City on the Bay

We watched a DVD last night -- "Saving the Bay" (The story of San Francisco Bay, a PBS series).  I'm not sure how many are aware that the bay is really an estuary (a partly enclosed coastal body of water with one or more rivers or streams flowing into it, and with a free connection to the open sea.-- Wikipedia).  The film highlights how valuable the bay is as an ecosystem.  It shows how people gradually came to realize and value it as such.  And it shows how a right idea has more power than greed or indifference.

So to celebrate "bayness" and help walk off a huge turkey dinner with all the fixins' we did the Russian Hill stairway walk (Stairway Walks in San Francisco Guide Book by Adah Bakalinsky with Marian Gregoire, Wilderness Press).  This is a great way to explore the city's different neighborhoods and learn more about them while getting awesome views in the process.

Here are some photo highlights.  They do poor justice to what the eye can see but give some hint of the natural beauty of our city.