We inevitably become our parents, our parents become our grandparents. It's a sneaky process that moves beneath us like a current in a river moving us along while we are distracted by the day to day events of our lives. Inevitably we grow older and we move forward through the stages of life. Suddenly we see just how far we've drifted as we pass by a landmark.
Jeannie and Bryan's Wedding brought me to San Francisco this weekend. The whole event was very nicely done. The venue was a small cafe with a nice little garden. The setting was a perfect match for their hipster personality. A niche with it's own uniqueness, and personality. The ceremony started off under the late afternoon sun, dinner in the post sundown twilight, and dancing under the stars in the San Francisco night sky. Almost as if they had Apollo him self adjusting a dimmer to set the mood for the evening.
The food was fantastic. As someone noted even the vegetarians carried away full plates. For the carnivores the chicken was delicious, but the real highlight was the mac and cheese. Soul food as unpretentious as the venue itself, but equally comforting, savory, and incredibly well done. By far the best mac and cheese I've ever had, with several types of cheesy goodness ozzing out. If it were Chelsea Clinton's wedding some elitist guest or press core might have scoffed, but they would have done so with their mouth full and bits of cheese between their teeth.
San Francisco has all the metro sophistication of a big city, but it encourages you to dial back for a second to taste that sip of wine, and to live in the moment. My feelings on the city vary by the day on whether or not I would live there. I think it may be related to the weather. When I's sunny I love it, when it's cloudy i'm more mixed. For the most part it's like a perpetual fall on the east coast. I find it fascinating to watch the mist roll over the city always blowing west to east. If you look up it almost looks like clouds blowing over.
While I was in SF i arranged to go row at Marin Rowing Association. Marin was incredibly hospitable and invited me to come down and use their boats, their boat house, and their ergs, for as long as I was in town. I was able to take out a very nice 2007 Filipi S 1x for a row two days in a row on their narrow but very protected 2,500 meter waterway. They had a longer section that extended all the way out to San Quentin, but it was more open water. It was really cool to row with the hills in the background. I used my zip car membership to get out there. I woke up in the morning and used my iPhone to reserve a car for a few hours that morning, picked the car up in the garage next to my hotel and drove the 30 minutes to Marin. After rowing I just dropped it off again.
Friday night we ended up at the bar in the Clift Hotel. Staying in a boutique hotel must be a little bit interesting. They have a bouncer at the front door, and the party from the hotel bar spills out into the lobby. It's crowd thats trendy for the sake of being trendy, just like the hotel it's self. The bar has portraits on the wall that are framed flat screen Tv's with a lopped video of a person posing for the portrait, standing completely still except for the occasional blink. I met this really cute girl Julie, from Munich. After being chided by Kevin for blatantly checking her out as she walked by. The two of us ended up closing the hotel bar, then moving to the lobby, where we were eventually ushered into the street, and there we spent another half hour with no real place to go.
It was a great trip despite my almost not making it and having to completely redo my travel arrangements three days before I left.
