The Black Sword in the City of Saint Francis - Day One

July 9th. A Black Sword in the City of Saint Francis

Day one of my explorations of The City and I find that I'm starting with some somewhat familiar territory .... I'm sitting in a cafe in the Japan Center and watching beautiful Japanese women and men walk by, having a decaf coffee ( what!? No tea? Yeah, yeah... I figured I'd be an iconoclast a bit and have coffee in the heart of Japan in S.F. So shoot me...) and waiting to decide on my next move. It was much less hassle to get to San Francisco than I had anticipated this time. Even though I packed large as I usually do, the taxis in S. F. make it much easier to get around and be a wanna be Sherpa with luggage when you remember to go do Powell Street Station which is right near a major hotel so the taxis are always hovering in the vicinity. $7.15 later and I slip the guy a ten note, tell him to keep the change, and thank him for the conversation. I'm at the inimitable E. F. Kohler's house for the duration gut he's not home. "Oh yeah! His mother Dorothy's in town for a few days too! Ok, I'm sure he's out spending time with 'mom' so its up to me to explore.... Off I go." More after I spend a few more hours out and a'boot.

Well, the shops are starting to close in Japan Town and so I slowly make my way back to E.F. Kohler's place in the Western Addition. It's a cool walk over the pedestrian bridge that spans Geary Blvd. and the views are great of the clouds just over my head. I pull out the camera and take a few pics.... I'll upload them as soon as I can. I spy a dad teaching his son the finer points of pitching at one of the local parks. I say, " Yup, 10,000 hours of practice." He spys back and says, " Yeah, you got that right." and I smile and keep moving. There's this great house only a block or two from E.F.'s place which is just this incredible example of turn of the century 19th-20th Century kitch architecture. The place is gilded with gold trim and is an interesting purple color. Gaudy is the word that comes to mind.

I get back and sure enough E.F. is there and his mom Dorothy whom I haven't seen in ages. We chit-chat and have a great time catching up when some relatives of theirs from Michigan call and say they'd like to have dinner. It's a nice trip across the Golden Gate Bridge to Sausalito. I can't remember the last time I did either... It's a small italian restaurant that we are in just a block off the water front. The food is vacuumed down by me when I realize that I hadn't eaten too much since I started this trip.

The return is nice and I get some idea even at night of where I wanna do some more exploring later in the week. We're all pretty tired by now. E.F. sets up a very nice air mattress and it's off to slumber land. More adventures tomorrow.