Lazy weekends

The lovely weather that we returned to from Yellowstone continued – at least for a while. Friday night was really balmy – we went to a party just a few blocks up, at our friends’ place on Green Street, and took in their views from the roof. Last Saturday was gorgeous and, even though I had chores to do, I still managed to take full advantage. This included a stroll down to the little beach less than a ten minute walk away, with its views of the Golden Gate Bridge and historic ships, followed by ice cream enjoyed in sunny Washington Square Park. I also had a dip in our pool and a sunbathe on the terrace. On Sunday, we went on our customary run along the waterfront to Crissy Field and back, then had a pretty lazy day, topped off by a visit to the cinema. We went to see “Bottleshock”, which is about the competition in 1976 involving a blind tasting of select French and Californian wines, in which the Californian wines won all categories, putting Napa on the map. It starred Alan Rickman as the wine merchant who organized it all, and was good fun. I longed for Napa to be as it was then, however, with free tastings and wine at $5 a bottle. Those days are long gone!

I had my final Italian class on Wednesday this week. Then, on Thursday, we had the good fortune to have tickets for Robin Williams (yes, THE Robin Williams of Mrs Doubtfire, Good Will Hunting etc. fame) do stand-up comedy at a cute little venue just a stone’s throw from our apartment. We can – literally – see it from the window. Robin Williams lives in San Francisco – over in the posh Seacliff area – and he was doing this gig to raise money for charity. I have to say that it wasn’t all my type of humour, but the guy is such a legend, that it was great to see him anyway. We only found out about the event on the grapevine – Jon heard it from someone at work, who in turn had heard about it from her dentist. I told everyone at my work, and we ended up with quite a gang from the office, including the big boss! Afterwards, most of us went on to the Belgian beer cellar on our block, which was a perfect way to end the evening.

This weekend, it’s been cooler, but still quite sunny. Jon had to work yesterday, so I took myself off to Golden Gate Park, in the hope of getting into the Chihuly exhibition at the De Young museum. Chihuly is a famous glass sculpture artist who makes some amazing pieces. Anyway, the place was so busy that I gave up without waiting in line (they had a timed ticket system, so I was pretty sure I’d be out of luck), but I had a little stroll around some of the park nonetheless, taking in Stow Lake and the gorgeous rose garden. I then took a bus back to the Marina and had a very cold smoothie in a nice café there before heading home. In the evening, we had an invitation to go to my colleague and friend, Molly’s place for dinner. She lives quite near work, in the Pacific Heights area. Well, I must say that I loved her place! It didn’t have the views that we enjoy, but what a lovely characterful building! She lives in a 1930’s Spanish-style mansion in an apartment on the fifth storey, with wooden floors and lots of built-in closets! We had a really pleasant evening.

Today, we did our run again, then headed out over the Golden Gate to Marin in the afternoon. We’d planned to spend a few hours on Tennessee Beach, but we ended up walking from the sunshine straight into the fog, so the beach was rather chilly, to say the least, with a stuff wind blowing. We lasted it out for a little while, stoic Brits as we are, trained in the art of sitting on freezing cold beaches pretending you’re enjoying yourself, but then decided to give up and go somewhere sunny. We went over to Tiburon, on the other side of the Bay from here, and enjoyed some absolutely amazing ice cream at a café there, before taking in the sun from a spot with amazing views across to Angel Island and beyond back towards the city.