San Francisco may have been one of the best vacations I have ever taken. Granted, as a farm kid, my family wasn’t able to travel a lot, so my vacation experience is limited (though I think all the time I spent in Spain probably more than makes up for that).
It was more or less an anniversary trip. Chadoh and I rediscovered our love of exploring new cities together. It had been awhile since we’d done that! I think that traveling with someone adds a different dimension to the relationship. You get to observe your partner outside of their natural habitat and watch how they react to the unexpected. We didn’t have much of an agenda, which allowed us to explore at whatever pace we were feeling on a particular day.
We stayed in North Beach, in a cozy-tiny basement apartment that is rented out per night. It was filled with books and art painted by this guy. There was a cream-colored baby grand, which Chad took advantage of. It was also a good spot to keep track of my jewelry and scarves.
Our building had a roof deck. Unfortunately, it was way too cold and windy (at least for the East Coast kids) to stay up there much.
My SF knowledge prior to the trip was really limited. I had never been there before, and Chad had spent just a day there during a missions trip in high school, before moving on to various other cities in CA and Mexico. So, I was pleasantly surprised to find out that North Beach was kind of a big deal in the beat movement back in the day. It’s home to City Lights, where I picked up an obligatory copy of Howl and Lawrence Ferlinghetti’s What is Poetry?, and Chad got Kevin Kelly’s What Technology Wants. Naturally.
We spent a decent amount of time lounging in Washington Square Park, where very many elderly Asian people do tai chi in the mornings, some with their small grandchildren. It was pleasant.
The North Beach area is also super Italian, which meant I got the most delicious espresso every day. At Cafe Roma, I ordered a latte primavera — a latte with cinnamon and honey. Definitely need to attempt to recreate that this fall when I start drinking hot lattes on the weekends again.
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