Photo Shoot by the Bay

I had purchased my digital SLR camera only six weeks earlier, and San Francisco's sometimes fickle winter weather offered a gorgeous respite in early February. With less than 24 hours before I would leave Fisherman's Wharf I checked in to my hotel, and then began walking around the neighborhood with lens poised.

At Pier 39 I found a cornucopia of great images, from the dark mystery of Houdini's Magic Shop to The San Francisco Music Box Company, where tropical snow globes and Venetian jewelry boxes shared the shelves with hand-crank and Swan Lake music boxes. Diners filled the Crab House at Pier 39 and the Hard Rock Cafe; and Bubba Gump Shrimp offered patrons views of a massive Italian carousel where brightly painted horses pranced and thousands of lights twinkled.

Despite the calendar, a riotous rainbow of flowers decorated the boardwalk. But no place grabbed my attention more than this spot along the upper boardwalk, where the carousel's base disappeared, leaving only the 'roof' and it's intricately hand-painted images of the Golden Gate Bridge, Coit Tower, Chinatown and other popular San Francisco sites in clear view. I savored the sunshine and wrapped my jacket around me, as the Bay sparkled invitingly.