Rainbow Colors

San Francisco's sky on fire!

Last week went by quickly. The weather has been gorgeous and I’ve been enjoying every bit of it. I guess it’s true that San Francisco’s summer starts late. I had been promised that September and October would bring warm sunny days and that seems to be true. Even though I’m not a hot weather kind of person, I sure appreciate sunny summery days, followed by cool, fresh evenings.

In addition to the sunny days, Mother Nature decided to treat San Francisco to an amazing rainbow last week.

Mesa Verde, CO

Last Wednesday, as we set out on our evening walk, we felt some raindrops falling from the sky. We looked up and the clouds didn’t look too menacing so we decided to keep walking. It didn’t look like the rain was going to get worse or last long. We walked about another block and looked at the sky again. Up there, on the pink sky, surrounded by fiery clouds, was one of the most beautiful rainbows I have ever seen in my life, and I have seen many of them!

Santa Barbara

The rainbow was perfect. It was like the ones kids draw in school. It was so bright, you could see every single color on it. Every. Single. Color!

Togian Islands, Indonesia

Above this colorful treat, was a second less bright rainbow. Yes, we were being treated to a beautiful double rainbow without having had to endure the heavy rain that usually precedes it. No, we only felt a few drops fall on us, enough to keep us looking up to sky to catch the rainbow.

The sky was adorned with this multicolor gift for about a half hour!

Santa Barbara

Biarritz, France

One reason I was very excited about this rainbow was that I thought I had left weather-related events behind when I moved out of Minnesota. Since moving to California over 2 years ago, I have only experienced one thunderstorm and a total of less than 3 weeks of rain! No rain equals no rainbows. That sure was a change compared to the stormy Midwest.

Togian Islands, Indonesia

Santa Barbara

So, this unusual appearance inspired me to go over my photos to put together a colorful collection of rainbows from around the world. Well, at least from those places where I’ve been lucky enough to see rainbows and to capture them with my camera!

Santa Barbara

Two of my favorite rainbow photos are from Mesa Verde, CO and from Bangkok, Thailand. The reason why I like them so much is not because the photos are spectacular, but because they both happened on my birthday! It is pretty exciting to get a rainbow on your birthday. Makes you feel special in so many ways.

Santa Barbara

Talking about rainbows on special occasions. The day Joe and I got married, rain was forecasted for the day. We decided to stick to our outdoor plans and, minutes after our ceremony was over and we headed inside, the downpour started! It rained for a while and, when the rain clouds started to pass, two beautiful rainbows appeared on the sky! I haven’t really looked into the symbolism of it, but I’m pretty sure it was a good omen for our future life as a couple! I did not take the photo of our wedding rainbow. Our photographer Molly did and I'm grateful to her for capturing that beautiful moment on our wedding day!

Leaving Santa Barbara

There is a tie between the two places where I have seen (and photographed) the most rainbows over the past few years: Santa Barbara in California, and the Togian Islands in Indonesia.

As I mentioned before, since moving to California we have only had about 3 weeks of rain in total over more than two years. The funny thing is that, when we lived in Santa Barbara, our two weeks of rain came in doses of 1 week each time. At the end of one of those weeks, as we were driving home, in front of us was a beautiful rainbow! It was so pretty that it made us forget the 7 days of rain we had just endured prior to this colorful appearance.

Bangkok, Thailand

Two other rainbows I remember from the Santa Barbara area include: one we got on our way to Death Valley National Park when we were heading there to camp during the winter holidays; and one I saw while walking downtown SB with my mom when she was visiting. The one with my mom was more like a halo around the sun, but it had all the colors of a rainbow.

In the Togian Islands, rainbows were a frequent occurrence. I think we saw about five or six rainbows over the two weeks we were there! In fact, we sort our first rainbow shortly after we got off the boat that took us to the island of our dreams.

Saint Paul, MN - Our wedding rainbow!

Because of their location, these small islands see lots of storms go by them. Sometimes, the storms hit them, and other they simply appear in the horizon, hitting surrounding islands with rain. No matter where the storms were, we were almost always guaranteed to see a rainbow after they passed. Storms, rain and rainbows sure made us feel like we were on an island in the middle of the sea.

Togian Islands, Indonesia

I guess the bottom line is, I love rainbows! They are such a reminder of the beauty that only Mother Nature can create. They are a reminder of how wonderful our planet is, how perfect nature is, and how lucky we are to be able to enjoy wonderful natural events like rain and the rainbows that sometimes follow it.

Just remember, next time you feel raindrops falling on you, make sure you look up. You never know what will follow!

Santa Barbara

I hope you enjoyed this week’s photos. For more fun photos from all over the world, check my Etsy page at:  http://www.etsy.com/shop/WorldPhotosByPaola

On our way to Death Valley

Hill Walking and View Finding

What a fabulous long weekend! There was sun, there was fog, there was fun and there was a lot of exploring San Francisco and checking out some of the awesome sites around here!

On Saturday, we finally went to see the Mosaic Steps of 16^th Avenue in Golden Gate Heights.  The Tiled Steps (http://www.tiledsteps.org) were created as a result of a neighborhood effort to beautify the 163 steps located at 16^th Street and Moraga in San Francisco.

