Saturday July 28, 2018 was a day that was scheduled to be filled with a couple of Presidential sites, TV sitcom sites, movie film locations, and some beautiful scenery that my photographer and his wife had wanted to see since they arrived in California. We left the apartment in Mill Valley around 8:15am and once again headed across the fog-bound Golden Gate Bridge. It was our fourth day in San Francisco and we had yet to see the famous bridge in its entirety; which has been a disappointment thus far. Ten minutes after we reached San Francisco, Vicki parked the Mustang on the street alongside a peaceful, man-made lagoon. On the opposite side of the lagoon was an ornate 162-foot tall structure known as the Palace of Fine Arts; which was originally part of the 1915 Panama-Pacific Exposition. We spent about 45 minutes walking around the water and into the open rotunda where we saw fabulous sculpted reliefs in the stonework. Since the 1915 Palace had been designed to last only to the end of the Exposition, the original construction material did not last the test of time and had deteriorated. By 1964, the entire structure was stripped down to it’s steel skeleton and renovated with a permanent facelift. Since it was not quite nine o’clock yet, only a small handful of other people were in the area, which made my camera guy quite happy. One person that was near the Palace had a drone and proceeded to fly it over, around, and through the Fine Arts structure. At one point I heard my photographer complain to Vicki: “I hope that noisy mechanical mosquito crashes into the wall of that dome and is destroyed.” To me, the drone was interesting and wasn’t doing any harm; plus it was too early in the morning for a COBS flareup. During our tranquil stroll, which was interrupted at times by the buzzing of that damned drone, we were able to see a handful of beautiful birds; including a pair of swan, some ducks, and a few ridgeway rails.
While Vicki liked the early morning walk around the Palace of Fine Arts, she was giddy about the next site that we were headed to. Ever since my photographer had begun his itinerary for the trip, one of the things his wife said she wanted to do was “drive down the curvy street”. From the Palace, it was less than two miles to the one-block section of Lombard Street that is called the “crookedest street in the world”. Built in 1922, that section of Lombard Street was intended to reduce the hill’s natural 27-percent grade. Vicki was in her glory as she navigated the Mustang convertible slowly down the 600-foot road that featured eight hair-pin turns. At one point during the start of the descent, a guy who looked as though he thought he was Don Johnson blocked the road as he snapped a few photos. As my photographer made rude comments aimed at the arrogant tourist, Vicki did her best to shut him up. It took roughly three to four minutes for my photographer’s wife to navigate our Mustang along the red brick-covered street, as the suggested speed limit was five miles-per-hour. I thought to myself: “Heck, if she put the car in neutral and coasted down the street we would go fast than that!”
When we finished our winding, downhill descent and stopped at Leavenworth Street, I had hoped it was time to head for a couple of Presidential sites. My hopes were quickly dashed when I heard that we were headed to the home of the Tanners. That’s right, it was the house that was used for the exterior shots for the hit TV sitcom Full House. On the show, it had been mentioned that their fictitious address was 1882 Gerard Street; but in fact the house that the Tanners had called home was located at 1709 Broderick Street. It took us roughly 15 minutes to make the 2.3-mile drive to the Full House home on Broderick and when we got there, my companions were disappointed that the front door was painted grey instead of red. As I was carried in the camera bag to the closed gate near the entrance to the home, I had hoped that Tom would’ve hopped the fence and placed me onto the brick steps. For me, it would’ve been cool to stand in the footsteps of D.J. Tanner – even though Candace Cameron’s character likely never stood there.
We were only at the Full House TV home for about five minutes before I found myself in the back seat of the Mustang and headed south towards the Alamo Square area of San Francisco. While the cast of Full House were never filmed in front of their TV home, they were pictured at Alamo Square Park during the opening theme song and credits as the Tanner family picnicked with the famous Painted Ladies in the background. Once Vicki found a place to park the Mustang, the three of us walked uphill to a section of Alamo Square Park where the Tanners had their picnic beginning in 1990 and Season Four. The view from Alamo Square Park was amazing, but the fog that hovered over downtown San Francisco in the background made it less than postcard perfect. After my photographer snapped a few images from the park, we walked across the street to a row of colorful houses that were known as the Painted Ladies; or at other times, Postcard Row. The seven side-by-side Victorian homes were built between 1892 and 1896 and have also been called the Seven Sisters. Up close, each house was unique in its own way – I saw the owner of one home was not a Trump fan as there was a ‘The President is a Traitor’ sign in the window. Another home had an ornate front entrance gate in the shape of a large iron butterfly. While we stood and admired the seven houses, it was very difficult to not think of the show Full House.
