April 20, 2013

Saturday 

It is a beautifully warm day and the three of us walk out the front door, down a couple of handfuls of city streets to the Panhandle. We walk parallel to the park until we reach Golden Gate Park. We explore all the unknown trails, through meadows and tree groves, past ponds and sports complexes we have never seen or knew existed and yet, we were still in the city. At the park's edge, across the street from the ocean, we sit in the grass at Beach Chalet and share some fries and a burger before heading back home. It was a wonderful, eight mile city hike!

April 17, 2013

Wednesday

I walk through the park, looking for inspiration. It is the same park, same light, same, same, same. How many times can I admire the same curve of a tree? Well, as many times as it comes. But how many times do I need to take a picture of it? But the photograph does not always correctly portray the seeing. So, today I decide to let the camera do the admiration, so that I could, afterwards, do the seeing. My wish for the camera was not perfect, maybe not even good, but it was different and it allowed me the breathing room of admiring all the same things and introducing something new.

April 13, 2013

Saturday
 
I barely noticed the week went by, I was so buried in work. I think, if I am taking pictures each day, then my head is probably in a good place. It is good to set yourself in and focus on something, especially something that needs to focus, but it almost feels like I am living with my head in the sand. Finally, on Saturday, I took a break, back at the Presidio, our getaway within the city, where some new wildflowers had bloomed in earnest in the past week. I made a study of them, taking my time, we did not travel too far. Poppy, who had an infected paw all week and was not supposed to be doing too much walking, seemed happy to scamper in the woods just a short walking distance.

Walking Corona Heights With Poppy the Impatient Puppy

Walk #19 - Corona Heights

A view from the Corona Heights walk, near the summit.

Oh Poppy, my Poppy, I must be such a good dog owner, you have been walking like a dream puppy on our regular walks. It must be time to graduate to puppy girlhood and go on a more advanced walk with your "master". (Imagine a puppy snickering.) I finally get to take my advanced little dog on a nice relaxing and picturesque walk that I have been meaning to do for months, one of the Stairway Walks in San Francisco. This is a book by Adah Bakalinsky and includes twenty-nine, you'll never guess it, stairway walks in San Francisco. I bought the book after hearing an interview with her on Forum on KQED. Here is a link to the archived broadcast: Urban Stairs of the Bay Area. For our first stairway walk, I chose Corona Heights because it was close by (See the mapped route of Walk #19 at the bottom of this post). As fate would have it, it was a beautiful and frustrating walk, thanks mostly to Poppy the Impatient Puppy!

Okay, I will take full responsibility that I made many misjudgements:

1. I chose to wear old jeans that I haven't worn in months. I forgot I needed to wear a belt with these jeans and I spent the entire two hours continually pulling my pants up (ask me why I didn't turn around and get a belt!). 
2. I chose to take a shoulder bag instead of my usual, small backpack. This kept rubbing on my t-shirt causing it to hike up and up above my jeans, so I spent the entire two hours continually pulling my shirt down. 
3. I chose to take Poppy the puppy, who kept pulling on her leash ahead, behind, to the right and to the left, to sniff, chew and jump on whatever her nose desired, so I spent the entire two hours pulling and tripping on the leash trying to control her. 
4. I was actually trying to follow the directions of the walk in the book while managing the first three.
5. I was actually trying to take photographs, the kind where you need to be still while the shutter is clicking. Have you tried taking a photograph while a puppy has wrapped its leash around your leg and is trying to run after a leaf?

So, if you can imagine, I spent two hours walking up and down hills and stairways while trying to pull up my pants, pull down my shirt, follow directions, keep control of an rambunctious puppy and take photographs. Well I did get some exercise and I did enjoy the beautiful weather and I even got some photographs of some nice views, to see them, continue on.

On our way to the designated walk.

Sidewalk stairs on our way

Rows on Palm Trees in San Francisco!

A nice San Francisco sidewalk (except the couch...).

Geez, why can't I get this to grow at my house?

On one stairway down, we got drenched by sprinklers.

