Coit Tower and July 4th

It's so nice to have a good friend close by that's willing to stomp all over town all day long with you! Lisa and I went exploring again this past weekend- this time with my new/old camera in a brand new camera bag. I packed my point-and-shoot camera too just in case.

Here's the Transamerica Pyramid with my old point and shoot (Canon Powershot SD600):



And here's the Transamerica Pyramid with my brother's camera (Nikon D100):



Ummmm... Yeah, when they are compared directly my point-and-shoot Canon is much clearer and has more color. I think the potential for the Nikon may be higher than what I'm reaching. The stuff I used to trick my Canon into doing has an actual setting/button on the Nikon. Anyways, I look like a more serious photographer with the big honking Nikon! I think the key will be taking classes to figure out why this is a better camera.

Okay- on to exploring!

We looped around from Embarcadero station down to the piers and then looped up to Columbus Ave for lunch at Cafe Delucci's. We then ascended the steep incline to Coit Tower.



It was a rather pretty tower.



And for $5 bucks you could take the elevator to the top for some panoramic views of the city (no stair option).



What's really wonderful about this tower are the elaborate murals inside the halls of the base of the tower. They were one of the earliest WPA projects from the Great Depression and showed scenes of California. Apparently they were quite controversial due to the fact that the artists inserted certain political figures as heros and villains in the murals and snuck in all sorts of political opinions- such as this robbery in the picture of the city's financial district.



Here's another one of the "California cows are happy cows" section.



We headed down the street, wandered through Washington Square, and took a small break at XOX Truffles for some bite size truffles and coffee. Then down the street to Stella's pastry- where we shared a small (heheheh) pastry. Lisa is not good for my diet. It's all her fault.

Our only redeeming thought was that we were walking up and down a lot of hills- which was bound to help us work off either the truffles or the pastry. We checked out some hotels for Lisa's upcoming visit from her mom and nephews, then headed down to the piers to pick one from which to watch fireworks.

I'm embarrassed to admit it, but i had read on a SF blog that pier 3 was a great place to watch the fireworks. That information was completely and utterly wrong. Pier 3 was NO WHERE NEAR the fireworks. We saw them in the distance though. Here's my best firework picture from the new camera- I put the shutter speed on 2.5 after much playing around as a compromise between how much exposure verses how still I could keep the camera.



Fireworks are difficult to take pictures of. Not the best subject for the first day testing a camera that's way beyond my ability!

We finished the night at El Mar, a peruvian place the proved to me that octopus does not need to be rubbery or chewy- in fact, it tasted like a tender mild chicken with incredible spices. The crowd dispersed while we ate and flirted with the peruvian waitstaff (they were cute) and we headed back to the east bay area at midnight. And we didn't get mugged. :-)

My best night picture from the new camera: