Perks

I have said, more than once, that one of the perks of having been around the blogging community for so long is that once in awhile you get to meet other bloggers that you've known for a long time. I have never been disappointed and today was no exception.

I don't know how long I've "known" or "known of" or "read" Wilma Scott's writings, but for a very long time. She was one of those bloggers who was on my list of people to read regularly, and then I kind of got out of the habit but then was reconnected with her when we both found ourselves on Facebook and started playing Lexulous (a Scrabble-type game) together. I've always found her delightful and so was very pleased to hear she was coming to California.

Wilma lost her husband last year and was invited to come to help Willy (William Baker) celebrate his 96th birthday this coming weekend. She has been helping Willy with his blog for some time now and they had become good internet friends. It would be her first trip to California and their first chance to meet, face to face...and my chance to meet the two of them.

I was new to Willy's blog, but have come to discover that he is a fascinating guy. He describes himself as:

Born June 12, 1914, married 57 years, octogenarian widower as of 3/4/1997, 4 children, 5 grandchildren, 9 great grandchildren.

Log cabin in the Arkansas Ozark mountains at Norfork 3 years, Oklahoma oilfields 16, California San Joaquin valley at Corcoran with aunt and uncle 2, CCC camps 2, San Francisco Bay area since 1936. Electronics engineer with the Lawrence Berkeley lab over 40 years (Staff Senior Scientist rank last years), inventive type, retired since 1980.

(Inventive type he still is. He was showing me today a contraption he's invented for baking a cake in the microwave...

It involves double layers, and elevations and steam and took him a couple of dozen cake mixes to perfect, but you can see the resulting cake in the background. Cooked in 10 minutes, and cooked all the way through, without any soggy spots in the middle, he told me. The birds that come to his yard were thrilled with the 2 dozen failed attempts, since they got the crumbs!)

I drove to Orinda, where Willy lives, this morning and met the two of them, and then took Wilma on an abbreviated version of my tour of San Francisco. It was an absolutely gorgeous, warm, clear day and so naturally we had to start at Twin Peaks and get an overlook of the city.

We drove down through the Haight-Ashbury district, over some steep hills, and down to the Palace of Fine arts, and then along the Marina Green, to my favorite restaurant to take out of town visitors, Green's, a wonderful vegetarian restaurant, run under the auspices of the San Francisco Zen Center. I'm not a vegetarian, but I've never been disappointed in the food at Green's, and the view, overlooking the Golden Gate Bridge, is always spectacular.

Today, we also watched some sea lions sunning themselves on the piers where the luxury yachts were moored.

As always, the food did not disappoint. I had something called a "Mezcla sampler," which I assume is Cuban food.

It was a quesadilla with guacamole and salsa, and then a quinoa salad with plantains. All very tasty, and followed by an amazing "flour-less chocolate cake" with butterscotch gelato on some honey that was hardened and broken into pieces. The cake tasted less like "cake" and more like a huge slice of chocolate truffle!

We did the second half of the tour, the Lombard Street crooked street drive, Filbert Street (the steepest in San Francisco), through North Beach (Italian section) and Chinatown, through the financial district and then back onto the freeway. We left town in time to miss the rush hour traffic, which was my hope. I was early enough that I missed it all the way home.

I stayed at Willy's house for a bit to chat (and find out about that cake baking invention of his) and then got on the road to stay ahead of the traffic. The dogs had been locked in the house for 7 hours (because I just could not in good conscience leave them access to the yard when they had barked so badly yesterday), but they seem to have survived and apparently only the puppies pooped in the house.

It was, all things considered, a simply delightful day and it was so nice to put faces and bodies to Wilma and Willy. I look forward to joining the hundreds of people who will offer Willy birthday greetings on Saturday!