October Sky

My Beloved loves nothing more than showing off his city to anyone who has never experienced it before. Give him half a chance, and he'll drive them all over San Francisco, up and down the breathtakingly steep hills, past the cold black Banker's Heart in the financial district, skirting the Palace of Fine Arts, through China Town, past the Cable Car barn, around Grace Cathedral, up to Coit Tower, down to Fort Point, along the Marina green to Crissy Field, and down the Crookedest Street (although it's not really the crookedest), and, of course, over the Golden Gate Bridge, telling stories and anecdotes the whole way. He has lived in the bay area for most of his life, so he has a boatload of tidbits to share.

The tour is different every time - I've been with him on at least five of these without hearing much repeating of stories. When he took my Dad and his sister, Aunt Virginia, on this tour they both pronounced it the best thing they did in San Francisco - their tour included a drink at the Top of the Mark, theatre tickets, and dinner at a slick restaurant.

He gave a truncated tour this week when my old pal Jeff was in town with his lovely young daughter, Carolyn. Carolyn had never been to San Francisco before and it was a stunning October day, so we started with lunch at Bar Bocce in Sausalito where the bay laps up against the bocce court and the food is quite, quite delicious (I can recommend the mushroom white pizza with copious wild mushrooms and thin, thin crust), then drove over the bridge, snapping photos out the windows and the sunroof as we whizzed across.

He didn't give Carolyn the full tour, since it was getting late, the Marin Headlands were closed due to the government shutdown, and our dessert of enhanced affogato (vanilla ice cream, Heath bar crunchies, and espresso) was making us a little sleepy, but we're pretty sure she was enchanted anyway.  

The bridge did us proud - even snapped out of a moving car and capturing only a fraction of one of the towers, it was still a sight to behold.