San Francisco Rain

I took the Larkspur ferry to San Francisco Friday afternoon in order to have dinner with Mary and Wei. The forecast was predicting heavy rain so I was looking forward to adding more photographs to my "San Francisco Rain" project (as well as the delicious, hot Chinese dinner.)

It was raining heavily when the boat pulled up to the Ferry Building dock, the Bay Bridge looming Monet-like through the rain-rippled windows. I jogged down Market Street to the nearest BART station and took the train to the 16th Street exit . . . the Mission District. Aboveground, it was raining just as hard, if not harder. I walked up and down Mission Street, first one side and then the other, my left arm cradling my Olympus E-510 (with the lens pointed down to avoid raindrops) while my right arm wielded my umbrella. I turned on the IS (image stabilization) feature and utilized parking meters as camera rests wherever possible. Luckily I had on my Gore-Tex shoes but before long my pants legs had become very wet and I headed back to the BART station, where I took a train to the Powell Street station.

I met Mary at the San Francisco Center shopping mall and we walked over to the restaurant, first meeting Wei at his office. The Chinese food, at the New Hong Kong Menu restaurant on Commercial Street, was hot and satisfying, as expected. And, as usual, I washed it down with Tsing Tao beer.

Upon leaving the restaurant we discovered that the rain had reached Kurosawa proportions, sluicing down from the heavens in wind-driven torrents. Wow! The trip home featured sopping wet pants legs and, once I had my car radio turned on, a Weather Service flood advisory for Marin County. Going through San Anselmo I noticed that the police had sealed off San Anselmo Avenue—a frequent site of flooding. Luckily, the rain finally eased off later that night so no problems occurred.