San Francisco

Most people would have made a plan to stay a few days in San Francisco, and they would have been right.  For some reason we made this part really tight, arriving on Thursday evening and leaving on Saturday morning. What exactly were we thinking?

We had a very nice visit with Rasa.

She treated us like royalty, with half grapefruits waiting on beautiful plates and a basket of delicious breakfast pastries.  We had a quick tour of her daughter Usha's house (that they built in the backyard where Mel's studio/the carriage house used to be).  It is a perfect little house with lots of clever design features to make use of every bit of the 500 square feet on each floor.

Rasa is still working on her book -- a memoir of the beginning and recent years of her life, but she says she has been sidetracked by lots of research about the years between the world wars.  She started out in Lithuania and while following various research detours she has discovered lots of documents that she didn't know existed -- she was amazed to find the interrogation report from her father's last days (he was an important person in the Lithuanian military) in her hands, and someone is translating it for her and then they will put it on the internet so that others can use it as a resource. That kind of sidetracked.  

Like so many of our other 80 year old friends, Rasa is still an activist with passion for causes. It gives me hope to see people whose politics have remained consistent even as they came to own property and have children and things to protect (I have very generalized theories about why/how people come to be conservatives after starting out as normally progressive young people).  Rasa and Carol C. and Dorothy and Gene N. and Timothy (not 80 yet, I know) are all still leading the way.

We went to check out Bi-Rite with Sarita and found a much smaller store than I was imagining -- established in 1940.  It still has that 1940s vibe, but the shelves are stuffed with cheeses and salsas and fresh baked sweets.  A really crowded space with excellent signage.  Then we went across the street to the creamery and had some of that ice cream.  Sarita said there is always a long line down the block, but (we were not surprised) we just walked right in, no line. The ice cream was divine.

After a quick stop for a mid-afternoon burrito, we went to the Arboretum (virtually empty) and wandered through all the nice plantings.  55 acres of quiet beauty.  It even rained lightly for a while; they are still in the midst of a four-years-and-counting drought.  Jon and I really need to get to California more often.

Then we all really needed naps, so we went back to Sarita's apartment and went to sleep until it was time for dinner.  Back to the Inner Sunset for a relaxed dinner with Bob (who Benjamin used to call My Friend Bob 25 years ago).  Jon has some very nice friends.  We have had so many good conversations on this trip.  Bob told us that his dentist once advised him that you need to take two big trips a year: one that is easier and one that pushes you.  Travel is always hard work, but not all trips have to be equally challenging.  This trip is our easy trip -- no language issues, no booking ahead, just riding around in the car and seeing people we really like.  What could be easier?  Meanwhile we are trying to plan our hard trip to Istanbul/Israel that will happen in about a month. Bob tells us that he recently spent two weeks in Istanbul and there was so much more to see/do.

Tomorrow we begin the trek eastward.  One more week on the road.  Right now Jon is fixing the closet doors in Sarita's bedroom -- good thing he brings his Leatherman wherever he goes.