It's Fleet Week in San Francisco

Everybody's favorite part of Fleet Week in San Francisco is when the Blue Angels perform. Here's a short but sweet clip of them flying over Aquatic Park on Saturday.


Fleet Week means lots of young, fit men walking around North Beach and the Embarcadero in uniform, like these sailors aboard the USS Bonhomme Richard aircraft carrier which is open for public viewing.
The hanger deck of the USS Bonhomme Richard aircraft carrier

Ace and I walked from North Beach to pier 30-32 Saturday morning to take a tour of the ship, which is docked south of the Bay Bridge. We got there around 8:30 a.m. There was already a long line.
People waiting to get aboard the ship. Those are aircraft on the deck in the distance.

The landing deck of the USS Bonhomme Richard, with helicopters at the far end and the Bay Bridge in the distance

The helicopters on board looked pretty old to me. And Ace said this Osprey model (half plane, half helicopter) had been decommissioned more than once because of its tendency to crash. But sailors on board told us it's back in the fleet.
The Osprey is known for spontaneously crashing

This artwork on a ship wall helped me tone down the awe and wonder.
A grim reminder of what the ship is for

Later we biked out to Aquatic Park to watch the air show. Here are the Canadian Snowbirds performing.
The Canadian Snowbirds flying in formation

There will be another air show on Sunday, along with tours of the Bonhomme at pier 30 and other ships at piers 27 and 35, a parade down Columbus Avenue (which I'm pretty sure San Mateo High School's band will be marching in), and a band concert in North Beach's Washington Square. Fleet Week continues on Monday. Here's the list of events.

Occupy Wall Street starts small in San Francisco

I was coming home from the Hardly Strictly Bluegrass festival last weekend when my attention was grabbed by this small band of protestors walking down Market Street and shouting "Occupy Wall Street."


"Occupy Wall Street" protestors in San Francisco.

I learned later that "Occupy Wall Street" is a national grassroots movement that was kickstarted by this tumblr post We are the 99 Percent where people tell their stories of economic hardship.

The "99 percent" is a reference to a statistic that says that 1% of the country owns 40% of the wealth. The Occupy Wall Street group objects to that, and to unchecked corporate influence on our government which continues to tip the scales towards the super rich by passing laws to: bail out banks with taxpayer money, allow credit card companies to charge exorbitant rates, deny bankruptcy relief on student loans, etc. etc.

The San Francisco group grew to as many as 800 by Wednesday, according to this article in the SF Chronicle. But Thursday morning, officers dismantled a makeshift camp of 200 outside the Federal Reserve Bank on Market Street.

I'm not sure what the group is asking for, specifically, but I went to these sites to learn more. Here's the official Occupy Wall Street site, with pictures of a big protest in Liberty Square in NYC.

Here's the official Occupy SF site.

Here's a Facebook link which purports to list the group's "Declaration of Occupation of New York City."

Here's a column about the movement by the New York Times' Paul Krugman, a HuffPo analysis of the group by John Wellington Ennis, and a Mother Jones story by Andy Kroll about the big unions joining in.

Interesting things are happening in our country.

I thought this poster said it all:

Hardly Strictly North Beach

One thing I like about living in North Beach is I can get anywhere in San Francisco pretty easily from here, as long as I'm not driving a car. Buses pass by Washington Square every five minutes--the 30-Stockton, the 45-Union, the 8x-Bayshore Express--and if we walk down to Broadway or beyond that to Market, we can hop on virtually every bus in town.

That means when my friend calls to say her son is playing cello in a Russian band at an art show opening in the Mission district, we can spontaneously decide to go. Ace and I walked down to Broadway and caught the 12-Folsom to see this fun performance at the Bethany Senior Center on Capp Street after work Friday night.


Leo's Russian band playing at the Bethany Senior Center.

Then today, we walked down to Market and caught the 5-Fulton to meet friends at the Hardly Strictly Bluegrass festival in Golden Gate Park. This was my first time. On the bus over, which was crammed with people on their way to the free festival, I learned that one mega-rich man pays for the whole thing--Warren Hellman. Here's a clip of his band: the Wronglers. As you can see, in the morning there was room to move around.


The Wronglers playing on Rooster Stage, one of six set up in Golden Gate Park for Hardly Strictly Bluegrass.

But by the time Merle Haggard and Kris Kristofferson started playing in the afternoon on Star Stage, the crowd was packed in tight.


Merle Haggard on the Star Stage in the afternoon. Someone compliments my hat part way through this clip. :)

Much as I liked the music, I bailed out early to escape the crowd. I got off the bus on Market Street just in time to see this small group shouting "Occupy Wall Street" march past.


A small band of "Occupy Wall Street" protestors marches down Market Street.

Back in North Beach, the hustle bustle of my new neighborhood seemed peaceful and calm in comparison to the festival.


Buskers playing in the neighborhood.

And back in the flat, I was glad to take my shoes off and put my feet up. It was a good day.