Santa Atalina?

 

Santa Atalina?  Well, it looks like the "C" was obscured, so from the good old days when day trippers headed to Catalina for the glass bottom boat, swimming, the sun and sea.  And let's not forget, the bars.  

More Depression on the Beach

The flip side of yesterday's post, dated "August 1930."  It looks like the beach trip required a boat ride.

Women At Sea

I purchased this one here, in southern California, so there's a good chance that this photo was taken on the run to Catalina Island.  There was a time when there was  passenger service between Los Angeles, San Francisco, San Diego, and Mexico.  I don't know about anyone else, but I'd love to get a coastal steamer to the Bay Area.  Driving, the train, or flying all work fine, but sitting on the deck of a ship would be a great way to get around.

Cherbourg

This one's labeled "Ferry tender at Cherbourg."  I have no way of knowing, but I hope this photo is from the twenties, the years when the lost generation, Hemingway, Fitzgerald, Henry Miller, and many other Americans headed of to Paris to become writers, painters, or drunks.  An era I wish I had seen.

Now, for a bit of shameless self promotion.  Every so often I pick up a few non photographic bits of ephemera.  I also find images from the net that I enjoy visiting from time to time. (Considering my background and interests, it's no surprise that those images are mostly photographs.)  To make things easy, I've put them up on another blog, www.fairuse-wjy.blogspot.com.  For those who have enjoyed this nautically themed post, in the past few months, I've put up an activities schedule from an Italian ocean liner, a passenger list from The Matson Lines, and a nineteenth century oil painting of a S.F. Bay ferry.

On The Bay

Written on the back, "San Rafael Ferry 9/15/50"

It's been a long time since I've visited San Francisco, but back when I could afford the gas, I'd drive to Dublin, get on the BART, and take the train.  Who, in their right mind, would drive into SF?  Madness.

Anyway, near as I can tell, if you want to get to San Francisco, from San Rafael, on a ferry, you have to drive to Larkspur.  Not always true.  I got tired of the research, so I never found an end date for direct service, but ferry service from San Rafael to both San Francisco and the east bay, goes back to the late nineteenth century.  I found a great oil painting of a steamboat, that was part of that early service, on Wikipedia, and liked it so much that I posted it on my Fair Use blog.  If anyone's interested.