Our guy. x.o.
Happy Father’s Day!
Our guy. x.o.
Photography
Detroit: A Small Photo Collection
Cass Corridor
I’m slowly building my photo collection of Detroit. Like many outsiders and newbies, I’m really drawn to its buildings. I’ve always loved abandoned structures and old buildings (and the unknown stories they hold), so of course I am oohing and ahhing over all the broken windows and overgrown plants and everything. On one trip into town, I was yelling “STOP!” to my husband (who was driving) at almost every other block (and although I’m sure he was rolling his eyes, he did stop. most of the time.).
Street Art, Midtown
One thing I noticed about the buildings (especially downtown but also some of the apartments on the outskirts), is that they are SO. BIG. And so tall! It’s not like I haven’t seen tall buildings before. I’ve been to New York and all over Europe. I’ve seen big. But I guess I haven’t been around it in so long, that they seem incredibly massive and looming to me. Plus, there are codes in San Francisco because of the earthquakes, so big and tall doesn’t really happen there (unless you’re at Macy’s. haha).
Courthouse. For sale.
There is beauty in the breakdown, the hardship. But there is also a great energy to the city that these photos don’t show. It’s an energy that’s hard to capture in photos or even explain in words; its vibrancy is understated. There is definitely a pulse here. It’s a cool-as-a-cucumber kind of pulse that has nothing to prove to anyone, yet is warm and inviting at the same time (I’m going to figure you out, Detroit!).
Midtown
I’m super excited to continue discovering what this town is all about and sharing my perspectives with you.
Weekly Photo Challenge: Street Life
Chinatown
San Francisco, California
Weekly Photo Challenge: Reflections
the Rose Garden at Golden Gate Park
San Francisco, California
Ocean Beach: the Edge of the World
Ocean Beach, as seen from Sutro Heights
It’s exactly two miles from my house to Ocean Beach (my Strava app tells me so). Every weekend I make the short run, ending up at the north end of the Great Highway near the Cliff House (today I beat my record: 9-minute miles – hurray! A special thank-you to my running partners, stress and angst).
The wall, looking northeast.
The wall, looking northwest to the Cliff House.
Ocean Beach is not initially beautiful. At least it wasn’t to me, the girl who grew up in Hawaii. There’s a huge, graffiti-covered (only on one side, thankfully) concrete wall that spans the entire length of the beach. It’s supposed to keep sand dunes from piling up on the Great Highway. Still, every summer the highway shuts down for the annual sand removal, a project that moves approximately 7,000 to 10,000 cubic yards of sand (source: SFGate).
Another view of the Cliff House.
Even without the eyesore, there’s the weather. The beach is cloudy or foggy or cold or windy or all of the above 360 days of the year. But… like everything else in this town, it’s grown on me. I love how vast it feels, how uncrowded (when it’s a nice day, you know it. Everyone flocks to the beach), how rugged, even how grey (I mean, crashing waves at the edge of the world are pretty amazing, whether the sun is shining on them or not).
I’m beginning to think San Francisco can make anything beautiful. The old homeless man sitting on a park bench I passed this morning. The abandoned beer bottles I found last week. Maybe my stress level is so high that I’m not thinking clearly (I think I AM a tad delusional right now, let’s be honest). But I think more than that, I just want to love my town as much as I can in these last couple of weeks.
One of the lessons that San Francisco has taught me (and it’s taught me many) is to look beyond. To look beyond myself, to look beyond first impressions, beyond stereotypes, beyond the hype…to look beyond the concrete wall and the fog, to find the beautiful crashing waves of Ocean Beach.
Pointes of View 