When I first moved to the Bay Area in 1973, I lived in a sunny apartment on Sacramento street just off Polk. Soon, I moved to the East Bay and lived in various places in Alameda, Oakland, and Hayward. I miss them all - Fort Collins is charming (Old Town was a model for Disneyland Main Street) and fairly benign politically compared to the rest of Colorado, but when winter rolls around again I know I'll have that strong sense of being in Siberian exile from a place that is recalled as so much warmer and more familiar.
Having said that, I wonder if it would ever be possible to return. That curiosity was one of the reasons I went to San Francisco.
After catching a flight to Oakland from LA, my friend and former flying student Arlene picked me up at the airport in her shiny red Mustang. We drove around for a while and stopped at a nearby park to visit with one of her sons and his wife and baby. This son is a rocket scientist with NASA across the bay. All her kids are remarkable.
Arlene doesn't look old enough to be a grandmother!We went back to her cute little apartment in San Leandro, had some snacks, and I had a lovely nap in her spare room. Then she drove me to BART for a ride to San Francisco to meet up with my old friend Leon.
Incredible mass transit and more palm trees! Arriving at 16th and Mission BART.Leon lives in a wonderful hilly neighborhood between Dolores Park and Castro, South of Market. The walk from Mission and 16th made me realize how homogenous and bland (if charming) Fort Collins is. The cutural diversity and richness is almost overwhelming at first for the unaccustomed. It's not all cheery though, with a lot of dead-eyed junkies and drunks scattered about, and this area around the BART station is the mugging-and-robbery epicenter of San Francisco these days. Still, I couldn't suppress a smile and feeling of excitement as I walked briskly through the golden-hour late afternoon light toward Twin Peaks.
"Esta Noche", the Latino gay bar on 16th street near Mission.
Leon has a very sweet flat on the lower level of a three-story house. While you step down from the street in front, out the back is a hill-top view to the south. He's been there a long time, and over time, has mastered how to have a really graceful life there. A while back, he thought maybe he should try to buy something, but with reasonable rent and home prices pushing over a million dollars (even a flat can run $750,000) he sure made the right choice staying put.
Leon shares the place with an aging rag-doll of a cat and La Reina, Madame Zelda the dog (I forget the Japanese breed).
We went for several nighborhood walks with Zelda, and Leon pampered me with meals and snacks that were better than anything we could have gone out for.
Leon and Zelda on some steps up a nearby hill. Below - looking down toward Castro, with the enormous rainbow flag flying in the center.
I rode an antique streetcar up Market on the "F" line to my lunch and the ferry terminal. The second day in SF, I headed over to the East Bay to visit my old friend Freddie and his husband (yes, for real - they were recently married at San Francisco City Hall). I stopped on the way to have lunch with another old friend, Walter, at the building where he a security supervisor.
Walter looked great! He just completed his 20th AIDS walk. We try to sponsor him every year...
After lunch with Walter, I caught the ferry to Alameda, where it dropped me off just a few blocks from our old "Big White" officer's home. I wanted to walk around and see how it felt after being away a few years. It wasn't always a happy time being there, but as I expected, I did miss it after leaving. I often wonder now if we shouldn't have just stayed there and sought work nearby. But I was obsessed with home ownership, and that will probably never happen again in California. Now I am ready to consider long-term renting.
The Alameda Point house.
Mike, Freddie, and the ancient (but still ferocious) Mouse.After we walked and drove around the old air base a while, we headed over to Freddie and Mikes little house in Alameda, visited a bit, and went out for a nice dinner, a walk around downtown, and finally an ice cream cone at a local ice cream place before saying goodnight. I spent the night at Arlene's place, and got up early for her to drop me off at BART on her way to work. The day's plan - lunch with my old boss and dinner with my niece Serena and her husband Cole.
One of my objectives in visiting San Francisco was to meet my former
jefe George for lunch, and catch up on our respective recent histories. I also wanted to drop a few hints that if he found a place for me I might be tempted to return to the Bay Area for work in the company where he is now CIO. I left our pleasant reunion feeling I had conveyed my interest without putting him on the spot. Mostly it was just fun to see him.
Leaving George's office, I passed this 'only in SF' window on Eighth street.
Serena and Cole on the terrace of UCSF Medical Center.
A Haight street sighting on the way to Cole Valley.My niece and her husband just bought a big flat in Cole Valley. I got to accompany them during their final walk-through, so I really got to check it out. Afterward, we walked a half mile or so to great restaurant and had a memorable dinner together.
A sighting across the street from the restaurant - the Craigslist mothership!
One last image from California - this was on the wall at...Arlene's? Leon's? I can't remember, but my fond memories of both make the sentiment equally pleasant.
Finally, after a pleasant and uneventful day travelling back to Denver and Fort Collins, I arrived at home to the aroma of roast turkey - Pat's signature cooking feat. Once before, when I arrived back from travel on Thanksgiving, he pulled to gether an entire turkey dinner to welcome me home!
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