H. Dana Bowers Vista Point

2015.09.23

After a whole day of work, I ate dinner, took a shower, and then headed to the airport at 9 PM, to take the red eye flight at midnight to San Francisco.

On the plane, I watched the movie San Andreas. After the movie was over, it gave me a feeling of dread because it described a possible disaster in the city I was visiting. Then I chose another movie called Terminator: Genisys, the first scene of which showed the ruin of San Francisco after a nuclear bomb hit it......These two movies made me a little bit nervous while driving on the Golden Gate Bridge and I felt relief when I left San Francisco the next day. lol

I arrived in San Francisco at 8 PM, and drove to my friend's apartment in Sunnyvale after renting a small car that was unbelievably expensive. I was happy to see my UM friend again, someone I had not seen for two years.

2015.09.24

I woke up at 6 AM, and I drove to a restaurant nearby which my friend recommended to me. He said it would remind me of the Northside Grill on north campus in Ann Arbor. It was very delicious and inexpensive. On the way to the restaurant, the color of the sunrise in the distance was very beautiful and almost made me want to skip the breakfast. Fortunately, I didn't do that because I did not have any lunch that day and I had a late dinner. I spent most of the day driving as fast as I could to Arcata, which is about 250 miles from Muir Woods.

The first stop was Vista Point where you can see the Golden Gate Bridge from the north side. I have been to the other end of the bridge, where I walked along the coastline all day long to get many different viewing angles. After I went home, I found the view from the north end of the bridge was also very beautiful. Almost after three years, I finally got the chance to visit the bridge again.

There is a Memorial Plaza at Vista Point. It is unique with its sixteen compass points, radial edges and multiple angles. It is composed of six different types of granite quarried from around the world: Verde Olivo and Verde Maritake from Brazil; Ruby Red from India; Belfast Black from South Africa; Absolute Black from Zimbabwe; and Luna Pearl from Italy. Rough stones were fabricated in Italy to exact sizes using computer aided technology and very high water pressure (50,000 lbs.) injected with an abrasive. The plaza contains more than 1,100 individual granite pieces cut into over 300 different shapes and sizes.

 

The Story Behind The Lone Sailor Memorial

 

One of the great natural seaports of the world, discovered by Jose Ortega in 1769, San Francisco Bay has been home to both military and commercial ships from around the world.

San Francisco served as the major embarkation point for armed forces fighting in the Pacific during World War II. Over 1.5 million men and women shipped out of here during the conflict. The Bay Area was also home to major maritime installations - two naval air stations, two shipyards, major naval stations and supply centers, the Coast Guard Academy and Merchant Marine Academy. Most have been closed in a Federal base realignment program.

Until 2005 there was no site honoring the relationship between the Bay Area and US. Maritime services of the military and Merchant Marine. This Lone Sailor Memorial was built to recognize the relationship and to honor the men and women who have sailed out of the Golden Gate to do their duty for America while serving in the US. Navy, Marine Corps, Coast Guard and Merchant Marine.

Henry Trione, a leading citizen of Santa Rosa and an area business leader, was the driving force behind establishment of this Memorial. On August 18, 1997, he hosted a luncheon to broach the idea, and it took off from there. It took five years starting from scratch to locate this site, to obtain the necessary approvals form a myriad of proprietary interests and to complete the construction started March 2001 and it involved a number of enthusiastic participants and contributors. Over $2.5 million was raised - all private donations, large and small. The Memorial was dedicated on April 14, 2002, and title of the Memorial was deeded to the California Department of Transportation which has the responsibility for operating and maintaining the R. Dana Bowers Vista Point Site.

Cast by sculptor Stanley Bleifeld, the U.S. Navy Memorial's official sculptor, for the Vista Point site, it replicates the statue in Washington.