The sun was already well out by mid-morning on Saturday when I caught the N Shuttle at Church & Market in San Francisco.
But as the bus headed west it gradually entered the heavy lingering fog that typically hangs over Golden Gate Park throughout whole days, especially in summer, that are sunny elsewhere in the city.
I got off at 17th Avenue and made my way into the park at a spot near the designated playground, south of Stow Lake.
The trees all had a fuzzy, blurry sort of look to them – not so much because of sloppy camera work as because of fog intervention. This effect seemed to agree with the pink crepe paper streamers tossed in great swags by my daughter as a vivid & festive party marker.
Arriving early, the family found a good available picnic table for transformation into a birthday altar.
Mabel Watson Payne took on the job of spreading blankets on the ground for sitting on.
She tried out each one after spreading it flat, and then got up and spread it flat again.
