A Small Adventure

Alisa was here / photo by B. Sea

    

     I took the train from cold and damp Oregon to warm, sunny San Francisco. I stayed with some old friends and intended to help get their clutter in order. I had my eye on Sam's man cave that is an organizers nightmare but other projects intervened. I intended to dine big, go to the museums and see an opera. Well, the tickets to the theater were too pricey so we settled on live stream instead and one of the restaurants was beyond my budget.

      The day I arrived we sat on the porch in the warm sun with an excellent delivered lunch. I explained the plot of  La Traviata to my friends who had never seen opera before - boy meets girl, their fall in love, boy loses girl when boy's shitty father breaks them up, they reunite in the last act, she dies. Typical drama. The production had fine singers and the ladies looked elegant in colorful voluminous 19th century gowns.

    Baunnie was recovering from a broken wrist so we did a lot of take out food but the quality of delivered food in SF is better than anywhere else. The noodles from a Chinese restaurant were freshly made and the slider trio from Pork Store Cafe was amazing.

    Sightseeing turned out to be limited because of my weak hip. I went to the Asian Museum that used to be the city library to meet some friends. If you go to SF be prepared to do a lot of walking. Baunnie and I went to the Legion of Honor museum later on to see an exhibit by fashion designer Guo Pei. I was dubious at first, fashion is not a big interest to me but oh My God, these creations were fantastical. We would have wandered around more but once again, my bad hip curtailed that. 

 

Childhood Fantasy Guo Pei- Honer of Legion Museum / photo by A McLaughlin

    On the way back home I saw one of those experimental self driving cars. They usually have someone in the driver seat-just in case-but as we passed by I was astonished to see it was driving itself. Ok if this AI can handle the chaotic traffic of SF, it can handle anything.

    For example, I was waiting for a bus near Church and Market Streets, a very busy intersection where I counted over twenty bikes, several motorized scooters, and three skaters bombing pass the bus top. All amid the traffic of streetcars, buses and cars. Everyone dancing around each other. I ride a bike but you have to be ballsy to ride through all that.

    Not much got done but just sitting on the porch  watching the parrots next door feasting on bird seed, while eating a fine meal and chatting with good friends was enough. Next time though I will conquer the cave.

 

The Thinker Rodin / photo by B Sea