I had learned of these steps by accident when I was looking to locate the many hidden steps that are tucked in between San Francisco streets. It only took about 5 months to finally get to this part of the city to see this work of art in person.

To get to the steps, we took the N Judah train towards Ocean Beach and got off at 16^th Avenue. We walked on 16^th for a few blocks and up some steep stairs, keeping the top of the hill in sight. When we reached Moraga Street, we turned left and there were the steps! There were barely any people there and we were able to take our time going up the stairs, turning often enough to enjoy the view of the ocean and of the colorful houses that now cover the once sandy terrain of the Sunset District.

 

At the top of the stairs, the panoramic view is breathtaking. To the right, another set of 143 wooden steps promise an even better view from the top of Grand View Park, with a 360 degree view of the city, including the downtown area, the south suburbs of the city, the Golden Gate Bridge, the ocean, the bay, and all of the hills in the city. The name Grand View is well deserved!

After walking around the park, we started making our way down towards Mount Sutro, on Moraga Street, on our way to Twin Peaks, the second planned destination of our Saturday outing.

As we walked towards Mt. Sutro, following the sight of the large tower that adorns its top, we thought about how, while walking around the city, you see tree-covered hills and you can easily think of what the city used to look like before the trees in the lowlands were cut down and people started to settle down here.

Watching these tree-covered, green hills, we imagined being in the wilderness and seeing hills like those. We suddenly realized how big the hills were, and were even more motivated to get to keep walking on, going up and down those hills, until reaching our destination.

After a nice walk, the three of us reached Twin Peaks—yes, Bomber was with us! The view from Twin Peaks is fantastic! Not quite as open as the one from Grand View Park, but what made it special, was the fact that the vanishing point goes down Market Street, all the way to the Ferry Building.

We sat around, took in the view and were appreciative for living in such an awesome city where we can jump on a train, walk a few blocks to go see amazing art on the streets to then go hiking in forested hills, all the way to an amazing overlook from which to appreciate the architectural beauty of the city. Wow… I do love my city!

When we were done, we started making our way down to try to find the nearest train station to catch a train back home. We were surprised at how long the descent was. I guess that in climbing about 3 hills, we slowly got higher and higher, all the way to Twin Peaks.

Back on Church Street, we caught the J Church train and made it back home with one tired puppy on our laps!

On Sunday we went to Point Reyes National Sea Shore. It was foggy. We played in the little bit of sun that managed to make it through the clouds. No pictures came out of that outing, only happy memories!

Monday—Happy Labor Day—we jumped on the N Judah again and headed to the Haight to find more graffiti by Banksy (and to buy more thread for my quilt project!). The destination was 1672 Haight Street, right in the heart of the Haight Ashbury area, where the hippies still stroll around once in a while.

We walked around trying to locate the wall in which the words “This is where I draw the line” were supposed to be painted. To our surprise, the words are now covered by a thick layer of white paint. There is no way of knowing now the words that used to be painted there.

The streets are alive and they are constantly changing, regardless of your artistic and political inclinations.

From here we walked towards Buena Vista Park and this time we ventured in with the intention of exploring it and of making it to the top of the park, to enjoy the views of the city.

Buena Vista is quite large and full of steps and paths leading to the top. On top of the hill, an open grassy field fills with people sunbathing, reading, eating a picnic lunch, or simply hanging out. Absolutely lovely!

We passed the green lawn and walked towards the back of the park, where we found several tree-logs on the ground, all offering an excellent bench from which to enjoy the tall trees, the views that peaked behind them, and the sunshine warming up our skins. We sat for a while before starting our descent towards the Mission.

The red lines show where the Banksy used to be.

We walked on 15^th Street, through the Castro and into the Mission. The next stop, 2140 Mission Street, to see another Banksy. Once again, unfortunately, the graffiti had been covered, this time by a new mural. At least, while walking around the Mission, we saw alleys full of colorful murals painted by local artists!

Do you think those who covered the Banksy murals knew they were painting over the work of a famous street artist?

We moved on, saddened by the fact that both our addresses had yielded no results. As a way of lifting ourselves up, we bought burritos at Taqueria Cancun (Mission St. between 18^th and 19^th Streets) and headed to Dolores Park to eat them.

 

Not surprisingly, the park was full of people enjoying the gorgeous summer day by playing in the sun.

After catching some more rays, we walked down Dolores Street towards Market St. At some point we turned towards Church Street to wait for a train. Instead, the N Judah came rolling down Duboce Street and we hurried to catch it. With us, once again, we had a tired, but incredibly happy, dog.

Minutes later we got off the train, walked up the hill home and called it a day. The weekend had been successful and it was time for us to just relax. I’m going to continue making mental lists of the many places I want to see in San Francisco. I want to make sure I get everywhere I'm interested in. It is so much fun to be a tourist in your own city!

 Enjoy the photos from this week. For more photos, visit my Etsy store at: http://www.etsy.com/shop/WorldPhotosByPaola.