Good as Gold...en Gate

So today we went to the Presidio, Golden Gate Bridge, Crissy Field, Fort Point, and Fort Mason. We walked over 6 miles to get to all of them. At Fort Point, we learned about the cannons, cannonballs, and the granite. The ranger told a story about the inefficient cannons. There were 3 forts in this thing called the triangle defense. To celebrate the 4th of July, in 1876, they put a ship filled with fireworks on it in the middle of them all and had a contest to see who could hit the ship first. At this time, they still used completely smoothbore cannons. They started shooting at the non-moving ship, and 3 hours later, they were still shooting. After the tour, we went up to the top of the fort and were almost blown off of the fort. We went back down, walked through Crissy Field, and went to Fort Mason. I found several gigantic pinecones. Soon we had to leave. We went back to the car and drove to the opera.

Tonight’s opera was Siegfried. It opened with Mime, Alberich’s brother, making a sword. He is complaining about Siegfried. When Siegfried walks in, he has a bear with him. The bear walks around and then leaves. Siegfried demands his sword, but when Mime hands it to him, he breaks it with his foot. He vents against Mime and forces him to reveal his (Siegfried’s) history. Mime tells Siegfried that his mother died in childbirth and shows Siegfried his father’s broken sword. Siegfried demands that the sword be completed by that night and storms off.

As soon as he leaves, Wotan appears, disguised as a wanderer. He challenges Mime to a battle of wits. Mime asks about whom live below, on, and above the Earth. Wotan asks Mime 3 questions also, but when Mime can’t answer the 3rd one, Wotan declares that only the one with no fear can reforge Notung, and that person will kill Mime. Wotan disappears, and Mime knows that he means Siegfried and he begins to wonder how he can teach the hot-blooded hero fear. Just then, Siegfried walks in. Mime says Fafner the dragon will teach him (Siegfried) fear.

Siegfried wants the sword, and when Mime doesn’t have it, Siegfried declares he will forge it himself. Mime makes a drink to put Siegfried to sleep so he can kill him and gain the Nibelung treasure and the ring. When Siegfried finishes the sword, he rushes off to Fafner’s lair with Mime behind him.

Meanwhile, Alberich is spying on Fafner. He sees Siegfried approaching, and then Wotan comes in. He suggests that Alberich give Fafner the news that danger is coming in exchange for the ring. When Fafner refuses, Wotan leaves and Alberich hides.

Siegfried comes in and Mime tells him Fafner will wake at noon. Siegfried tells him to leave, and Mime goes a little distance away so he can get the ring after Siegfried kills Fafner. After Mime leaves, Siegfried sees a wood bird. Siegfried makes a flute to understand the bird with, but it sounds awful, so he uses his horn.

Then Fafner enters, driving the best mechanical dragon I have ever seen in my life. It’s also the only mechanical dragon I have ever seen in my life, but this one was really cool. Its paws lifted, steam came out of its mouth, its head turned, and it was gigantic. It is here where I wished you could take pictures in the opera, because if you could, I would have pulled out our new camera and started snapping pictures machine gun style. Well, anyways, Siegfried Kills Fafner, and Fafner warns him about the curse.

Fafner’s blood allows Siegfried to understand the birds. The wood bird warns Siegfried of Mime’s plan. She leads Siegfried to the place where the Tarnhelm and the ring, and while he’s away, Alberich and Mime fight over the ring and the Tarnhelm. Alberich leaves, and Mime, hearing Siegfried returning, quickly gets out his poisoned drink. The bird tells him that if Mime lies, Siegfried will be able to hear what he really means. Mime offers Siegfried the poisoned drink, and there is this hilarious scene where Mime tries to coax and flatter Siegfried into drinking, but Siegfried actually hears what Mime is thinking – I have always hated you, hurry up and drink this, so I can steal all your treasure, and so on. Siegfried kills Mime.

The bird comes down and tells him about Brunnhilde, and he madly rushes off to win her for his own. The bird leaves him with Wotan, and Wotan tries to stop him from reaching Brunnhilde’s rock. When Sigfried is persistent, Wotan bars the way with his spear. Siegfried shatters the spear with Notung and continues on his path. He goes through the fire and wakes Brunnhilde with a kiss. Then there is a long operatic scene involving a lot of “I love you”, run away, “eternal bliss”, run away, “always yours”, run away, “burned by the fire of your eyes”, run away, and so on and so on, until they finally kiss…blackout…huge applause.

The opera was great, but several times the orchestra was louder than the voices. Once again, Brunnhilde was the best.



Elephant …seals

After travelling a long, winding, disintegrating mountain/coastal road we finally made it to Point Reyes, where after collecting my Junior ranger book and watching the orientation film, we headed over to the lighthouse.

There was a loud blaring horn that sounds every 20 seconds (I know because I had to time it!). We took several pictures and went inside it to learn about its history and the history of lighthouse technology. This lighthouse was different than most of the other lighthouses I have ever visited because instead of climbing up hundreds of stairs, you had to go down 302 stairs! That was because the weather out there is usually foggy and if the light were at the top of the hill it would be lost in the fog.

One of the activities was to pretend you were a lighthouse keeper and keep a log, so I read the sample logs in the watch room. A lot of keepers and their helpers apparently went mad, were drowned or fired for drinking all the time. Many of them just quit.

After we crawled back up the 302 stairs we went to the elephant seal colony. Check out the new videos posted to our youtube channel. There were several young males frisking and showing off in the water. All the mature males and females with pups were basking on the beach. These seals like to blow bubbles in the water and they have a weird gurgling, deep growly bark.

My last activity was a beach clean-up and learning about Minke whales at Drake’s Beach. I picked up over 50 pieces of plastic in about 10 minutes! And this is a beach that people actually take care of. Please don’t ever buy bottled water, use a reusable container. Also, use reusable grocery bags and NEVER release balloons. Those are the number one killers of sea mammals.