Stony Ridge Ranch King's Mountain San Francisco's Richmond District Wildcat Canyon

Living in the Bay Area

I came to the Bay Area in 1983, and I've now lived in the North Bay, East Bay, South Bay, Peninsula and the city! I've loved living on either extreme: either in the Bay Area's wilderness or near-wilderness areas, or in the middle of it all in San Francisco. Here are a few images from some of the wonderful parts of the San Francisco Bay Area I've been lucky enough to live.

I've also lived in Mill Valley, Menlo Park, and Los Gatos; but those rolls of film await future digitization!

 

 

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San Francisco Reprise

I now live in SF again, in a beautiful Hayes Valley Victorian I was lucky enough to buy in late 2001, seen at right. It's a fantastic house (and surprisingly large, god bless those Victorian folks and their need for space).

At left is my cat, Ella, curled up and sleepy as is her wont.
  Although it's not somewhere I've lived, I encountered the Mechanic's Institute Library building in SF recently. Check out their awesome interior.
View from Home

 

Wildcat Canyon

I lived on the edge of Wildcat Canyon in the Berkeley Hills for most of the time I worked at Pixar (which was in Point Richmond at the time). At left, the primary view is across into the side canyon known as Heavey Canyon; at right, some of the frequent morning fog.

 Misty sunlight
Bill says, Come on in!

My house is built in a style my friend Patti Wilson identified as 'mineshaft modern'. At left, Bill Kolomyjec invites you in; at right, he shows off the four-story drop off of the back side.

 

 Bill says, Come on down!
John rides in When I bought the house, I had hardwood flooring installed to replace the 70s shag carpeting on the main level. To commemorate the event, John Lewis offered to run his motorcycle over the old carpet; much to his surprise, I agreed. At left, Skeggi Thormar watches while John rides by the window. At right, Skeggi, David Valdez, Lisa Ellis, and David Catmull admire John's handiwork. ...and John rides down.

 

San Francisco's Richmond District

was my home for a few years when I worked at Brøderbund Software in Novato and for part of my time at Pixar. I had a great time living 50' off of Clement St. at Fifth and sampling the Asian food and culture in the vicinity. My favorite cafe was The Blue Danube, operated by the ever-friendly Cindy and located half a block from my place. One evening walking back from the Danube I caught this shot of sunset over the Outer Richmond.

 I'm being a cat! I shared the views of Wildcat Canyon with Pablo (left) and Calico (below). Unfortunately, they both went off to satisfy their boundless curiousity about the canyon...

Meow!
Sunset o'er Indochinatown

 

King's Mountain

 This was the only neighbor we could actually see, on a tender misty morning amidst the trees.
Before moving to Mill Valley, I lived off of Skyline Blvd. near King's Mountain Rd. This is a mountain biking haven (I was 1/4 mile from the Purisma Creek trailhead) and about as redwood-glorious as it gets. The house that I and my housemate Alan Eyzaguirre rented from Bill and Cindy Ruehl was a beautiful modernist house set in a grove of redwoods. The neighbors

Here's the view looking down through the redwoods -- that light patch peeking out between the trees is the Pacific Ocean.

Ocean through trees

 

Stony Ridge Ranch

 My longest-duration and most spectacular living spot in the Bay Area was Stony Ridge Ranch, at the southeast corner of Page Mill Rd. and Skyline Blvd. on the Peninsula. Four of us shared the main house (three others lived in other buildings on the property) set on 60 acres of inholding in Monte Bello Open Space Preserve -- and with a view of a few thousand acres of the preserve, looking down Stevens Canyon. I lived at the Ranch for seven years, and we were pretty well known for our massive early-summer parties -- a couple hundred people showed up each year for our barbecue blowouts in early May, a great time to admire the canyon. I lived at the Ranch during the Loma Prieta earthquake in 1989, although I was off in Ann Arbor at the time. Even though the Ranch is only 1/4 mile from the San Andreas fault, we returned to find nothing seriously wrong -- except the CD collection scattered across the living room floor. It took us weeks to replace all the broken jewel cases.

Bruce McHenry

Bruce McHenry, my housemate at the Ranch the whole time I was there (and before and after me), showing off the view from the Veranda.
Earthquake aftermath
Drink more Ridge!
The late-80s-model me, standing just to the left of where Bruce was in the previous picture. I must have a thing for fault lines -- my current house is 1/4 mile from the North Hayward fault.

Brown County, Indiana
Back when I was a teenager, I used to spend summers with my sister and brother-in-law in Brown County, Indiana. In the summer of 2005, my nephew Jake got married at a lake a few miles from the old cabin (where he now lives!). Here are some photos from the wedding.

Leo's Place


This fine establishment is not my house, sign notwithstanding. My friend Dave Conroy saw it on his trip to his cabin in Northern Ontario.