Lands End

This is Lands End.  No, not the Lands End in England, but the one in San Francisco.  

I was a little restless today, not really sure how to spend my day in the city. I had numerous 'business' things to do by phone and internet in my hotel room, but I also wanted to have some 'fun' time, especially since it was a beautiful sunny day - nothing to be taken for granted in foggy San Francisco.  My poor friends back in the UK - here it was the Bank Holiday and it was pouring rain at home!  It was a treat to have a gloriously sunny Bank Holiday - even if it was a 'normal' day in San Francisco.  

So I decided to head out to Lands End - one of my favourite places in the city.  Mostly because it doesn't FEEL like the city.  It's a rather long bus ride, but an easy one from where we were staying.  I wish I'd left earlier, but I had about an hour and a half to walk around and take numerous pictures.  I even walked along some different trails and visited Sutro Park which I hadn't been in before.  I got my favourite Veggie Wrap from the visitors Center and ate it in the park.  I had to find a shady place to sit as it was too hot to eat in the sun.  I watched 2 ladies arrive in the park with their beach chairs and their dogs - they looked like they were going to have a nice long afternoon lounging in the sunshine, and I wished I could do the same with Dolly, but of course she was far away at home!  

This area is steeped in history.  Developed by Adolph Sutro, German born entrepreneur who later became Mayor of San Francisco (1894-96).  He purchased the Cliff House, a run-down restaurant here at Lands End.  He refurbished it and later, after a fire, recreated the 2nd Cliff House.  He also created the Sutro Baths, opened in 1896, an amazing complex of swimming pools filled with the sea water .  Since the only way to get to this area of the city was by the expensive railroad, he built a steam railway along the coast providing a less expensive way for the average citizen to reach this area.  The current Cliff House is now the 3rd version of the restaurant, and only ruins of the Sutro baths remain after a devastating fire in the 1960s.  The railway also suffered the effects of landslides and is no more.  But he will always be remembered for opening up and developing this beautiful area of the city.  

For a few more pictures, see this Flickr album.