AMERICA'S CUP

With the 34th America’s Cup, a worldwide yacht race dating back to 1851, being held in San Francisco Bay this year we had to check it out. Most of the prior races were held in open waters making this the best viewing ever for an America’s Cup competition.

The winner chooses the location & the type of boat for the next race a few years later. The previous winner, Oracle Team USA (sponsored by Oracle founder, Larry Ellison), brought the race to San Francisco & chose these huge catamaran style boats that cost many millions of dollars. This is definitely a rich man’s sport – extremely rich!

Our day began with a drive over the brand new San Francisco Oakland Bay Bridge that just opened last week. The old span to the left will be torn down over the next several years.

Luckily, we found a free parking space in the front row of a makeshift lot near St. Francis Yacht Club & Chrissy Field. We could have literally watched from our car, but chose to walk the 1/3 mile to the America’s Cup Village.

The America's Cup Village - bleacher seats cost upwards of $100 for the finals. There are food booths, stores, activities & big screens to view the action up close.

This is Lou with one of the 72' long catamarans used in this years competition.

About 45 minutes before the first race began, we lucked out again! We found just enough room to squeeze in & sit on a retaining wall with an unobstructed view of the bay. 

Our front row seats on the retaining wall of San Francisco Bay. That's my hand on my camera in the lower left.

Our feet dangling a few feet above the water. We could hear the announcer just as well as the people in the $100 seats & I think we could see even better - especially short people like me.

The Emirates Team New Zealand boat warming up in front of the Golden Gate Bridge.

Oracle Team USA practicing prior to the start. These wing sails (the tall one) is the height of a 13 story building. The short sail is in the front so this one is sailing to the left in this photo.

We are total novices when it comes to yacht racing but it is still interesting. The format consists of two races per race day between the "defender" (Oracle Team USA) & the "challenger" (Emirates Team New Zealand). Each race consists of five legs around pylons that include downwind, upwind & crosswind conditions which test the crews both tactically & physically. The ultimate victor must win a total of 9 out of 17 races.

Both teams approaching the start. A few seconds after this photo they crossed the starting line simultaneously to get the approximately 10 mile race around the bay underway. 

The downwind leg with Oracle Team USA still leading Emirates Team New Zealand as they crossed in front of Alcatraz Island. At the next gate Emirates would take the lead on an Oracle mistake & never look back.

To increase their speed when going downwind the catamarans raise up on their hydrofoils. Emirates reached a record speed of 54 miles per hour during the race yesterday.

Oracle "on its foils" as it is called if you are in the know. The consensus by those in the know was that Oracle made a severe tactical error when rounding a pylon & their "tacking" was not nearly as strong as Emirates.

We were unable to see the actual finish line from our seat on the retaining wall but hopped up (with that being a relative term in my case J) & watched New Zealand cross the line way ahead of the U.S. on the big screen behind us.

The crew of Emirates Team New Zealand on the big screen crossing the finish line 65 seconds ahead of Oracle Team USA - a huge margin for an America's Cup race - to take a 4-0 lead!

Here is a two minute video of the race that Lou took & posted on YouTube: Americas Cup - September 10, 2013

We walked back to some free bleachers near our car to watch the second race & hoped the U.S. could get their act together. Each team has one “postponement card” they can use, normally for a mechanical issue. It's kind of like a "do over" or a mulligan. The U.S. elected to use it for the second race yesterday since they were well aware they were getting their ass waxed & needed to regroup. 

We’ll see if the hole they dug for themselves is too deep. One thing is for sure, if they come back to win the America’s Cup from this deficit, it will be an amazing victory! Go Oracle!!

TRAIN RIDE - Part Two

For the second time in less than a week, we found ourselves riding the rails. Lou has wanted to take the Niles Canyon Railway excursion train from Sunol to Niles for quite awhile now. Our schedules finally aligned with the limited train schedule & today we enjoyed another train ride, although this one was considerably shorter than our trip to Reno at just over an hour round trip.

The Niles Canyon Railway excursion train. The caboose is behind the engine because there are two cabooses so when they switch the engine for the return trip there is always a caboose at the end.

With Lou's long arms, we've been taking these pictures of ourselves for 12 years. Now, suddenly, they have a name for it - a "selfie".

Over 20 years ago, Darrin belonged to a model railroad club that had a huge layout in the basement of the Niles Depot. I spent a lot of time driving him back & forth to Niles. Fortunately, Darrin told me that several years ago they had moved the depot about ¼ mile from the location I knew it to be or I’d have been thinking I was going nuts.

The Niles Depot is now located in downtown & houses a museum of railroad artifacts. They are looking for volunteers to get the model railroad up & running again.

The old town of Niles is now a district in the city of Fremont. There are numerous antique stores, eateries & other quaint shops lining its main drag.

Lou & I had lunch at Bronco Billy's - I remember eating there several times with Darrin many, many years ago.

Silent film stars Charlie Chaplin & Bronco Billy Anderson made a lot of movies in Niles starting back in 1913. Anderson built a movie studio in town with a partner whose last name started with an “S” – hence the name of the studio, “Essanay” – for “S” and “A”.

The original Essanay Studio is long gone but there is a Silent Film Museum in the Edison Theater from the same era.

The Silent Film Museum has a fantastic collection of old movie cameras, projectors & posters. They continue to show silent movies on Saturday nights at the Edison Theater.

We were given a tour of the original projection room. It is lined with tin since old film was quite flammable & they didn't want to burn the theater down if it caught fire. The projector at the lower right is an old hand cranked model which still works.

More of the extensive camera & film projector collection.

After a couple of hours exploring Niles, we made the return train trip. Sunol is a tiny little town in the outskirts of the San Francisco Bay Area. I remember it being famous back in the 1980s for Bosco, a black Labrador & Rottweiler mix, who was elected mayor of the city. His name was put on the ballot as a joke & he beat two human candidates to become America’s first dog mayor!

A bronze statue of the Mayor of Sunol - Bosco, born in 1981 & died in 1994.

The cloud formations were beautiful today which, along with the gorgeous scenery, kept me occupied snapping lots of photos on our journey back to Sunol.

These wispy clouds were the perfect backdrop to the hills & trees in Niles Canyon.

Old redwood telegraph poles are no longer used but still dot the countryside along the tracks.

More of the crazy cloud formations. These looked like cotton.