graves of four World War II-era U.S. Navy Admirals and their wives. These eight decided that they wanted to be buried together and they wanted to be buried among those who had served with them in the war. They chose not to be buried at Arlington, and they specified that their resting places be no different than those of the enlisted ranks who fought the war. The wives of the Admirals are Catherine Nimitz, Harriet Spruance, Phyllis Lockwood and Margaret Turner.
"Louis" has just completed reading "A War To Be Won" by Williamson Murray and Allan Millett. At the conclusion of this fine history of World War II, Msrs. Murray and Millett write these words that "Louis" thinks are important for us to remember this Memorial Day, particularly in light of the threat we are fighting from radical Islam (and an equal threat from the multiculturalists):
"One cannot look across the long, seemingly endless rows of headstones that mark the military cemeteries throughout Europe and the Pacific or the great memorials and earthen mounds memorializing the dead of Eastern Europe without a sense of the terrible cost of victory in World War II. The cold stones underscore the brevity of those lives cut short in early adulthood - men who never again saw their families and homes. And as each year passes, fewer and fewer elderly visitors come to these lonely corners of foreign lands. The generation that fought World War II is now fading into the shadows of history. By 1999 in the United States, those who served were dying at the rate of 1,000 per day. By the third decade of the twenty first century, they will all be gone.
As the past recedes from memory and takes form on the printed page, historians and other commemorators have begun to depict victory in that terrible conflict in soft words. A number have suggested that the Allied war effort was nothing more than the opposite side of the same coin - that the Allied cause was as morally bankrupt as the Axis cause, that an American or British war crime can be found for every one committed by the Germans or the Japanese. Across the ledger from Nanking, Rotterdam, Belgrade, Oradour-sur-Glane, or Malmédy, they place the Allied refusal to bomb the rail lines to Auschwitz, the starvation of the German POWs at war's end, and the incineration of Hiroshima - that worst of all "crimes against humanity."
These advocates for moral equivalence are wrong. In considering the war's human cost, those of us privileged to live at the dawn of a new millenium should renew our effort to remember why the war was fought and why so many were called to pay the ultimate price for victory. The wars unleashed by the Japanese in 1937 and by the Germans in 1939 came close to destroying the two great centers of world civilization and to imposing in their stead imperial regimes founded on racial superiority, slavery, and genocide. They did not succeed because of the extraordinary efforts and sacrifices made by Allied soldiers, sailors, airmen and marines from around the world - Americans, Australians, Britons, Chinese, French, Indians, Poles, Russians, Ukranians and innmumerable other nationalities.
The words of Pericles uttered in his funeral oration memorializing the Athenian dead in the Peloponnesian War and recorded by that greatest of all historians, Thucydides, best capture the debt of remembrance and respect we owe:
'To me it seems that the consummation which has overtaken these men shows us the meaning of manliness in its first revelation and in its final proof. Some of them, no doubt, had their faults; but what we ought to remember first is their gallant conduct against the enemy in defense of their native land. They have blotted out evil with good, and done more service to the commonwealth than they ever did harm in their private lives. No one of these men weakened because he wanted to go on enjoying his wealth; no one put off the awful day in the hope he might live to escape his poverty and grow rich...In the fighting, they thought it more honorable to stand their ground and suffer death than to give in and save their lives. So they fled from the reproaches of men, abiding with life and limb the brunt of battle; and in a small moment of time, the climax of their lives, a culmination of glory, not of fear, were swept away from us.'
A War To Be Won - Fighting the Second World War, Murray and Millett, Belknap/Harvard, ISBN 0-674-00680-1
dimanche 25 mai 2008
Seulement un risque de 30% de pluie?
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The weather forecast for this Memorial Day Weekend called for a 30% chance of rain. With a light rain falling on the Bay this morning, "Louis" wonders if this means there is a 70% chance the forecast was wrong. A lone fishing boat bobs off the small island behind Point Isabel (right center).
samedi 24 mai 2008
Vous voulez aller qui direction?
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Multiple choices: a freighter heading (probably) to Oakland, a tanker heading toward one of the refineries or a ferry boat en route to Larkspur are among the choices on the Bay this morning. Which way do you want to go?
vendredi 23 mai 2008
Sky Watch Vendredi
Le brouillard rose - Pink Fog
(Not to be confused with Pink Floyd!)
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The Bay seems to be covered in a pink fog; even the water has taken on a pink cast this beautiful foggy dusk after several days of heat. The northeastern tip of Albany Point is on the left; Point Isabel on the right; Marin County in the background.jeudi 22 mai 2008
Sausalito
One of the most visited towns in Marin County is Sausalito, as seen here from the balcony of Chez la Vache, sparkling in the morning sun. That's Angel Island at the left, obscuring the view of part of Sausalito.
mercredi 21 mai 2008
ABC Mercredi - "R"
Sponsored by Mrs. Nesbitt's Place"R" as in Relief from the heat!
Soulagement de la chaleur!
One thing Bay Area residents can count on: after several days of heat, the Bay Area Natural Air Conditioner automatically will switch on - and the fog will roll in. After 3 days where the inland temperatures reached 100+º F (38º C) and even kissed at 90º F (32º c) along the coast, true to form, l le brouillard refroidissement rolled in!
mardi 20 mai 2008
Icarus?