A nice tree along the stairway down.

Poppy, pulling me up more steps.

Poppy says: "Hurry up! Let's go!"

I make Poppy wait, but she is focused ahead.

A view of downtown from the hills we climbed.

Of course, Poppy wants to run up the stairs.

Some nice rows of San Francisco.

You gotta love the crazy streets and hills.

The summit of our walk, 400 ft.

A wider view of a San Francisco neighborhood.

Sutro Tower and surrounding neighborhood.

Another look, I couldn't help myself.

Some wildflowers growing out of the rocks.

Park Hill condos, which used to be St. Joseph's hospital.

Poppy is enjoying the wind in her ears and the views.

A wider view in the other direction, towards downtown.

A shot of the summit and its view beyond.

Wildflowers growing near the summit.

The steps down from the summit.

My lens cap rolled down this hill.

We arrived back at the house, I, frustrated with Poppy and glad to be back. As I unlock the front door, Poppy decides it would be a good time to pee on our neighbors doormat adjacent to our own. There are no words for my horror (our neighbor doesn't really like that we have a dog). I let her finish (what else can you do at that point?) and went inside and immediately opened a cold beer, glad to be finished the walk with Poppy the Impatient Puppy.

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The Small Dog Beach Walk

Brought to you by Adventures with Poppy.

Ocean Beach, San Francisco

On Saturday we took Poppy to the Small Dog Beach Walk at Ocean Beach in San Francisco. Okay, now I have to post a warning/introduction, of sorts. This is an event that occurs every Saturday morning and is for responsible owners of dogs under 20 lbs. I am paraphrasing here from the their website, which they ask you not to post because they want the event to be spread by word of mouth. I guess they've had some problems with irresponsible dog owners or large dogs, I don't know, but I want to respect their wishes. If you are interested in more information, send me your email and I will pass along the information.

I had heard about the beach walk at the dog park (see, word of mouth works!). We arrived a little early and walked down to the meeting place and I began to wonder if I was really a responsible dog owner. Poppy is still a puppy and her recall could be better, especially in the midst of a ferocious play session. I also began to doubt if Poppy was small enough. She certainly is one of the smallest dogs at the dog park, but as the dogs on the beach began to arrive, she started to look like the big dog of the pack.

Poppy, one of the BIG dogs?

In true Poppy fashion, she immediately took off to mingle amongst the other dogs. That's when I realized how much of a puppy she still is, while she wanted to play, many of the other dogs just wanted to hang out. Oops! We began chasing her down and attempting to herd her away from the hangout dogs. Now, I was really feeling like an irresponsible dog owner. Poppy, on the other paw, looked like she was in dog heaven. Fortunately she did find some other playful pups, although just because they are small does not mean they are docile. Sheesh, some of them were really aggressive.

Aggressive?

The group walk began down the beach and we were always lagging behind trying to coerce the dogs to keep moving forward (rather than side to side, up and down and around in circles). It was fun to watch them play but there was a lot of maintenance to break it up when it was getting a bit rough, fortunately Poppy is not aggressive but she is used to having to play with bigger dogs, so she suddenly seemed almost rough with smaller dogs.

Get her away from me, she wants to PLAY!

I'll have NONE of this 'playing'!

Finally! Some dogs that want to play!

The walk down the beach.

Haha! I'm bigger than you!

Lets see you hurdle that!

We're friends, right?

I'll get you guys!

Get this crazy puppy away from me!

You have funny looking fur, what kind of dog are you?

Mmm, you look like lunch!

You are fun to play with!

I WILL dominate.

Play time!

I surrender!

Come and get me!

He said I'm in trouble!

Here are some other dogs we met on the beach walk:

I know it, I'm cute.

The dog with no eyes

I'm wet and I like it!

Oh, I guess you can take my picture.

You guys are boring me!

I don't know about you.

Sadly, it is time to turn around and go back:

What a fun time at the beach! Okay, it wasn't all fun and games for the humans, but the dogs sure seemed to like it!