I’m rolling up Geary. It’s a good east west route; its late
on a weekday night, traffic is minimal and I’m kicking it. Above Divis I wheel
into the right lane to catch the ramp up to where I’ll make a left onto
Masonic. I flash on bumbling through this intersection just a few weeks ago, a menace
then to me and all the other drivers. Not now, not tonight. I can’t claim to know my
way everywhere in San Francisco. The Laguna Honda route south to highway 1 remains
an unsolved mystery. But I’ve got a good mental picture of the grids. I can
find my way to most places.
It strikes me that my knowledge of the city is much the
same. You can form opinions over a five or so week stay. But how much can you
really know?
A few weeks back on
one of my many walks it occurred to me that I was succumbing to the charms of
the city. On the next walk the next day I was sure of it. The charms are many
and varied and with prolonged exposure they can’t be eluded. Nor should they be.
I formulated the conceit many years ago. Take all that’s
great about New York City, cut out all that’s not drop it down in a beautiful
place and you’d have San Francisco. So true. The culture, the food, the
architecture, the vibrant neighborhoods, the progressive politics, the
open-mindedness are all combined in a
place where flowers are always in bloom, where from the beach you can watch the
sun setting into the ocean. Jennifer disdains the public transit system as
inferior to other places she’s lived like New York, Paris and Toronto. Indeed
our one experience was pretty toonerville trolley like. But it is ubiquitous.
Yet for all its egalitarianism, it’s an enclave. “Didn’t you
notice the bubble?” asked Mark Pesche. To the north, east and west, water. To
the south, mountains. The sprawl, the ghetto, the crime, ungodly traffic, harsh
reality has all been exiled across the bridge, the long long bridge, across the
bay. Can’t fault that. Why would I? Could I have concluded this had we not
stayed as long as did? Unlikely.
I’m writing this on the plane headed home. Below the shadows
are lengthening across the landscape. We’d a passel of plans when we’d set out,
trips up and down the coast, visits to friends in LA, riding the train north to
redwood country, flying home by way of Florida where we’d spend a few days with
our old friends, Hal and Kitty, at the Don Cesar on St Pete’s Beach. But once
we found ourselves ensconced gratis in a lovely apartment on a quiet street in a
great neighborhood we, as Garminella would say, recalculated. We understood
that Katherine, whose apartment it was, could reclaim it at any time. Indeed,
there were coupla false alarms. Katherine will be there for an evening, you’ll
have to vacate. But each time she, in the end, stayed away. Then on Monday, she
notified Jennifer she and friends would spend the night in her place Thursday. And
then the plan changed to Katherine reoccupying her place for the weekend. With
little time left before our scheduled flight home one by one our contingency
plans quickly collapsed. Without a viable alternative we renegotiated our
flight home.
So it wasn’t the trip we’d planned. It was far better than
what we could have imagined. We spent time away from the harsh winter. We hung
with the beloved daughter. We filled our days and nights with the things we
love. We enriched our lives.
I learned my way around.