A parasail (center of the image) on Albany Point as the fog cooling the recent heat wave rolls across the Bay.
lundi 19 mai 2008
Bateaux - du grand au petit
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On a fine warm day, we find the Dawn Princess at Pier 35 in San Francisco......
....while numerous smaller craft dot the Bay between Albany Point, Alcatraz Island and the Golden Gate Bridge.....
....and birds, not to be outdone by the boats, sail over the northeastern tip of Albany Point. Still more sailboats dot the Bay between Angel Island and Sausalito. What you see on Albany Point are more of the structures made from industrial waste dumped on the point before dumping was banned. Previously you saw the sculptures around the corner on the northwest side.
dimanche 18 mai 2008
samedi 17 mai 2008
Pavots de Californie
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Mme. la Vache took this photo at the Richmond Marina with California Poppies in the foreground. See also Chuck Pefley's Poppy.
UPDATE: It must be Poppy season! Small City Scenes posted this blue poppy.
vendredi 16 mai 2008
Sky Watch Friday
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Evidently Mother Nature knew that Sky Watch Friday was approaching, so she provided this sunset for our viewing pleasure last night!
jeudi 15 mai 2008
Bonne nuit
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mercredi 14 mai 2008
ABC Mercredi - "Q"
Sponsored by Mrs. Nesbitt's Place"Q" is français for Qu'est-ce que c'est? - What is this?
(It is also for QUACK! for the ducks in the water nearby!)
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Mme. la Vache took this photo on la petite péninsule, Albany Point, that we've been featuring in this recent series of photos. As we wrote previously, Albany Point was used for years by builders as a dump for waste from construction sites; the dumping was outlawed in the 1980s, and la petite péninsule is very gradually reverting to nature. Creative visitors to la petite péninsule, taking the readily-available industrial waste, have created many interesting objets d'art. Among them is this creatively arranged stack of pieces of concrete. Which leads us to the Question: Qu'est-ce que c'est? - What is this? "Louis" saw something similar on another photo blog, failed to bookmark the page, and now can't find the answer. Do any of you have an answer for "Louis"?
Our hostess for "ABC Wednesdays", Mrs. Nesbitt's Place, posted a Quiche recipe as part of her "Q". "Louis" has these quiche recettes at his recipe blog Les Recettes de Louis la Vache:
Quiche Lorraine
Quiche au Camembert
Quiche avec Oignons et Poivrons
and here's a "relative" of quiche:
Tarte alsacien d'oignon
mardi 13 mai 2008
Parc Jurassique?
lundi 12 mai 2008
Une vue du servir d'équipier
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dimanche 11 mai 2008
Cavalerie!
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samedi 10 mai 2008
Exercer la surveillance
vendredi 9 mai 2008
jeudi 8 mai 2008
Qui regardez-vous fixement?
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Another of the sculptures made from construction waste dumped on Albany Point seems not to be happy to have had his scanning of the horizon toward Angel Island, Sausalito and Marin County interrupted by Louis and Louis's camera.
mercredi 7 mai 2008
ABC Mercredi - "P"
Sponsored by Mrs. Nesbitt's PlaceClic sur l'image pour l'agrandir
"P" is for Praying Louis won't take his photo!
La petite péninsule, Albany Point, that is seen so often in the foreground of our photos was used for years by builders as a dump for waste from construction sites. This dumping was outlawed in the 1980s, and la petite péninsule is very gradually reverting to nature. Creative visitors to la petite péninsule, taking the readily-available industrial waste, have created many interesting objets d'art, including this homme, who seems to be praying that Louis won't take his photo. That's Point Isabel, also frequently seen in our photos, in the background.
Entrée dans le brouillard
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A car carrier departing Richmond Harbor and heading to the Golden Gate and out to the Pacific heads into a thick fog bank sitting on the Bay.
mardi 6 mai 2008
lundi 5 mai 2008
dimanche 4 mai 2008
Argent
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An un-retouched view of the Bay in the afternoon, viewed between Albany Point (or as Louis likes to call it, la petite péninsule), and Point Isabel. The weather forecast called for it to be warm and sunny today, but Mother Nature vetoed that, substituting instead a cool, blustery grey day. And with that, Mother Nature painted her Bay Silver this afternoon.
Cachez et allez recherche
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An American President Lines container ship heads toward the Golden Gate, but seems to be playing "hide and go seek", using the forest of masts at the San Francisco Marina as cover. The photo was taken from in front of the Marina Safeway. Fort Mason is to the right, though not seen in the photo.
samedi 3 mai 2008
Matin rose et bleu
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A light mist hovering over the Bay this morning diffused the morning sun into watercolor shades of pink and blue. The mist also diffused the colors of Angel Island (center), the Golden Gate Bridge and Sausalito (right). This photo was taken at 0630. Despite the early hour, the Bay is already dotted with small craft.
vendredi 2 mai 2008
Le feu dans le brouillard
Visit "Wiggers World" and see all the other participants!Clic sur l'image pour l'agrandir
The fog was less than 100 feet from our balcony when Louis took this photo. He normally points the lens over both of the freeways below (I-80; I-580), but if you look across the bottom of the image, you'll see that Louis didn't do that this time and cars on I-580 are visible.
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