Fleet Week in San Francisco!

When this idea was proposed to me by Aaron, I was so excited for several reasons…I love airplanes and ships, and I was also wondering what the Embarcadero would look like flooded with – yes, sailors!!! A trip into the city of San Francisco is always a treat even if you live here. And Aaron and I were just thrilled to have some fun in the sun.

Well, we thought the sun might actually be deceiving and we would freeze in the city, which is not unusual for me 🙂 so we decided to drive instead of taking BART…terrible idea…mostly mine really. But we get there and drive along the Embarcadero ( port ) for what seemed like an eternity, enjoying/envying the throngs of people walking past us with bags of stuff and ready to fill their day with activities. As hard as I looked, I could not see one single sailor uniform in the midst of all those people…I didn’t give up hope though and told Aaron they better be around somewhere or Fleet Week should just change it’s name to “Weak” instead.

Finding parking in the city can ruin almost any date that is about to happen and then you are just two embittered people who want it all to be over with. So finding parking became a frustrating ordeal and the roads seemed to be playing cat and mouse with us. Let me explain – we would bravely deviate from the Embarcadero and veer left in the hopes of finding a side street that would somehow manufacture a parking spot that was perfect, only to find out that it is a one- way street and we are spit back up on the Embarcadero after a minute detour that took us 15 mins off course – and no parking spot. Parking in the city costs you your first born child, so we drive around for a while, ok, a long while and manage to find a great spot – 1 hour parking. Which means, one of us had to always find the car again and refill the meter…Aaron assumed this responsibility without me asking him to – what a gentleman!

SAILORS!!! HOW Cool…WAITAMINIT!!!! These are not sailors, they are as old as our 12-year old cousins and the one who is about to dislodge his wedgie is the leader of the pack!!!! Most depressing I must say!!! I guess I should have been specific when I said I wish I saw some sailors today..who knew??

Aaron and I found a spot on the beach and settled down to be beaten by the noonday sun and occasionally flying sand, to watch the show that was more really like spurts of action since they were flying all around the city, and what with the boats, ships and masts in the air, it was a miracle they did not get entangled and crash into the sailboats…before the Blue Angels came on the show, we just see an airplane zoom into the horizon and pretend like it was about to dive to its death and then pull up and fly away, accompanied by the excited shouts of people all around us. Aaron at this point had eaten the yummy sandwiches we had brought along, was sprawled out on the sand and would raise himself on one elbow, open one eye, look at the plane and go right back to the original position. He was enjoying himself, I could tell.

I, on the other hand, being the one excited about airplanes, especially the F16 and the F18, stayed sitting up and ready with the camera, being the designated picture taker. The Blue Angels were fun and you could hear them miles away since their engines thundered by you, doing their daredevil tricks. Here are some pics…some are fuzzy but its what I could get while trying not to have my mouth open or be tanned on one side of my face:

It was so great to spend a day in the life of the city of San Francisco and be a part of the hustle and bustle. Since we were already in the city, Aaron and I decided to stay and play for a while. Right across the street from where we had parked our car, on a patch of green grass, an Art Show was in progress. We walked around and admired some pieces and just shook our heads in puzzlement at others. We then sauntered around, alright…we ducked and dodged the crowds and melted into them, as we walked along the sidewalks taking in the throbbing, pulsing life around us.

Aaron, knowing my fondness for galleries and museums, happened upon one called the Lahaina Galleries and ushered me in there and I was so glad he did and so was he. We happened to come face to face with some amazing sculpture done by Frederick Hart and were fascinated with the pieces that were on display: