The GGA Project -- Day #344 "And (AGAIN) on Military Site Repurposing"

So it turns out that--in addition to San Francisco's Presidio and Fort Mason--there is yet another local former military site that has now been re-imagined, residentialized (yes, I made up that word), and made good use of by people who can't let amazing old buildings go to waste (thank goodness for those people, by the way).


Today's New Activity: Poking Around Mare Island Historical Park


Mare Island is a former Naval Base and shipyard (founded in 1854!) that closed for those purposes a few years back.  Now, they do things like host 5Ks there; coming out to support some friends who were running one (not me--hell no!) is what got me out to the site.

But once the run started I knew I had about 1/2 hour to nose around a bit before I'd want to get back to the finish line, so I grabbed my camera and saw what there was to see (or a small portion of it anyway).


Jeez, I love old anythings.


Most of the grounds looked like this:

But the area nearest the race's start and finish lines was more of a yard for the dead and dying former somethings related to what, I'm not sure.  But I found it pretty fascinating...

I also had some fun with my camera's timer, which I've never done before.  What fun!

I feel like I could have stayed in that shipyard all day looking for interesting stuff to take pictures of.  It's a good thing I got back when I did though, since one of my friends shaved a substantial chunk of time off his previous best, so I was able to catch the big finale.


I'm not sure what would get me up that way again, but I'd love to learn more about this historic site.  That part of the bay area doesn't even look like California to me.  It's somehow more gently rolling and Eastern Seaboard-like.  And the leaves on the trees up there turn beautiful colors like all respectable trees should in the fall!  My brief visit up that way was a great start to a pretty amazing Sunday--the kind of Sunday that must have inspired the invention of Sunday in the first place.  How to make all Sundays like this one?!