Saturday, July 4th, 2009
Tonight’s Fourth of July fireworks show had a fairly high fog ceiling, so it would have to rate as better than average. Better than last year anyway, but not as good as 2007.
Here’s an excellent eight-second exposure of the northern waterfront show from Lafayette Park in Specific Whites Pacific Heights. Click to expand:
via bendjsf
And here’s a real-time shot of the same show from Twin Peaks:
Everything is done double – that’s the way they do it. Here’s a double double:
But this is what happens when the fireworks get too high – you can only see the bottom halves sometimes due to the fog:
Let’s look across the Bay over at Sausalito. That’s USF in the foreground:
Now here are some illegal explosions in San Francisco. This was an impressive burst above the northern Mission district:
And here’s Mission Bay / Dogpatch with Alameda / Oakland in the background – very nice:
The Mission and points south all had lots of illegal fireworks booming:
Oh noes, it’s a flare, shooting high above Twin Peaks…
…and then landing somewhere in the Castro District:
And there you have it.
Tags: 2007, 2008, 2009, 3rd, 511, aquatic park, at&t park, ave, avenue, Bay, bay area, bernal heights, bicycles, bike, blanket, bus, cable cars, chapel, clouds, coit tower, county, Crissy Field, district, film, fire works, fired up, firework, fireworks, fishermans, fishermans wharf, fishermen's wharf, flare, fog, forecast, fort mason, forth, foruth of july, fourth, ft. mason, herb caen, hunters point, hyde, Ignatius Heights, illegal, Jefferson, july, lower, marin, marina green, mission, movie, Muni, Municipal Pier, Oakland, pacific heights, park, parking, photographs, photos, pier 39, potrero hill, presidio. telegraph hill, prohibidado, prohibited, russian hill, San Francisco, sausalito, SFPD, street, transit, twin peaks, university of san francisco, USF, van ness, walking, way, weather, wharf, youtube
Posted in events | Comments Off
Friday, July 3rd, 2009
When they tell you “Fog could shroud S.F. fireworks“ up in Fishermans Wharf at 9:30 PM on the Fourth of July 2009, what they really mean is Fog WILL shroud S.F. fireworks, barring some Act of God, or Gaia, or Whomever.
Sometimes the weather is good, sometimes not. This year, not.
Check it out from 2008. Click to expand:
Eliya via Flickr
This is by no means the worst case scenario. So when they talk about special low-level fireworks and let’s cross our fingers, they’re spinning. And spinning is just the polite term for lying. So, what do you do? Head on over to the Mission District, where they’ll have oodles of Yelp-rated, illegal, illicit, MUY PRO HI BI DA DO (now I say that in Spanish because that’s how exotic and not allowed it is) fireworks, fog-free, for free. Just check out this screen saver album from 2007.
Of course, you can always go with the flow and follow the madding crowd northward into la niebla, le brouillard. And who knows, maybe it will be clear the way it was in 2007. Thusly:
This is the view you had from Crissy Field on 7-4-2007 – those lights at the bottom have something to do with Fishermans Wharf.
But dude, don’t drive up there. Even if they didn’t block off the streets and you already had a parking space waiting for you, you’d still have to drive out of there in a traffic jam when the show’s over at 10:00 PM. Of course, you could always hang out at all the places that will be open up in the Wharf after the show, but maybe you’d be better off driving into the City with your bikes in tow and parking South of the 101 near the Giants’ AT&T Park. Then you could ride up the flat, flat Embarcadero (on the sidewalk – it’s legal) back and forth.
Can you dig the colors, man?
But if that doesn’t pan out, you could follow the cable cars on Hyde (that’s the one north-south street they don’t block off, in my experience) and drop off the brood. Whatever you do, stay off of Van Ness. Or you could BART it to the Embarcadero Station and then hoof it up to Pier 39. But forget about MUNI, ’cause walking would be faster.
And most likely it will be foggy anyway, you’ve been warned.
Dress warm. Panthers out.
Fourth of July Waterfront Celebration
Saturday, July 4, 2009
1:00 PM to 9:30 PM
“PIER 39 invites you to enjoy a fun-filled Independence Day celebration. Rock out with ‘Take 2′ from 1-4pm followed by San Francisco’s favorite 80’s cover band, ‘Tainted Love’ from 6-9:30pm. Immediately after the entertainment look to the sky as the City of San Francisco lights up the night with it’s Firework’s Spectacular, accompanied by a musical simulcast from KISS FM 98.1. PIER 39 has the best viewing area on the bay! In addition, 39 of PIER 39’s businesses will remain open after the fireworks so that guests can miss the traffic, enjoy the PIER, have a drink, get a bite to eat, and shop. Click here for the list of locations open after the fireworks. Sponsored by Crystal Geyser ALPINE SPRING WATER, DeLoach Vineyards, Dreyer’s Grand Ice Cream, The San Francisco Examiner, Tawain Tourism and Asus.”
Tags: 2007, 2008, 2009, 511, aquatic park, at&t park, ave, avenue, bay area, bicycles, bike, blanket, bus, cable cars, clouds, coit tower, Crissy Field, district, film, fire works, fired up, firework, fireworks, fishermans, fishermans wharf, fishermen's wharf, fog, forecast, fort mason, forth, foruth of july, fourth, ft. mason, herb caen, hyde, illegal, Jefferson, july, marin, marina green, mission, movie, Muni, Municipal Pier, of july, pacific heights, park, parking, photographs, photos, pier 39, presidio. telegraph hill, prohibidado, prohibited, russian hill, San Francisco, SFPD, street, transit, van ness, walking, way, weather, wharf, youtube
Posted in events | Comments Off
