Saturday, July 11, 2009

Blog Camp 1.1 with Bird Tweets and Relyn


DSC06746 Union Square at night
Julochka, the Queen of Blog Camps, baptized our San Francisco adventure as “Blog Camp 1.1”
Here’s a quick executive overview of yesterday. Please forgive the hurried quality of the photos. No doubt, Robin and Relyn will do more thorough, literate and artful posts later, but I’m in a big hurry this morning.
I met Relyn “Thelma” of Come Sit by my Fire and Robin “Louise” of Bird Tweets in front of the magnificent San Franciso Conservatory of Flowers.
DSC06705 San Francisco Conservatory of Flowers
Then we popped over to the M. H. De Young Museum to visit some our favorite artists…
DSC06691 John Singer Sargent
…and Oma’s favorite painting:

DSC06693 Martin Johnson Heade
We tagged Baker Beach to say “hello” to my favorite bridge in the whole wide world:
DSC06702 Golden Gate Bridge from Baker Beach
We had dinner at Biscuits & Blues…
DSC06743 Biscuits & Blues
… to listen to torch singer Lavay Smith
DSC06714 Lavay Smith

…and her Red Hot Skillet Lickers:
DSC06707 Red Hot Skillet Likkers


DSC06720 Jules Broussard saxophone

DSC06713 saxophone hand

We ended the evening with a stroll around the Union Square area (opening photo), where we checked out the lobby of the St. Francis Hotel

DSC06745 Bird Tweets and Relyn

…and did some window shopping. Sadly, in this economy, most merchants are offering deep discounts. Marc Jacobs offered a 70% off sale with only a mild suggestion of consequences if you don’t partake:

DSC06751 Spring Sale 70% off

All in all, it was a very good California day:

DSC06747 Union Square palm tree

Thursday, July 9, 2009

Thelma and Louise Come to San Francisco



They arrived! Relyn and Robin (AKA Thelma and Louise) came to San Francisco to visit tangobaby and me. They started on their road trip early this morning in Oregon and arrived around dinner time. It looks like they had a roaring good time:


I can’t wait to share this beautiful city with them!

Sunday, July 5, 2009

Ironworks in the French Quarter of New Orleans

DSC06386 French Quarter fern galleries

The elaborate use of ironwork permeates throughout the architecture within the French Quarter of New Orleans. Some of them were wrought one by one, requiring great skill and strength with a hammer:

DSC02435 Maison Dupuy Hotel sign

DSC02620 wrought iron curlicue


…other iron features were cast into a mold allowing exact duplicates to be made:

DSC06346 French Quarter cast iron

DSC06337 French Quarter cast iron grapes

DSC06339 French Quarter railing

…and still others are a combination of wrought iron and cast iron:

DSC06391 French Quarter door 728

Most famously, ironwork is used in the railings for the balconies and galleries that are so prominent in the New Orleans architecture. Balconies project out and are extensions of an upper floor:

DSC06405 French Quarter colors

Galleries are supported by columns or posts reaching to the ground and therefore usually the width of the sidewalk.:

DSC06336 French Quarter Galleries


DSC06348 New Orleans 501 Rue Royale

If you’ve ever been to New Orleans during a heat wave or been caught in a rainstorm there, I don’t have to tell you what a great benefit the galleries are.

DSC00158 French Quarter cat and iron gate
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