SF Foray

Birthdays can be kind of depressing, as a friend wrote to me yesterday.  This no doubt accounted for the Italian flats, cropped pants, and two new lipsticks.  But the day itself was a good one: I chose a foray to San Francisco, and Jerry was game.

First, we went  to lunch at the cafe at  Legion of Honor, my favorite SF museum restaurant.  I had a nicoise salad, which came with the distinctly non-foodlike item pictured at right (it's actually a fingerling potato).   Then we had a look at the current show, "The Cult of Beauty: The Victorian Avant-Garde, 1860-1900,"which features paintings, furniture, jewelry, sculpture, and other esoterica of the British Aesthetic Movement. One of my heroes, William Morris, was well-featured.  Worth seeing, I thought.

Two crones forbade me from photographing ANYTHING in the musem, even in the bookstore, although I sneaked in a couple with surreptitious use of my iPhone.

Catalog of the show, which is at the Legion of Honor until June 17.

From the Legion of Honor, we drove to the Presidio, where we took a walk on the Ecology Trail, near the Arguello Gate. Jerry pointed out the serpentine grassland habitat that the Park Service is trying to restore (below).  Many poppies, including some rare species.

Serpentine habitat that the National Park Service is restoring at the Presidio

The trail ended behind a building at the Main Post with a beautiful patio sheltered from the wind, not a soul in sight, empty rocking chairs grouped around a fire pit.  We shared a roll left over from lunch and speculated on what the building could be--an office for a nonprofit?  Through the windows I could see gleaming brass doorknobs, elegant Roman shades, and modern furniture.

Mysterious patio with fire pit

We walked around to the front of the building and discovered it's the brand-new Inn at the Presidio ($195-350/ night).  It looked so quiet and pleasant that I wished we'd booked a room.  You could do lots of walking in any direction.

The Inn at the Presidio with a diminutive Jerry to left of sign

After that, we drove past the hospital where I was born (then Children's Hospital of San Francisco, now California Pacific Medical Center) and then made a quick stop at Crissy Field to watch the window surfers skimming over the bay in a fairly stiff breeze.  Some caught the wind with enormous kites.  It looked like a freezing undertaking.   A quick drive through Fisherman's Wharf (nostalgic, despite the hordes) and back to Berkeley.  Later, we had dinner at Five, in the Shattuck Hotel.  The food was delicious, but the view of the abandoned Penney's/Ross building left something to be desired.

It's over for another year!