A Day in the City

Yesterday Larry got an offer to go out on a sailboat with an old friend.  I am always super grateful for these invitations, because Larry loves to boat, and I DO NOT BOAT. 

I get very seasick and the ocean terrifies me.  I made this clear when Larry proposed marriage to me many years ago, and I have not altered my position on this subject.  I also said I never wanted a dog, and now we have one, although I still don’t want one.

Susan and Amy enjoy boating, so I drove the three of them up to the St Francis Yacht Club and they sailed off. 

I found a ten-year-old Frommer’s Guide to San Francisco in my car, and started reading up on the Marina and Pacific Heights neighborhoods.  It was warm in my car, so I took an inadvertent nap in the Yacht Club parking lot for about an hour.

Then I put some Sudoku puzzles and an extra sweater in a tote bag and set out to explore.  My first stop was the only restaurant on Chestnut Street that was both listed in my old Frommer’s Guide and still in business. 

It was an Italian restaurant called A16. I ordered a very avant-garde wood fired pizza with an arugula-walnut pesto and roasted potatoes on it.  It was served with a scissors to cut slices, so you know it was trendy and cool.

I was enjoying my latte and working a Sudoku when a bridal party of world-weary 26-year-old complaining women was seated behind me.  I had to leave because I was afraid I might stab them with my pizza scissors.

I wandered all the way up to Lafeyette Park in Pacific Heights.  San Francisco has some crazy steep hills.  Luckily, I was alone, so I was able to climb the hill extremely slowly, stopping often so my bra wouldn’t get sweaty.  When I attempt this strategy with my family there is always a lot of griping.

Lafeyette Park is where a lot of people camped out after the earthquake and fire of 1906.  I know this because the night before I had just finished the Laurie King book “Locked Rooms”, which is about a family that survives the earthquake and its aftermath.

So it was very cool to see the actual spot where much of the book takes place.  And it is also a very beautiful park.  Then I had to hoof it back to the Yacht Club for post-boating cocktails, the one part of boating that I enjoy.