When we finished our close-up visit with the Painted Ladies, it was time to head across the bay where we had two Presidential sites waiting for us. My head was shaking with excitement; or perhaps that was from my nerves as Vicki drove the Mustang over the San Francisco – Oakland Bay Bridge. We were on the lower level as we headed east and it was there, in 1989, that an earthquake caused a 50-foot section of the top level to crash to the one below it – killing one person. Luck was on our side as we arrived on the east side of San Francisco Bay unscathed and by 10:50am we were parked across the street from a one-story brick structure in West Berkeley. I thought to myself: “So much for luck being on my side – that isn’t even a Presidential site.” I thought that we were headed for the U.S.S. Potomac, but instead we were walking towards a building that had the words ‘Rae Dunn’ etched on the doorway. I knew immediately the site wasn’t Presidential by the pace at which Vicki walked towards the building – she had a bounce to her step and a huge smile on her face. If the name on the door would have been ‘Gerald Ford’, my photographer’s wife would have dragged her butt all the way there.
For the past year or two, Vicki had been collecting pottery that was designed by ceramist artist Rae Dunn; who lives in the San Francisco Bay area. During his research for our California trip, Tom had discovered Ms. Dunn’s studio was in Berkeley and there are times she works in that studio on Saturdays. With a Rae Dunn coffee mug in her hand, Vicki posed for several pictures outside of the studio. But when we ventured inside the massive building, however, Rae Dunn was nowhere to be found. My photographer asked several other artists if they knew of her whereabouts, but it was as though he was speaking a foreign language; and in a couple of the cases, that was likely true. We had hoped that Rae Dunn had some of her pottery for sale at her studio; something that was made with her hands instead of mass-produced by a machine in China. Vicki had also hoped to meet the shy and elusive Dunn; but that encounter would have to wait for another trip to California.
When we were Dunn with our search for Rae, the three of us got back into the Mustang for our journey into O-town. That’s right, Oakland, California. The three of us had heard a lot about Oakland and not much of it was good. Our goal was to get in, visit a couple of Presidential sites, and get out as quickly as possible. After a six-and-a-half-mile drive south from Berkeley into Oakland, we pulled into a parking area near the water. Tom carried me towards a dock – only to discover it was gone. The “it” was the U.S.S. Potomac; which was the Presidential yacht used by Franklin D. Roosevelt from 1936 until his death. After a quick investigation, my photographer was told the Potomac was out on a reserved cruise, but it would be back on Sunday and we could tour it then. I was disappointed, but Tom was peeved that the Potomac was gone. He didn’t think we would make the effort to get back into Oakland on Sunday. We struck out with our first Presidential site of the day, hopefully the aircraft carrier was where it was supposed to be.
It didn’t take long for Vicki to drive the Mustang through a tunnel and onto Alameda, which was an island just south of Oakland. Before I knew it, we were in a parking lot close to where some Navy ships were docked; but the one that interested us was the aircraft carrier U.S.S. Hornet. The Hornet was built for service in World War II and then saw action in the Korean War. After it had played a minor role in Viet Nam, the U.S.S. Hornet gained world-wide fame when it retrieved the Apollo 11 astronauts from the Pacific Ocean on July 24, 1969 some 900 miles southwest of Hawaii. President Richard Nixon was onboard the Hornet and greeted astronauts Neil Armstrong, Buzz Aldrin, and Michael Collins back to Earth.
I was carried to most areas of the U.S.S. Hornet; both in the interior and on the flight deck of the giant carrier. The highlight for me was when I was placed on the painted footprint where the Apollo 11 astronauts first stepped foot when they returned to Earth. From that spot, which was where they stepped off the helicopter, the three astronauts walked to the Mobile Quarantine Facility that was situated nearby. Minutes later, President Richard Nixon greeted the astronauts from just outside of their viewing window. The President began his greeting with: “Neil, Buzz, and Mike; I want you to know that I think I am the luckiest man in the world, and I say this not only because I have the honor to be President of the United States, but particularly because I have the privilege of speaking for so many in welcoming you back to Earth.”
We spent a little over an hour on the Hornet and for me it was an honor to stand where history was made just over 49 years ago. On July 20, 1969, Neil Armstrong stepped off the Lunar Module and placed mankind’s first boot-prints onto the lunar surface. Four days later, Armstrong returned to Earth and I stood where his boots first made contact with the surface of the U.S.S. Hornet. To me, it was the next best thing to standing in his boot prints imbedded onto the Moon’s dusty surface in the Sea of Tranquility. Four months after the Apollo 11 mission had successfully ended, the U.S.S. Hornet was used to recover the Apollo 12 astronauts after their return to Earth. Pete Conrad, Alan Bean, and Richard Gordon’s command module, Yankee Clipper, was retrieved from the Pacific Ocean near American Samoa and the three men quarantined on the Hornet.
