Wednesday, March 5, 2008

My City By the Bay

It's really a long day when it starts at 4:30. For some reason, I woke up and couldn't get back to sleep, so I've been up since 4:30.

This was the day that my friend Mary was arriving from Wisconsin for a 4-day visit. Her plane was scheduled to land at 11:30 at the San Francisco airport. I left here around 9 a.m., knowing that would get me to the airport early, but I'd rather be early than late (I sit in a parking lot in nearby San Bruno and wait for Mary to call, so I don't have to pay to park at the airport).

It was an absolutely PERFECT day weatherwise. Mary was leaving knee high snowbanks in Wisconsin and San Francisco was putting on its very best bib and tucker for her!

The traffic was so light that I made record time and actually arrived in San Bruno a full hour before her scheduled arrival...and then she didn't call until nearly noon (she had to find her way from the concourse to baggage claim).

My plan had been for us to have lunch in Sausalito, but that didn't quite work. Mary wanted to get up somewhere high and look at the city, so of course we had to drive up to Twin Peaks

Then we drove down through the Haight-Ashbury district to the Presidio and down to Fort Point, under the Golden Gate bridge, where we watched a guy trying to surf...I still don't know how he kept from killing himself on the jagged rocks!

We stopped at the nearby National Park building at Crissy Field, where, since it was so late, we had lunch. A bagel and cream cheese and a salad wasn't quite the fresh crab I had in mind in Sausalito, but it filled us up. Afterwards we took more photos -- I liked this one of the girl reading on a wall near the bridge.

We drove to Sausalito and wandered around for a bit, then stopped at my mother's so I could use the facilities. My mother, who can't possibly let a guest leave without feeding him, served us drinks (vodka & tonic for Mary, coffee for me), and cashew nuts and we visited for a bit before continuing our way home again.

I fixed a fabulous (if I do say so myself) quiche for dinner after which we checked out the photos we took today--I took surprisingly few--and now Mary has gone off to bed and I am about to do likewise.

I don't have a clue what we're going to do tomorrow, but I think it's fair to say that "photography" will be involved!

1 comment:

Marilyn said...

Perfect! I lived in the City for 4 years and have been visiting since I was a small child. For me, there's no place better when the weather's good. (Lived in Sausalito for 3 years, too...on houseboats.) :)