Japanese Tea Garden - San Francisco

On our first full day in the city we headed to Golden Gate park and checked out the Japanese Tea Garden, the oldest Japanese garden in the US.

Constellation Park beach visit

Stand-up paddle boarder on the calm sound.



Snails and anemones on the low tide beach by Constellation Park.



Starfish! These were about 7 inches in diameter.









The houses and apartment buildings here have awesome views of Puget Sound, with the Olympic Mountains and North Cascades in the background.



View of Queen Anne hill and part of downtown from Alki Beach.

local house fire

Friday night around midnight we heard several emergency vehicles pulling up and congregating on our street. It turned out that across the road from us, a house was actively on fire. Fortunately only part of the second floor and roof seemed to be burning. It was put out pretty quickly and nobody was hurt. These shots are from my balcony during the short time it was going on.

surprise cat

Update: Owner found today, cat ("Carter") is back home.









Our neighbor showed up on our doorstep Wednesday night with a black cat her dog had chased up on a fence. We took him in planning to foster him until the owner turned up. Today we learned the owner moved out about about a week ago from a house down our alley. I have a Craigslist post up and I've notified the local shelter, so at this point we're just sort of waiting to see if she'll come around looking for her cat.
He is a very mellow and sweet guy, quite big, VERY soft. He looks like a black cat fashioned himself a vest out of a dark brown sheep.