Around 1:00pm, we headed through a tunnel called the Posey Tube and back into Oakland. Although my photographer and his wife had not seen much of Oakland, the section that they did drive through looked terrible. As a matter of fact, it might have been the dirtiest and roughest-looking city that they have ever travelled in and Vicki couldn’t drive the Mustang out of town fast enough. With the day’s clock ticking, Tom wanted to get to Bodega Bay via the fastest route possible, so he opted to navigate us inland on the freeway system rather than take the road along the coast. He did mention, however, that we would ride the Pacific Coast Highway back to Mill Valley when we were finished at day’s end. There was one reason, and one reason only, for driving 75 miles north to Bodega Bay: The 1963 Alfred Hitchcock thriller “The Birds” was filmed in that area. At roughly 3:15pm, we pulled into the parking lot of a restaurant called The Tides Wharf and Restaurant; which was not only featured in the film, it was also where Tom and Vicki had dinner. Over the years since the movie was filmed, The Tides had been remodeled and renovated several times. After spending some time on the dock where we had a good look at Bodega Harbor, the three of us went inside where my photographer found a cool autographed picture of ‘The Birds’ actress Tippi Hedren – which he bought. The hour that my companions spent inside The Tides gave them a chance to recharge their batteries before we took on the other filming locations around town.
Following their dinner of shrimp and fish, my photographer and his wife headed inland to the small town of Bodega; which was about five miles from Bodega Bay. It was in Bodega where the Potter Schoolhouse, which was featured in the film, still stood intact today. The schoolhouse played a huge part in the movie and Vicki did her best to recreate the scene where Tippi Hedren’s character Melanie Daniels arrived in her Aston Martin convertible and parked in front of the building. The old schoolhouse was privately owned during our visit, and it was not open for tours – which was disappointing. After capturing a handful of images of the exterior of the old schoolhouse, Tom walked down the street to a house where the film’s schoolteacher, Suzanne Pleshette’s character Annie Hayworth, lived and was killed by the birds. It turned out that Hitchcock used a façade rather than the house that was there, but it was interesting to see where the teacher’s house was located anyway. Missing was the school yard’s playground equipment where hundreds of birds had congregated before they attacked the children. I laughed to myself when I heard Tom say to his wife, who was seated in the Mustang as she looked at her phone: “That schoolhouse gives me the creeps because it looks virtually the same as it did in the movie. I keep waiting for a flock of crows to fly out from behind the building and start attacking us.”
We headed back to Bodega Bay and found a winding country road that Melanie Daniels had driven when she arrived from San Francisco with a pair of love birds that she bought to give to Mitch Brenner’s sister. The road was higher in the hills and offered a great view of the harbor below; which was also evident in the movie. Since he wanted authenticity with his photos, Tom stood in the middle of Bay Hill Road and snapped photos as his wife drove the Mustang along the same path that Melanie Daniels drove her Aston Martin in 1963.
Our final movie location was in the town of Bodega Bay and was where the students had run down the street during the bird attack on their school. In the film, the children ran from the school, down the street, and into town where they tried to escape the attack. But the street used in the film was Taylor Street and it was located about five miles from the school. It was pure Hollywood magic as Hitchcock made it appear seamless – even with early 1960s technology.
At roughly 5:30pm, we had finished our photo-shoot with the movie locations from the film ‘The Birds’. For my photographer, the visit was a dream-come-true as that movie was one of his favorites during his childhood. For me, I wasn’t looking forward to seeing any actual birds for awhile; I didn’t need my painted resin eyes pecked out. With some time left in the late afternoon, Tom and Vicki decided to head north along the Pacific Coast Highway where they wanted to find a scenic beach to stroll along. Within five miles north of Bodega Bay, my two companions settled on a place called Coleman Beach where they found sun, surf, rocks, and scenery. Since that was their first taste of the Pacific Ocean on the trip, my photographer and his wife spent about an hour frolicking around the seascape. For Tom, it was a photographer’s heaven on earth as the three of us walked along the shore for what seemed to be an eternity.
During our time along the beach, we got a taste of the scenery that was about to unfold before us during the upcoming week. We had one full day left in San Francisco before we put the top down on the Mustang and headed south along the Pacific Coast Highway. On that Saturday evening, however, the stretch of the PCH that took us back towards Mill Valley was not as picturesque as we thought it would be. A good portion of Highway 1 was inland and away from any ocean view. Once we reached Stinson Beach that was about 50 miles into the trip home, the last ten miles was something Vicki will never forget. The final leg of the drive was on a twisting, turning, up and down, white knuckle, hold your breath, painful at times adventure on the Panoramic Highway that took us past Muir Woods National Monument. My photographer’s wife did an amazing job as she kept the Mustang from falling off a cliff or crashing into a ravine. Had she taken her eyes off the road for a split second, we may not have made it home.
It was nearly dark when we finally arrived at Charles Ballinger’s place that we had rented. As we settled down for the night, Vicki complained that nearly every muscle in her body was sore due to the drive over the mountain range. As I stood on my table for the night, all I could think about was being attacked by birds. I wasn’t concerned about hummingbirds, or a finch, or even Finch’s mother; I just didn’t want to see a damned crow or sea gull for a while. All thanks to the “Master of Suspense” – Alfred Hitchcock!
