San Francisco Real Estate Properties

The sun is out and so are the birds and the bees and that’s not all.

Walking along the waterfront in front of the  Marina’s small craft harbor this time of year, there is a lot of activity, as boaters are awaiting for the Opening Day of Yacht Season just one week away.

Yet that’s not all one can see if one just looks over the sea wall near the docks…

There are two proud parents and their little duckling swimming around completely unnoticed. 

It has always intrigued me how the city of San Francisco had settled and developed. Along a rolling countryside, in the late 1800’s and perhaps into the early 1900’s the favorable sunny weather on this leeward side of an eastern slope was home to farms and stables.  This easterly hillside is still dotted with some large homes on large lots from that era with the best views of the East and South Bay!

This “hidden” neighborhood (highlighted in blue) is named “Portola Extension”, because the homes and the views on these streets are so similar to those to the North that you would think you were in the Portola District of San Francisco.  The Portola District(pronounced by its residents is “Por’-ta-la) is located between Highway 280 to the North and Highway 101 to the East and Mansell Street to the South and the Western side of Mc Laren Park and back down to Highway 280 to the West.

A little known fact about our Peyton Place on Marina’s lagoon:

I can remember back when the San Francisco’s Palace of Fine Arts Lagoon in the Marina had at least 6 clipped-winged swans.  Several male swans from time to time would act more like ”speed boats” racing across the lagoon in hot pursuit for one of the female swans during the mating season.

Over the years, the flock has both multipled and shrink.  From time to time for the safety of the female swans, our swan steward has had to find other habitats for several male swans .

You can find the Judy Whilt, our resident swan steward, more commonly known as the ”Swan Lady” early most mornings as she walks around the lagoon attending to the swans.  Judy Whilt can tell the swans apart. She knows their ancestry and calls them by name.  Today there remains on the lagoon - a mother swan with her son, and her two daughters from several of her previous years of mating.    

A walk around the lagoon may seem pleasant enough for the casual observer, until one observes a “speed boat” race become a “drag race” with the mother swan and a daughter shoeing away her other daughter away from her advancing brother.  According to the “Swan Lady”, the 2 female swans have become jealous of the male swan’s (the mother’s son) attention of other female swan. 

Oh, the Peyton Place saga continues for those in the know on Marina’s lagoon.