Back to the Bay

Today I finally scraped together a little time to return to the city of my soul, to San Francisco. It seemed like a long time had passed since I was last there. And it had; it was mid-July the last time I went. Not to be overly dramatic, but hat's an eternity for me! And it was great to be back.

As luck would have it, I stumbled into the middle of Fleet Week. I have this knack, you see, for being completely oblivious to major events going on in the places I travel to. Just lucky I guess. That's how I stumbled upon a Bernie Sanders rally there in 2016. And it's not the first time I've been surprised by a Fleet Week there either. But it's just as well that I knew nothing of it going in, for I surely would have talked myself out of going and just stayed. Which, frankly, would have led to a more productive day, but let's not go there.

As it was, all of the regular parking I normally use was cordoned off for vendors and staff and food trucks and probably dignitaries, if there were any. So I took a little drive and found a nice little parking spot past the base of the Golden Gate, up into the Presidio area, about two miles from Fort Mason. It was a nice little walk back in through Chrissy Field, so I'm not really complaining. But boy was it crowded in Sand Francisco today! It was almost like being at Disneyland, except I didn't get to ride Thunder Mountain. Folks lined the beaches and grassy knolls and just about every free space they could plant down some lawn chairs or beach cabanas. They were there, I imagine primarily, to see the air show. Which was ironic, since the fog never did quite burn off, so no one could really see any planes. But boy, you could hear them. Loud enough to set off varying car alarms. 

So it was not the normal tranquility (relatively speaking) that I found there today. It was still nice though, and I got my 10 miles of walking in, my Nob Hill Chill from Ghirardelli, and even had lunch at a little Mexican joint in the Marina District which I had never been to before. Always great to try someplace new.

One of these days I'm going to have to plan an overnight trip there again.

And I saw the Ruby Princess, again by sheer luck, since she's usually only there once every 10-15 days or so. Thousands of people embarking on a new and exciting journey out into open ocean. And even up in that part of the Embarcadero, there were crowds and crowds of people. And more vendors than usual, too, selling all manor of hats and toys and bacon wrapped hot dogs sizzling on the grill surrounded by beds of onions. Saw a homeless gu steal a couple of those hot dogs too, right off the grill. Fun times. 

All in all it was a fairly uneventful day, but after such a hiatus as I had, it was nice to be back in the fresh ocean air.