Walking the Fog

At first glimpse, the pool seems to be moving, but it isn't. The tide at Sutro was very low...so low you could easily walk out to the rock where a tightrope walker used to walk from Sutro to the rock and back while the waves rolled beneath him.

If you know the history of Sutro, you soon begin to realize that what you are looking at is the five individual swimming pools that were encased within Sutro' glass walls. The water was low enough that you could disinctly make out all of them just below the surface, murky and deep green with algae.

Today you could easily count all five from the warm dining room at Louis' above. We were seated in the coveted corner booth because of it's gorgeous view of the ruins below. There were maybe only three or four people inside, which was mostly staff.

Louis' has been there since before the Baths burned. They experienced the changes of seeing the Baths turn into "the Tropics" with indoor sandy beaches to the ice skating rink in its later years. It has stood in the same place watching the tides, trends in cars and hemlines.

We ate fish and chips and burgers, all the while looking down through the moing mist that was floating in from the ocean, adding an etherial touch to the scene below. People wandered down the paths. Three teenagers roamed over the remains of the grand staircase, occasionally crouching to look at something or staring up at the tall tower of cement.