the Angry Captain recently returned from spending my inheritance his well earned retirement in Washington DC and New York City.  He and Mrs AC(Ma!) had a wonderful time and were tech savvy enough to send constant updates via PDA to facebook.  The HM jrs also got a number of postcards in the mail, which still makes their eyes light up.

Angry, at first, sent photos of DC fire units responding or parked near his double decker tourist bus.  For those of you not in an area where these giant red buses block traffic on a regular basis, when you’re in the jump seat of your engine you’re just high enough for the folks up top to get a possibly embarrassing picture.

As the trip progressed they started posting pictures of the Tomb of the unknown Soldier, the Korean War Memorial and some other really emotional stuff.

Later, the NYC pics showed more fire apparatus, since they were right near E54 L4 in the theater district.  No surprise there.  Then they trekked to the Today show with giant posters so the grandchildren could pick them out and sure enough, there they were up front, signs clearly visible and Ann Curry talking to the folks next to them with no signs who were simply squealing.  Dang media.

But the reason I share this all with you is because no matter where we travel we seem to find ourselves passing by a firehouse or ambulance posted and want to say hello.  But what to do then?  Years ago I developed a walking tour of San Francisco that takes you around the original Station 1, Coit Tower, the fortune cookie factory, the building used to film Towering Inferno and a brief walk down the street where the great fire of 1906 decimated one side, but the firemen saved the other.  The difference in architecture is clear.

I’ve tested the walk on friends before, but the real test will be Mark when he arrives 2 weeks from today.  Hopefully it will go well and he’ll tell you all about it, with pictures.  If he approves it, I’ll post up a map and things to see so when you come to San Francisco you won’t be chasing sirens like I was in Chicago a few years back just to say hello and buy a T-shirt.

BUT – A few rules on visiting San Francisco Firehouses:

We do not trade patches on account of we don’t wear them.  Only the Ambulance EMTs and Paramedics and Firefighter/Paramedics wear patches, so if you ask to trade you’ll get an odd look and an offer to post your patch on their wall.  Most houses’ patch walls are quite elaborate with Station 2 having easily hundreds.

Lunch is at noon, dinner often at 7, so 1130-130 and coming by after 6 PM is not usually the best time to visit.

Each house has it’s own logo and T-shirts, sweatshirts etc.  We do not sell the official screen printed T-shirts in the stations, don’t ask.  Those are issued to us and us only.  But usually the members of the house are more than happy to show you their extensive collection of Company apparel.  Some houses even have websites like Station 1.

And I’ll leave you with a quick video so Mark can get ready for his engine time:

That will be UK Paramedic Team Leader Mark Glencorse responding with Engine 13 (Engine 35 in this video) in a little over 2 weeks.  Are you ready Mark?