People in motion

San Francisco is defined by the bay, which nearly encircles it, slate grey and cold. We stayed by the shore, the murky sand leading to a desolate sea. Fog encompassed the city when we arrived, but broke to tourist friendly sunny days by the next morning.

We flew in overnight (exhausting, glad I decided not to do it in december) and landed at our bayside home at 7 in the morning.

Space age lock combination which you scan with your palm and then punch in a code. I started a puzzle of san francisco.

We slept first off for about 6 hours, til noon. We then broke free for breakfast lunch at this really good surf cafe with vinyl wood benches. Then walked across golden gate park from the end to the rose garden. You can smell the pines here, but not as strong as home.

To the wharf where the 4^th of July crowds flowed. We walked through for a long time, just observing, and got cold and bought extra jumpers. I noticed the line for our boat was already down the pier, so we joined, and waited there about an hour.

We got a little 4 top to ourselves on the not too overcrowded boat. Took a loop under the Golden Gate bridge and around Alcatraz, to a playlist of songs with America in the title.

The fireworks: when the high ones went off they discoloured the fog in their tints. And then the explosions would drop out of the fog like rain. The lower ones showed up well and we got a great view being out on the bay where they shoot them off a barge. The finale, all in red white and blue, lit up the sky, under over and through the fog.

In the fog, the golden gate bridge disappears into it like a mountain into clouds.

We walked ages waiting for taxi prices to drop, and stumbled upon Lombard street. We climbed it in the night, through the moonlit hydrangias, watching the traffic lights climb the high hills.

The next day we slept in, and Melinda arrived. We took a bit of a tour of the city, rode a streetcar and went back to lombard street for pictures, and wandered to the wharf. We ordered pizza and got in a bit early.

On the 6^th we went to Muir woods, taking an uber over the golden gate to sausalito, then the shuttle from there. I came down crazy sick this day, but powered through with the help of pills.

Redwoods have textured bark, so corrugated you could put a palm span between the crevasses. They grow in what they call “family groups,” fairy circles of trees sprung from the same root system. The roots grow shallow and wide, and sometimes the central, oldest tree has died in the wildfire long ago.

We walked through. A cool thing about Ray is that he really loves trees, which is notable when he sees any but also through offhand comments which betray fairly deep knowledge. So we walked through, and took the ferry back to town.

Now we fly to Toronto for Niagara falls.