Coat wearing dogs and a lonely sailboat - New Years Day at the beach.

I’ve been stationed in a major San Francisco shopping mall for the past two weeks so I wanted to get as far away from the stores and crowd as much as possible. So I headed out to one of my favorite city places that still maintains it natural non- commercialized beauty - Ocean Beach. It’s not corrupted and inundated by Starbucks, major chain retail marketplaces and four star hotels. I’m proud to say it’s been immune to major retail development and influences. It’s not Malibu, Monterey Bay, Seaport Village (San Diego) or its half sister, Pier 39. Like the various districts (boroughs), Ocean Beach has its own vibe and subculture.

The other reason I went to Ocean Beach is that it’s been awhile since I’ve jogged the trail that runs parallel to the main road Great Highway. I blame the cold snap that hit us in early December. 49 degrees was the highest temperature today. That's dam cold for us here but mild compared to the freezing temperatures that the east and the midwest have to endure. Yup, I'm spoiled here but nevertheless, I wasn’t sure if I’d get sick or have an asthma attack from breathing cold crisp air so quickly. I usually start my five mile round trip trek near the San Francisco Zoo. For the first time I set out to take pictures since I knew I would blog about it. Can’t fully describe Mother Nature without photographs.

Water surrounds three sides of San Francisco. Other San Francisco popular spots, the Golden Gate Bridge, Bay Bridge and Pier 39 are not on this side. On a clear day you can see the Farallon Islands which is 25 miles away, a protected natural habitat for birds, sea lions and other wildlife.

On Ocean Beach, you'll also see cap and boot wearing surfers braving the chilly waves and barges that look like little floating islands on their way to Asia, but today was different. I usually don’t jog on the beach but I wanted to take take photographs of the beach and my mediocre cell phone camera doesn't have a zoom feature. I took some tighter shots towards the left of the beach and noticed on my peripheral right a beached sailboat. At first I thought it was fake like a prop for an event or some type of photo shoot. Marine vessels are normally seen miles away from not on the beach. Hmmmm, that is weird. “So what’s the big deal about a boat on the beach?", you're probably asking. First of all, Ocean Beach doesn’t have a boat pier (it did have a fishing pier in the 20th century) nor a loading/launching dock. I was intrigued. I reached for my cell phone. “Must take pictures of boat. Must shoot from various angles. Must take pictures”, I say in a hypnotic and robotic trance, my bulging eyes fixated on this unusual sight.

Just as strange as its presence was the absence of the owner and security. Not one person surrounding the boat knew the story about this washed up vessel. They were all curious bystanders like me. Even more amazing is that it wasn’t anchored or cornered off with police tape. The ocean can swallow it up again at high tide. There were no “keep off” signs even though there were personal items clearly visible inside the furnished cabin. The boat was naked and exposed for anyone to take advantage of it. I didn’t see people rummaging, pillaging and vandalizing the boat but who knows? Hmmm, the bystanders must have been tourists? Now I’m just kidding, my fellow San Franciscans!

Ohhhh my goodness, this post is more than 680 words long! I’ll stop for now because I could ramble for another hour and don’t want to lose anyone's interest since we live in a fast forward world where our attention spans are getting shorter by the DSL second. Plus the java joint where I’m writing this is about to close in 10 minutes.

Funny, but it doesn’t look like the customers want to end their New Years Day just yet at 8:50pm. Five men who arrived 30 minutes ago are having a lively conversation, a couple in front of me are deep into their chess game, a woman who was here before me is still watching a movie on her laptop and a man just walked in to buy an Odwalla since the counter person had already shut everything down. I usually finish my post but can’t today. To be continued… oh, and Happy New Yeaaaaar!!!

(Dam. The pictures that I took of the boat and dog are corrupted or in a format that I'm unable to open. Great! Note to self. Don't rely on my cell phone camera - ever. I'll upload my video later - fingers crossed 2009!)