Tag Archives: San Francisco

Long view of Golden Gate Bridge in San Francisco

California, Part I: San Francisco Sojourn

San Francisco, travel,

A nice, warm, sunny escape from Northern Virginia to California seemed like just the ticket for late February/early March. The only part of that to come true, however, was the “escape” part as it was hardly warm and all too often not sunny during our whole trip. Especially in San Francisco, our first stop on the journey.

Still, we had fun visiting and hanging out with daughter M.E. and other friends, and seeing some of the sites. Since she’s lived there for a number of years, there is not much that we haven’t already visited at least once, but we found a few new diversions.

A visit to the Disney Family Museum in the Presidio was one of the first stops. Why is this museum in SF you ask? According to a helpful museum guide, it is because Walt’s daughter Diane lived in SF and wanted it close to home. No matter, it is interesting and more expansive than meets the eye at first (it just keeps going and going, chronicling Walt’s life from birth to death, and covering the evolution of the creative output we all know and most of us grew up with). Okay, so it may white-wash some of the not so great aspects of Walt’s personality and politics (see for instance this list of the not-so-nice). But, still, a good diversion for a couple of hours, and well done exhibitions, interactives and video clips that bring back memories.

Nearby, the new Tunnel Tops Park offers a spectacular view of the Golden Gate Bridge, the Bay and downtown SF. That view will never get old. We also caught a sunset at the ocean – at that point is was so cold and windy that we jumped out of the car only long enough to snap the sunset and ran back in – no lingering on the beach watching the few crazy surfers.

My birthday having been earlier in February, I had requested a mother-daughter birthday celebration at a Tiki Bar, of which there are many in SF including the original Trader Vic’s. We chose the Tonga Room in the basement of the Fairmont Hotel, downtown. (You could take a cable car part of the way there but we took the bus.) Totally over the top, and one tall $20 drink, which includes at least five types of liquor, will serve to set the mood.

The SF visit also included a performance of M.E.’s improv class, a visit to her high school friend Suchana (who impressively just defended her Ph.D. at Stanford), lots of good food including a dinner with friends/colleagues Elisa and Kyle, and a walk in the mostly gloomy, occasionally sunny, Golden Gate Park Botanical Garden. All in all, despite blooming flowers, palm trees and citrus fruit growing in backyards, chilly outside but warm and comforting inside with good company all around.

Here are some snaps of the highlights.

Steve was wearing a mask more to keep warm than to ward off COVID and other germs.
This is what makes creating film a lot like doing the Festival. Behind Walt Disney there was a whole host of creative talent, many acknowledged here and many more remaining anonymous I’m sure.
It always interests me afterwards what I decided to take photos of. I was smitten with the range of colors in this display about making color animations.
I’ve never been to Disneyland (yes to Disney World though) but this scale model was fun, and also huge.
Our chilly sunset.
Behind the railing at the Tonga Room. Which is where you have to stand unless you want to eat something (not worth it) and actually get a table. But it is still fun and makes dancing to the cover band easier.
My Mai Tai. Very potent! Stole the umbrella from someone else’s abandoned drink as you don’t get one with a Mai Tai but I really wanted one.
Breakfast, bordering on lunch, at a Mexican place near our basic hotel the Geary Parkway Inn.
M.E.s half of the Improv class takes a bow after the first part of their performance. So fun!
Indian lunch with Suchana to celebrate her impending Ph.D. defense.

San Francisco Solace

Muir Woods, San Francisco, UC Berkeley Botanical Garden, ,

If your only kid moves across the country, the hope is that it’s to a place you might like to visit frequently.  The San Francisco Bay area is, thankfully, such a place.  (Fog and possible earthquakes aside.)  During a week’s visit there, you barely scratch the surface of things to see and do within the city and relatively short drives around it.  A couple of highlights, besides attending a professional presentation our daughter gave at her workplace (wait – when did she become a fully grown up person?!) were Muir Woods and the UC Berkeley Botanical Gardens, maybe because the weather was deliciously warm and mostly sunny, and these two places offer walks that are both beautiful and educational.  What’s the difference between a giant sequoia and a redwood?  Now I know.  How, and why, do carnivorous plants lure their prey?  Much more well informed about that and other plant information now, too.

A walk through Muir Woods is really a spiritual experience.
20161110_115746Despite the many other people visiting there any given day, there is a sense of wonder and awe to see giant trees that have survived for millennia.  While the human world bumbles along, occasionally creating great art but just as often producing chemical run-off and Kentucky Fried Chicken, they just grow.  Sometimes being struck by lightning and then regenerating from their roots.  Sometimes being cut down by those bumbling humans.  But, still there, preserved by some forward-looking conservationists and maintained by the National Park Service for us to marvel at.  It offers some hope for humanity, despite everything and anything that might happen.  (And has in the past couple of weeks.)

Berkeley Botanical Garden offers a more curated nature experience, tastefully arranged and more or less well interpreted.  20161114_150704Climbing up and down hills and past water features, you can take a trip around the world:  native California, the Mexican desert, Australia, the Mediterranean, various parts of Asia and Southern Africa.  The Chinese Medicinal Garden groups plants by the types of illnesses they traditionally treat – and judging by the fact that there is a brochure in Chinese translating the English descriptions around the garden, it must attract many Chinese visitors.   We practically had the place to ourselves the day we were there, which was glorious, though the fog had set in and the promised view across the bay from the highest point was not to be fulfilled.

Thanks, San Francisco Bay area, for offering the peaceful refuge of ancient trees and artful landscapes in a often scary world that changes daily, not always for the better.