November 24, 1967: Observations

Letter postmarked November 30, 1967 (Part 2):

This is Part 2 of the letter postmarked November 30, covering Friday, November 24, 1967.

Friday we took David Wayne across the Golden Gate Bridge. He immediately said it was a giant dinosaur, with its feet tied to the bottom of the Pacific Ocean. All day we just drove around the coast, stopping at places that looked interesting (Muir Woods for one). That night we ate at Fisherman's Wharf and I got my first lobster. I loved it and David Wayne ate his scallops until I thought he would bust. Then we walked around the wharf, watching them boil oysters and crabs in big pots on the sidewalk. All of us enjoyed the day.

[I'm glad the trip to Fisherman's Wharf in San Francisco turned out better than the trip to Fisherman's Wharf in Los Angeles.]

[Muir Woods National Monument, a little north of San Francisco, is a redwood forest, with most trees there between 500 and 800 years old per Wikipedia. Mom doesn't mention it here, but I did get a bank from Muir Woods. Here are some pictures with the obligatory quarter for scale and some bonus dust.]

[This bank is made out of wood. I doubt it's made out of redwood, but I'm no expert on species of wood. There are small labels on the top and the front that say "Muir Woods Calif." A small deer is glued to the top of it, with eyes that are not unlike the eyes often seen on depictions of aliens. The large label on the front that looks like a scroll has this clever poem:]

I'm just a little deer But I'll someday cure your woe If in this slot upon the top You'll drop some of your "doe"

[I think I got another bank during this trip to San Francisco, which I no longer have. This one, which was from Fisherman's Wharf, wasn't really a bank per se but it was a large shell (perhaps a real one) with a colorful ceramic fish glued to the front. I think I eventually threw that one away after too many pieces broke off of it.]

[The photo album contains two pictures of me from our drive along the coast. (And one picture of a gopher we watched dig a hole.) The gopher head is very difficult see in his picture, so I won't bore you with that one even though my shoes are in the picture. But I will bore you with both pictures of me since there is some military history to be learned.]

[Mom's caption on the first picture is "These holes looked like some kind of defense around coast." You can see that I'm standing on some sort of concrete structure, and to my left there is a square metal frame around a large hole. It looks like the metal frame likely supported a door at some point. You will also note that I'm wearing my mouse shoes (huaraches) as well as a shirt and a pair of pants that fit.]

[Mom's caption on the second picture is "Taken on top of cliff at San Francisco." In this picture I appear to be standing on a large pile of dirt or a large boulder. The expression on my face, combined with my body language, indicates I was concerned about my ability to safety get down from my current position and I was in the process of stating my case to my parents that I needed some assistance. Either that, or I didn't want to get my new clothes dirty, which seems unlikely for a five-year-old boy.]

[In the second photo, if you look to my left, over the boulder, you can see three concrete structures that have curved tops.]

[I believe I was standing on top of one of those (or one just like them) in the previous photo. I did a little googling, starting with a phrase that was something like "California coastline defense," and determined that these are observation bunkers built during World War II so military personnel could be on the lookout for attacks coming from the Pacific Ocean. Here is the link to a 2009 article from The San Diego Union-Tribune about some of these bunkers along the coast, very close to the US border with Mexico: http://www.sandiegouniontribune.com/sdut-border-bunker-battle-2009aug25-htmlstory.html. I also found a closeup photo of one of these bunkers at Muir Beach (near San Francisco) at this link: http://www.gettyimages.com/detail/photo/california-san-francisco-muir-beach-u-s-high-res-stock-photography/145094775. So we learned two things here: Mom's caption on the first photo was correct, and the premise of the movie "1941" had some basis in reality.]

[That's a wrap on day two of our Thanksgiving trip to San Francisco. I wonder what kind of adventures we'll have on Saturday?]