Today's Stairway Walk with Lee

My friend Lee asked me earlier this week if I felt like joining him for a stairway walk. Lee keeps a regular blog of his city walks, which also focuses (or, rather, mostly focuses) on gardens and plants. He's quite an expert in these things, and always find it interesting to go on walks with him. He knew that I walked a lot, and thought it would be fun to do one of these walks together.

Lee has a much better camera than my little iPhone 4, and he's got a great eye. You can see of our walk and some of the sights we saw on his blog.

My team had walked to the Moraga Stairs this past weekend, but I didn't join them since I had company in town. When Lee offered to do a stairway walk, I requested the "Golden Gate Heights" walk from the book "Stairway Walks in San Francisco", which Lee uses frequently, and which I got as a gift last year from Lizelle.

Unfortunately, I forgot to start my GPS walking app today, so I didn't track our milage. We walked for about an hour and a half at a leisurely pace, and there were lots and lots of stairs.


the map and turn by turn of today's route

While Lee's photos focused more on the surroundings and views, my photos focused more on all of the stairs that we walked up and down today. :)

I realized that I had only been to the Moraga/Mosaic stairs while on training walks with my team. That means that I never really slowed down to stop and really take a good look at the stairway. It's truly amazing and beautiful. I decided to take advantage of a quiet stairway and take lots of photos of each flight.


the bottom of the Moraga Stairs, which I usually call the Mosaic Stairs


the plaque


here's Lee, taking photos!


first flight
(which, yes, happens to also be the name of a winter guard from Cary, NC!)


next flight

and another


close up of some of the tiles. i loved reading all of the names of the individuals and businesses who worked on these mosaics!


the moon and stars


followed by the rays of sunlight


the view from the top!


cool, curved stairway


venturing into Golden Gate Heights Park


down another flight of stairs


and down some more...


and up some more...


and up...


the Grand Finale: the stairway up to Grand View Park - which we actually climbed up right after the Moraga Stairs earlier - extra credit points!


the bench that my teammates had noticed last weekend. SO funny!


the view from the top. the fog had just lifted, leaving us with a gorgeous view of the city!


Lee and Trina! Friends since 6th grade! :)

Thanks for the great walk this morning, Lee! I enjoyed it immensely, and look forward to climbing more stairs with you! xo