Catching our Breath in the Bay Area
The six nights we spent in the San Francisco Bay Area is the longest amount of time we will spend in one place over the course of our summer travels. Like the cost of living in SF, the cost of accommodations is really high, especially in the summer. We knew we wanted to do an Airbnb so that we could spread out a little, do laundry, and be able to eat in for some of our meals. We ended up booking a great place in Alameda, which is an island off of Oakland that has ferry access to downtown SF and was less than an hour from Stanford where Ada was spending three days at field hockey camp. We had dropped her off on Wednesday afternoon and would be picking her back up on Saturday. She was worried about what she would miss while she was at camp so we promised not to do anything too exciting in her absence. It gave us a great excuse to slow down for a couple of days and it also allowed for Jackson and Cameron to watch a lot of the British Open.
The only thing on the agenda for Thursday was a round of golf that afternoon for Cameron and Jackson at TPC Harding Park in San Francisco. As some of you may have noticed on Cameron’s Instagram or Jackson’s blog, they are having a match play competition this summer at nine different golf courses. They have named it the Pacific Cup and currently pride and bragging rights are the only prize for the winner. TPC Harding Park will host the PGA Championship in 2020 so they were both interested in playing it while we were in the area. It will be the first time a municipal golf course has hosted the PGA since Tanglewood (outside Winston-Salem) hosted it in 1974. After a great lunch at Original Joe’s in Westlake I dropped them off at the course for their round. I had planned to walk the course with them, but the only option was for me to rent a cart and follow along. Since that defeated the purpose I decided to check out some of the local shopping instead.
As I wandered around a store in search of some comfortable walking sandals I realized it was the first big chunk of time I had been alone in over a month. Having been together almost non-stop for almost five weeks it would certainly make sense for any of us to be craving some alone time. But, it was an odd feeling to be by myself. I had no sense of relief or appreciation for it. Cameron and I have both noticed that I am a much more patient and relaxed person since we have been on this trip. Things that would have gotten me worked up two months ago don’t bother me at all. So, maybe the stress relief that being alone can often provide was just not something that I need right now. I’m interested to see if I stay this way for the couple of weeks we are home before we leave for New Zealand. My guess is that I will not.
My parents got into San Francisco really late on Thursday night. They’ve come out to join us for ten days of our trip as we go from the Bay Area, to Yosemite, and then to Lake Tahoe. Neither of them have ever been in this area so they jumped at the chance to see it with their grandchildren. After letting my parents sleep in and start to adjust to the time change from Virginia, we took the ferry into San Francisco on Friday afternoon. We visited the Ferry Building and then walked a bit up the Embarcadero before taking a streetcar to Fishermans Wharf. Not long after we got there, Jackson saw that there was a WWII Liberty Ship, the Jeremiah O’Brien, docked nearby and open for tours. The stars had aligned. We had come upon something that Jackson would love to do and Ada could care less about missing since she was still at camp. My parents took Jackson on the tour and he was thrilled to get to experience that with them.
We were scheduled to pick Ada up from camp on Saturday around noon, but she had asked if we could come early and watch some of the scrimmages and we were more than happy to oblige. I really enjoy watching her play field hockey because she so clearly loves to have that stick in her hand. It’s the only sport that she’s ever played that when the opportunity arises to do it more she always jumps at the chance. Cameron was proud to see that she had chosen to wear her WFU field hockey pinnie on the last day while almost everyone else was wearing their Stanford pinnie. She had a really good time at camp and I think being there has piqued her interest in Stanford as a potential college choice. After we picked up her up we got lunch and then drove up to explore the Presidio in San Francisco and get a good view of the Golden Gate Bridge. We then headed back to our place to cook dinner because Ada was exhausted.
Sunday was another pretty laid back day. Ada got to sleep in and then do a Skype lesson with her flute teacher. That afternoon we tried to go to lunch in Oakland, but there was a festival of some sort going on at Lake Merritt so traffic was horrible and we gave up on exploring that area. So, we headed north to Berkeley instead. After having lunch at a roadside seafood stand near the waterfront we decided to check out the campus of UC Berkeley. While it was not as aesthetically pleasing as Stanford it had its own unique appeal.
That evening the kids went with my parents to swim at their hotel and then play putt-putt. Cameron and I had the pleasure of having dinner with an old friend from Wake Forest. Tom was a fraternity brother of Cameron’s that was a year younger than us. The last time we saw Tom was when we were in SF five years ago and he took us to a great Korean restaurant. This time he and his girlfriend, Andrea, treated us to dinner at a Burmese restaurant near us in Alameda. It was the best meal I have had so far on this trip and we both enjoyed catching up with Tom and meeting Andrea. It was also a treat for Cameron and I to have a night out with another couple and talk about our middle-age problems and achievements.
Monday was our last full day in the Bay Area and the guys had a tee time that afternoon at Half Moon Bay on the coast south of San Fran. Ada, my mom, and I decided to get in a visit to an art museum since we’d be able to take our time there without worrying about the guys being entertained. We ended up at the San Francisco Museum of Modern Art and got to see their Andy Warhol exhibit in addition to some of their permanent collection. Ada enjoyed it and endured the slow pace at which my mom and I work our way through a museum. We then walked over and caught a cable car to Chinatown, which Ada had specifically wanted to visit. After exploring some shops there we took the ferry back to Alameda. I then took mom and Ada to dinner at Burma Superstar, the same restaurant we’d gone to the night before with Tom and Andrea. I had talked about the food so much they both wanted to try it and I was happy to eat there again.
On Tuesday we packed and got the car loaded for our trip to Mariposa, California outside Yosemite National Park. We took a pretty big detour and went to Muir Woods first, which was the opposite direction of Mariposa. After seeing the giant redwoods at Redwood National Park I thought my parents would really appreciate getting to experience a redwood forest. A couple of people on our camping trip had raved about Muir Woods and since it was so close to San Fran we decided it was worth the extra driving. While the trees there aren’t as big as the ones we saw in Redwoods it was still a great spot to explore. They have done a great job there at controlling the crowds and thus improving the health of the forest. My parents live in the woods so my dad was joking about making a special trip to look at some trees, but I could tell he really enjoyed it. And, my mom enjoys anything that is interesting visually, especially if its in nature, so I wasn’t surprised when she was in awe of Muir Woods. I’m looking forward to seeing what my parents and the kids think of Yosemite. I remember being blown away by it when Cameron and I spent an afternoon there five years ago. It was the first national park I had visited of that size and stature so that may have played into the impression it made on me. Since the kids have already seen Yellowstone, Grand Teton, Glacier, Mt. Rainier, and Redwoods I wonder if their sensory response to new places has been dulled down at all.
