san francisco - Living In Beauty

Posted May 24, 2022 – Narrated by Carmen

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“You take delight not in a city’s seven or seventy wonders, but in the answer it gives to a question of yours.”
Italo Calvino, Invisible Cities

Magnificent bridges,

san francisco — We rode our Dolphin eBikes over the Golden Gate Bridge

beautiful public gardens,

the oldest Chinatown in North America,

an old island prison,

and we don’t know a soul who lives there.

That’s all we had on San Francisco.

We figured The City would be cold, foggy, crowded and expensive.

Not so.

We arrived in mid-February as a dry, warm front moved in and SF (in the early stages of re-opening) had no crowds at all, and prices were competitive even in the touristy areas.

This was my second visit to SF. Twenty years ago I flew in for a weekend with friends, Lori and Marsha. But in almost fifty years as a California couple, we never visited The Bay Area together, and that’s a shame.

San Francisco is beautiful.

As with New York City, we were surprised by San Francisco’s compact size. At only seven-miles by seven-miles everything is within reach.

We explored the city on foot …

from the top deck of a tour bus …

and with our folding Dolphin eBikes.

Getting There

Bundled up like French trappers, we pulled out of Santa Cruz. It felt odd to wear our “Canada Clothes” in central California, but our artichokes were freezing off.

Coffee cup clenched to my chest I whimpered, “Who’s idea was it to travel north in winter?” Then, in Living in Beauty tradition, Jim played Willie and my spirit gradually lifted as we sang together…

“Going places where we’ve never been,
seeing things that we may never see again …“
Willie Nelson from his song “On The Road Again”

“Suck it up, Buttercup,” I thought. Adventure means high stakes and bizarre weather events are par for the course these days. I just hope that, up the road, there’s never a reason to name a pass after us.

Winter cold fronts in California are usually periodic events. Within hours or days the sun pops out as if to say “Just kidding!” and the shorts and t-shirt rut resumes. Californians use cold weather as an excuse to stay home and remind ourselves why we live here.

Entering San Mateo County, we felt transported. That seventy-mile span of coastline took us from rolling grasslands to lush evergreen forests, and finally to …

The Edge

Pacifica

We pulled off Hwy 280 at Pacifica, our home for a week.

We stepped out of the truck and the warm California breeze hugged our bones like a good old friend. Tony Bennet is right, the golden sun really does come out. Of course the freeze was a joke. Haha. Good one. We couldn’t shed our coats fast enough.

The Campground is all about location. San Francisco RV Resort is merely an asphalt parking lot on a cliff overlooking the Pacific.

In fact, part of the campground is actually in the Pacific but you try not to think about that as the white horses kick the rocks. Sea cliff erosion is a decades-old issue for this surfing community with an unquenchable c’est la vie vibe.

The breathtaking riviera threw us off our mission. With only a week here, we reasoned, “Why go into the city at all?” This is relaxing. Cities are tiresome.

We took a long walk to sort out our priorities.

The beach was winning by a mile.

But then, a little bird suggested that if we take small steps we can enjoy both the beach and San Francisco: Pacifica during the best beach hours (morning and evening) and San Francisco in the mid-day.

“And,” this amazing and articulate little birdie added, “You will like the food.”

E & O Kitchen san francisco — Oysters at E & O Kitchen

Kabuto san francisco — Oysters at E & O Kitchen

Yes. Small steps. What a wise bird.

If we get weary with sightseeing in SF, we can simply BART home.

Thinking about all that fine San Francisco cuisine made us hungry. So we walked home to toast our arrival and whip up an early dinner of Pasta Pesto Presto …