Although we moved to the Bay Area a year ago, we haven’t spent any time exploring San Francisco itself. I’ve been up for a couple of business meetings, but that hardly counts. So yesterday we jumped on an early Caltrain, rode up to the city, and took a cab to Coit Tower.
The forecast was for cool and foggy weather, which meant we wouldn’t see too much from the top of the tower, but that didn’t matter. We were most interested in seeing the amazing murals. We planned to join in the guided tour at 11am, which provides access to some of the murals that are normally closed to the public.
We arrived before 10am, and explored the murals in the public rotunda. We noticed that the number of visitors was steadily increasing, so we decided to take the elevator ride to the top of the tower immediately, rather than waiting until after the tour. Even so, we had to stand in line.
As forecast, the view was distinctly misty. However there was one odd sight which piqued my curiosity: what appeared to be a small aircraft carrier, under tow, with a strange structure on the flight deck:
At the time, I thought that it looked like an amphibious assault ship, such as the USS Tripoli, but I was confused: hadn’t the Tripoli been decommissioned years ago? (Yes.) Perhaps it was part of the “ghost fleet” from Suisun Bay; I knew that they were scheduled for scrapping. But in that case the ship’s course made no sense. Kate found a link to a real-time map of San Francisco Bay shipping, but I couldn’t find it on there.
My best guess is that it was in fact the Tripoli, being towed out to sea (perhaps to Pearl Harbor), for use as a launch platform for SCUD and other missiles as part of the THAAD or Aegis BMD anti-missile programs.
By the time we returned to the base of the tower, the crowds had grown dramatically. There was a long line for the elevator, and outside the traffic was backed up all the way down the hill, as people waited for one of the few parking spaces at the top. We decided to skip the tour of the murals, took the #39 bus down the hill (admiring the way in which the driver negotiated the traffic), and had a wonderful lunch at the Mona Lisa in North Beach.
You can see more of the pictures I took here.