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Travels with Tucker

I'm not John Steinbeck and Tucker is certainly no Charley. But after our first year together travelling over 14,000 miles, criss-crossing America, hitting 17 states, I thought it was about time we started documenting our adventures.

The San Franciscan Canine

12/21/2019

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​I have always thought the the life of a San Franciscan dog is one in which many canines would be envious. Although they live in a city, it a city where green space is respected and adored. For every few blocks of pavement, there is a half acre of green to shove your muzzle into, leave pee graffiti, and catch up on the local dog gossip. There are beaches to race along, ocean waves to splash in, hills to climb on and trees to sniff.

So this weekend we stayed in the city proper to explore the nature that dwelled closer to our urban abode.

The only problem is sometimes I forget where we have and haven’t been. If I tally up my time living in the Bay area, it comes to almost a year and a half over the past 9 years. Half of which I’ve spent residing in the city itself, half in the woods.
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I chose Lands End as my destination, but with a solid walk there up the coast. I parked south of the Lincoln way, the southern border of the Golden Gate Park and we walked northward to the End.
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Rather than climb the steep sidewalk, I opted to go off-road and we took a path up a hill into a new park I had not expected: Sutro Heights Park.

​While Tucker and I explored the flat-topped park with evidence of buildings that once stood, statues that once must have shown in their glory days, and trees that stood tall, taking in the ocean breeze, I did not know its history. Only that it was a little bit of heaven in this already magical city.
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​A little research later, I learned that Tucker and I had been strolling about the former estate of Adolf Sutro. Over hundred and thirty years ago, he purchased this land and built a rolling estate on its 22 acres, including the Sutro Baths down below. He replicated an Italian Garden (explains the statues) and had a mansion built overlooking the ocean (now the old foundations make sense.) It is a glorious view, and I wonder what it must have looked like back then. Was it all trees to the beach? No signs of human life at all?

Thanks to the internet, the wondering is fulfilled with fact.
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He built a steam engine to get people from the city to Land’s End, so it must have been an unpopulated area. Now, it is part of the National Recreation area, and is tended to by neighborhood residents—because now everyone lives here.

This little hilltop paradise is well worth a visit—even an accidental one.
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As I came down off the Heights on the northern side, I realized that we had indeed done Land’s End before. I recalled the trail once I saw the parking lot. But since we were already there… Why not?
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​And so we crossed the road, walked through the parking lot, and started on the trail that would take us to the northern view—to see the Marin Headlands across the water. Although I will take Nature’s art over human’s creations any day, the Golden Gate Bridge is a piece of human art I wholly appreciate.  The designers took their cues from Mother Nature, and it’s as natural as the land and sea itself.
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​Taking only a short walk about Lands End we returned up and over through Sutro Heights Park again. I stopped at a few little informational plaques, telling me where the carriage would arrive, and about the concrete lions that once held sentinel to the drive like the New York City Library (but much smaller versions.)
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​Walking back along Highway 1, with the sun setting to our right, and the wilds that had been domesticated to live in the urbanity of the city to our left, I felt grateful to be able to spend time here. Every day, the dogs of San Francisco—those who live their whole lives here—get to experience this. They live and love and play and rest among these majestic places and magical hideaways.
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​Tucker and I are blessed to live this life wherein we get to experience how others live for months at a time. Our life is to experience as many lives as we can in our short journeys through time. Our adventures may lead us to travel thousands of miles from one place to another; but sometimes, like today, we can experience magical adventures without ever leaving town.
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    2018.12.15 The End Of The Tour
    2018.12.30 Santa Cruz
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    2019.02.09 Muir Magic
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    2019.02.25 From Muir To Mori
    2019.03.02 Our Own Monterey
    2019.03.09 An Irish Escape
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    2019.04.20 One Man's Trash Is Another Dog's Art
    2019.05.04 Black Rock And Blue Skies
    2019.06.08 Water
    2019.06.15 In Conversation... With Nature
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    2019.07.06 Not So Yosemite
    2019.07.07 Magic Chimneys
    2019.07.20 The Long Way Around
    2019.11.23 All Trails Lead Here
    2019.11.30 Seeking Solitude In All Directions
    2019.12.14 Forest Friends And Soul-Places
    2019.12.21 The San Franciscan Canine
    2019.12.26 An Unexpected Christmas
    2020.01.11 Kicking Off The New Year On The Coast: Part I
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    2020.01.12 Kicking Off The New Year On The Coast: Part III
    2020.01.19 From The Beach To The Bay... Almost
    2020.03.01 Livin' La Vida Local (SF Style)
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    2021.09.12 The Oregon Trail
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    2021.11.14 To The End Of The Road... Or Island
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    2021.12.26 The Magic Of Any Day
    2022.01.03 Taking Our Leave... Maybe
    2022.01.04 Beaches And Bluffs To The Redwood Forest
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    2022.02.28 Chasing Waterfalls Again
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    2022.04.07 The Endless Coast
    2022.04.18 Eostre's Art
    2022.06.06 Near
    2022.06.14 Climbing A Mountain To Reach The Sea
    2022.07.11 Go South To Be North
    2022.07.18 Discovering Terranea
    2022.07.25 The Tee Off Trail
    2022.07.31 Farewell To The Westside
    2022.09.25 Fleeing The Heat For Fall
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    2022.10.31 The Day After
    2022.12.26 The Mountain Temple
    2023.01.03 Back To The Bay
    And Away
    And The Day After...
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    Comes The (Water)Fall
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    Maximum Wind Speed
    Nose To The Wind
    Not Out There
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    Part I
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    Santa Clause
    Santa Paws
    The Look Of Discrimination
    The South's Answer To The Southwest
    Tucker Wescott: Interior Designer
    Up
    Water
    Yet Far

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