Henry’s Blog

Recently the Queen Mary 2, one of the largest cruise ships in the world, and the largest ship to ever sail through the Golden Gate, arrived in San Francisco for a 24 hour visit. We headed into the city and joined thousands of people lining the decks of the bridge and the shoreline, along with a flotilla of approximately 400 ships, boats, the SF fire boat, and kayaks to watch the show.

It was quite a display the crowd roared as she sailed beneath the bridge with a blast of the giant horn and barely clearing the bridge by 30 feet. The photos can be viewed here.

There’s an upcoming art exhibit “EExhibition - The Fine Art of Engineers” in San Francisco, and several of my photographs have been selected. This will be my first art exhibit! Doug Raymond is also in the exhibit. We’d be delighted if you could join us for the opening reception on Thursday December 7th from 6:30-10:00pm at Red In Studios 1035 Market Street (between 6th & 7th) in San Francisco. The show runs through December 23rd. More information can be found at: http://www.redinkstudios.org/eexhibition/

To get to 1035 Market, get off at Civic Center BART. Come up the escalator on the south sidewalk of Market Street. Go 250 paces East on Market (toward the Bay). The gallery is in in the middle of the block, on the right, in a huge blue building. It’s not the best neighborhood, so go in a group, or go in daylight hours.

On the Thursday before our Sara and I got married Sara lead the women into San Francisco for her final dress fitting while Dad, Mike, and I visited the USS Hornet an aircraft carrier moored at the old Alameda Point Naval Base, now open as a museum. Dad served on the USS Independence in the early 1960s and showed us many familiar sites on the Hornet. Much of the ship is open to the public and free tours are offered engine room, captain and admirals quarters, and the command decks. Definitely worth a visit.

This past weekend brought some cold and snow weather around the Bay Area. On Friday we got lightning, thunder, and hail, along with a weather report calling for snow about 1000 feet. I got up before dawn on Saturday and headed for Mt. Tam and it’s 2571 peak. Sure enough, there was snow!

The evening photography sessions in San Francisco continue. Recently Christophe and I explored the streets around Union Square. This time I left the tripod at home and looked for shots with interesting illumination. We found some neon signs and a few remaining Christmas lights.

Photos from two recent outings in San Francisco. On Monday night I headed out to the Embaradero waterfront with my new co-worker Christophe, also an avid photographer for some evening photography. The lights of San Francisco are quite wonderful after dark. I focused on long exposure shots, going for the streaking car lights, and smooth water effects. We’ll be heading out for many more outings after the holidays.

The other set is from the recent Go Game in North Beach. Team Player reunited and put in another solid showing. There was some controvery over the scoring. Officially we came in second, but we’re convinced the judges miscounted and we were robbed of first place.

On the way in the morning the Bart train stopped in the tunnel, west of the 12th Street stop with the exciting announcement of “there’s been an earthquake in the Bay Area”. The crowded Bart train was full of excitement, where was the quake? how big? how long would we be stopped? Slowly the train got underway, inspecting the track ahead. All was fine, I didn’t even feel it Sara felt it out in Walnut Creek. The Cronicle and The Contra Costa Times have stories.

I just got to work and found the USGS info, a 3.4 up near Vallejo, click here.

There’s a wonderful vintage clothing store in San Francisco’s Ghirardelli Square whose sales go to benefit and the Helpers of the Mentally Retarded. I’ve been visting the store for a few years, finding Christmas presents and some great vintage clothes. The woman who runs the place, Joy Venturini Bianchi, is a total fashonista, and has a great eye for clothes that fit and look great. Sara was in search of hats to wear for our rehearsal dinner and day after brunch. A few photos of the many hats she tried.

Last night we’re sitting on the couch watching Desperate Housewives when the apartment gets a big jolt by a 2.4 earthquake just a few miles away. This is the fifth earthquake I’ve felt, and the first in over a year. The walls and floor rumbled for a second or two, nothing got moved around.

Usually about once a week I run into the San Francisco SPCA at lunch time, during one of their roving pet tables. Lately they’ve had lots of cute kittens. I asked if there were still some to choose from was told “kitten season just hasn’t stopped this year, we had to expand our kitten area to hold them all!” For some time now Sara and I have been talking about adopting kittens, or one kitten and a bunny. We may finally make it there this weekend.