Thursday, December 18, 2008

The Ducks of Stow Lake



After a beer at the de Young Museum's odd, glass cafe...



...and a surreptitious touch of the Henry Moore in the sculpture garden...



...I wandered a bit of Golden Gate Park which is a great work of artifice and nature combined.



Stow Lake, not far away, is a manmade creation in what was once a field of sand dunes...



...with a very contented looking collection of ducks using its boat loading docks...



...which are part of a set of old recreational attractions that look lost in time.



The ducks, however, looked like they were living very much in the present.

5 comments:

Greg said...

next time you're out give us a call...I live just a few blocks from 9th/Lincoln and we'd love to see you in the 'hood sometime! your photos rock as always!

momo said...

I'm coming back to SF with my daughter to see family, and we have made a couple of trips to the new de Young. I have such strong memories of going there as a child: taking art classses, visiting a favorite painting, endlessly making up stores about the fountain in front with its sculptures. There are many things I like about the new building, and a few that I dont' like: I do like a lot of the sculpture garden, and the gallery of glass objects. My mother hates the building, but we always end up at the cafe. Stow lake also has lots of turtles and very large carp!

Axel Feldheim said...

The Stow Lake commentary makes me a bit nostalgic. I remember family outings there as a child, to feed the ducks stale bread crumbs & go out on a boat. I don't suppose they still have row boat rentals.

Civic Center said...

Dear Axel: They do still have boat rentals. That's what I was referring to as being "stuck in time." It looks like the place hasn't changed since you were a child.

Dear Momo: Welcome home.

Dear Greg: Are you in the phone book? I don't even have your number.

sfwillie said...

Dear Mike,

Very sweet.

Some of my earliest memories are of feeding the ga-ga's in GGP. We went to a lake farther west, on South Drive, which I'll always think of as Ga-Ga Lake.

I still feel funny throwing away stale bread.