We stayed at the Omni downtown, in the financial district. We did some of the usual touristy stuff: a walking tour of historical sites in downtown San Francisco, shopping in the market in the newly restored Ferry Building, strolling along the Embarcadero, gawking along Grant Avenue into Chinatown, Union Square, and lots of trudging up and down hills. In Portsmouth Square, I saw an interesting approach to meditation by a Falun Gong follower.
The highlights of this trip, however, were get-togethers with old friends.
On Saturday, we met up with Valerie, whom we both worked with at the Comptroller's office. She left in 1997 and moved around a lot afterwards, to Louisiana and Georgia and Michigan and more places than I can remember, before settling in San Francisco five years ago. We went to lunch at Francis Ford Coppola's Café Zoetrope on Kearny Street in North Beach, then Val led us on a walking tour of the nearby neighborhood. We visited her lovely apartment, which had the most incredible view on an incredibly beautiful day: Coit Tower on the left, the Bay Bridge in the center, and downtown with the Transamerica Tower on the right, all laid out before us through her living room windows. We also got to meet Ron, her boyfriend, and we heard the exciting news that he proposed to her last month. Congratulations to you both!
On Friday night, we went to dinner with Jim. Now, the last time I had seen Jim was October 1968, when we graduated from Army helicopter flight school. A few weeks later we were both headed to Viet Nam, he to one part, I to another, and afterwards we went about living our lives for the next four decades.
We're both older and grayer and heavier than we were back then, but it's amazing how much of a person, and a personality, stays the same. We talked a little about the old days, but mostly he and Terri and I described how we each ended up where we are now, in 2011. Good food, good wine, good company, what else could one ask for?
On Sunday, we took the ferry to Sausalito. Jim, who is from Northern California and now lives in Mill Valley, picked us up and gave us an all-day tour of Marin and Sonoma. We had a very tasty lunch at Grilly's, a restaurant that Jim owns and operates. We visited the houseboat dock where Jim used to live, which provided a perfect opportunity for Terri to take our picture. We made a few stops at Sonoma wineries then headed towards the Golden Gate Bridge to see the city at night.
Monday morning, our friends were back to work and the weather, which had been brilliantly clear, was back to its usual foggy drizzle. We braved the rain for a while and walked around downtown, but it was obviously time to go.
Here's all my Flickr snaps from the trip. Or you can sit back with popcorn and see the slideshow version.
P.S. I finally realized that long hair just does not look right on old, fat, balding guys, so I had a major haircut today.
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