Karl didn’t ruin my experience

A couple of weeks ago, I experienced one of the most unique Fourth of July events in my life.

No, it wasn’t a drone show, which by all indications went quite well in Mariposa.

For the first time in a long time, we were able to slip out of town for a couple of days. The main purpose was to visit our son, Price, in San Francisco.

It just happened to be the Fourth of July weekend. As part of the holiday, officials in San Francisco decided to launch fireworks from the Golden Gate Bridge. They have done it a few times in the past but it has been a long time.

As the television weather people began informing the public about that Saturday night, it didn’t look good. Karl, the name given to the Bay Area’s famous marine layer fog, was probably going to rear his ugly head.

But city officials said they were going forward, Karl or not.

We were lucky a couple of weeks earlier to get a hotel room on Lombard Street, just a few blocks away from the marina where the best viewing of the fireworks would take place. In retrospect, it was more than luck, it was some sort of divine intervention because of what unfolded that night.

As the day turned to evening, it was decided that Price and his significant other, Jared, would come to the hotel. They couldn’t even get close to the hotel because of all of the congestion in that part of the city. They ended up walking quite a ways downhill after getting as far as they could.

It was a sign of things to come.

Once there, we all began the pretty short walk down to the marina. Along with thousands of other people.

We made it to the beach right next to the yacht club, where people were 10 deep around the sidewalk and the beach was packed. In fact, the entire area from there toward the bridge was brimming with people.

And then came Karl.

The show was scheduled to begin promptly at 9:30, which it did. Karl had arrived about a half hour earlier.

You knew it was going to be, well, interesting as the first fireworks went into the air — and disappeared inside Karl.

Some were shot low enough that you could see them and some of the fireworks being fired from the bridge deck were quite visible. The people on boats in the harbor had a great view.

The show lasted 15 minutes and, in spite of Karl, I thought it was great. I think some of it was simply being able to see fireworks for the first time in a decade. (That’s not even counting the illegal fireworks that were being launched everywhere in the area.)

As we headed away from the marina going back to the hotel,

I knew trouble was brewing. It was akin to leaving a major rock concert with the fear of being crushed ever present. Thousands of people were leaving all at once.

Fortunately, the hotel was only about eight blocks up the road and we made it just fine.

But how would Price and Jared get back?

It quickly became apparent that was the question thousands and thousands of people were asking themselves.

Lombard Street looked like a parking lot. At one point, some poor big rig driver had somehow managed to find his way into the chaos. I went outside of the room and saw him. A half hour later, I went back outside and the truck and trailer had moved maybe 25 yards.

This was the story and you could tell Price was getting a little irritated. You see, he had to be back at work the next morning. Ironically, he works at the visitor center at the Golden Gate Bridge.

After about an hour, he made the decision there was only one path back to his place — on foot. It took them an hour to walk home, but it was probably four hours faster than if I had tried to drive them.

As the next day unfolded, you can imagine how big of a story it was in San Francisco. All of the news outlets were reporting about the absolute gridlock that took place the night before.

The city had organized free shuttles for people coming from elsewhere in San Francisco, but even those buses were stranded in the snarl of traffic. Some people didn’t even get to the show while others were stuck walking back just like Price and Jared.

The San Francisco Chronicle had multiple stories about the chaos, including how the city was unprepared for such an onslaught of people. It was estimated 100,000 people came out to watch the fireworks.

What wasn’t reported by the newspaper or other outlets was the positive angle.

About three hours before the show, we walked about four blocks to where there are many restaurants around the Lombard Street area. They were jammed packed with people. It took us a half-hour to get a cheeseburger to go, not to mention navigating through hoards of people.

And that’s the positive.

The businesses in that area must have had one of the busiest days of the year on that evening. That’s a good thing. I can’t imagine how many cheeseburgers and pizzas and sit-down dinners were served in just one afternoon and early evening.

Sure, the transportation issue was a mess, but I am sure it was also a learning experience for city officials. The economic impact, on the other hand, had to be in the millions of dollars for those small businesses located in the Marina District.

We saw people from all walks of life and dozens of countries participating in a truly American celebration. People had on red, white and blue clothing, some had Lady Liberty headgear and everyone seemed to be having a great time.

City officials reported no arrests, though there was an incident in one area where police had to break up a large crowd. A few small fires also were extinguished because of those illegal fireworks.

But overall, I would say that’s a win for the city where thousands of people spent millions of dollars in just one day while taking in one of the most beautiful cities in the world.

And how can you go wrong with the Golden Gate Bridge? It’s one of the most iconic landmarks in the world and this year hosted a fireworks show from barges and the bridge deck, Karl or no Karl.

I know there were a lot of people grumbling about how it all unfolded, but for me, it was a great experience I would do again in a heartbeat. And for those of you who say San Francisco is this nasty, awful place, I would challenge you to experience it for yourself.

It’s a welcoming city with good people — and Karl.

Greg Little is editor of the Mariposa Gazette and can be reached at greg@mariposagazette.com.