Is The Road Always Better
Than The Inn?

The immortal words of the proverb come from the book “Don Quixote de la Mancha”, which was written in 1613 by the famous Spanish novelist, poet and playwright Miguel de Cervantes Saavedra.

I am writing this email on a Sunday night, while staying in The Sea Ranch. We arrived here on Friday afternoon. It took us three hours to get here because of the traffic and road construction. On the way, we stopped in Jenner to stretch our legs and to have lunch on the deck overlooking the Russian River, before it connects with the ocean. We’ve taken this journey many, many times and in spite of the familiarity and the winding road, it takes an hour to drive the last 27 miles on the winding, very picturesque road.

And though we enjoyed the road which goes through the agricultural area, this joy is nothing in comparison with the experience which we have during our stay in The Sea Ranch – the Inn (hence the question mark in the title). But this experience I will share with you next week.

P.S. These four images are from our journey, including our stop in Jenner.

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Why Crissy Field is Called Crissy

San Francisco is blessed to have many parks and open spaces. One of them is called Crissy Field.

If you are one of the 1.2 million people who stroll, cycle and walk dogs on the 1.5-mile promenade along the water with the view of Golden Gate Bridge every year, you know the place. I read about this in the article titled, “It’s Crissy Field’s Turn For a Green Redesign”, written by Peter Fimrite, which appeared in the San Francisco Chronicle on Monday, August 5, 2019. The number of people mentioned in the article surprised me, since the population of San Francisco is about 884,000. In the past, I visited Crissy Field only once or twice over many years, that is, until we got Max, and started to go there more often. It is part of Presidio National Park Service, and named in honor of Major Dana Crissy, who died trying to land on the airstrip, which was part of the Presidio airfield at the beginning of the twentieth century. The Presidio has served as a military reservation from its establishment in 1776 as Spain’s northern-most outpost of colonial power in the New World. But in 1994, it became a park and part of the Golden Gate National Reservation Area.

About a year ago, a friend told me that there is a group called SF Doodles, which meets once a month on Crissy Field. Max belongs to this group of dogs, which were developed by crossing different breeds with Poodles. The original purpose was to have a dog that is hypoallergenic. It started in 1989 in Australia, and now there are different hybrid breeds such as, Goldendoodles, Maltipoo, Yorkpoo, Pekapoo and others. They come in different sizes and have different traits, inherited from the original breeds. Though not all of the 1287 members of the Doodle meetup group come to monthly meetup, the crowd of people and their four-legged companions is quite lovely. You are welcome to join just for fun, if you don’t have a doodle, you can borrow one from a friend.

P.S. It seems that dogs have a good time here, running over Crissy Field, as four of these images can attest.

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Where Is Mount Davidson?

Our house is located in the area of San Francisco called Monterey Heights, which became a neighborhood in early 1920s. It’s a five-minute walk down the hill to the commercial pocket, West Portal, and about a twenty-five minute walk up to the highest mountain in our city – Mount Davidson, which stands 738 feet above sea level. And in spite of the fact that the 103 foot high cross at the top of it can be seen from many areas of San Francisco, the mountain which is covered with lush vegetation, and the forest in the center of our city remains a big secret. Every time I have climbed to the top of the mountain, I did not see many people there. Before we got our dog Max, I would go there often on the weekends. My favorite time was before the sunrise, for the main reason to photograph, and I have quite a few interesting images of the sunrises and the fog covering San Francisco, which I have shared with my readers in previous postings. One of those images will appear in my next book, “42 Encounters with Love in San Francisco”; which you will be able to see in a few months (I want to keep you in suspense).

Mr. Nolte quotes someone whose name was James Decatur, who described his walk through Mount Davidson– “Peace and quiet were so profound that it seemed almost unbelievable that the noise and roar of a great city was only a few minutes behind.” It was written almost a hundred years ago, and still is true today.

P.S. In all of my comings here, I did not see wild flowers, however my camera “picked up” red flowers and berries. I am glad to share these four images with you. Do not wait for the new book to come out. You can start your own collection by going to Amazon.com and checking out the incredible reviews about my previous books, and to buy a gift for a friend.

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Carmel-by-the-Sea

Last week I wrote about our 52^nd wedding celebration without saying a word about the place we visited. Carmel, as it is commonly called, is a small town, whose official population is 3,721 (1,626 males and 2,096 females). The name Carmel comes from Mount Carmel, located in Northern Israel and roughly translates in Hebrew to a garden. I’ll let you read by yourself how the name traveled all the way to California as “the garden by the sea”. The town is very popular with tourists, and many who work here live in the surrounding areas (which are much more affordable). A client whom I helped buy a house there two years ago, told me that there are surges of Chinese tourists in Carmel, thanks to the popularity of this place in Chinese social media. There is so much to see and to experience in Carmel; especially the delicious food in many good restaurants, that have been there for many years. There are also many good clothing stores, where my wife found a nice blouse and earrings, a large number of art galleries including seven or eight specializing in photography. Of course there is a beautiful beach and pleasant weather (at least during our stay there).

Through the years, a number of well-known personalities have resided in Carmel. Among them were the writers Jack London and John Steinbeck, photographer Ansel Adams, actors Bing Crosby, Doris Day and Clint Eastwood, who was Mayor of Carmel-by-the-Sea from 1986-1988. We enjoyed our two days here very much, and this time we will not wait two years to return.

P.S. During my morning walks with Max I was photographing flowers, using a special lens. I hope you’ll like the four resulting images. You can see more of my flowers on mannykagan.smugmug.com

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