In some ways similar to San Diego.  Lovely land, turbulent sea, splendid weather, and crazy traffic.  Enjoyed four nights in San Francisco proper with Alex.  Visited Golden Gate Park and the West End and admired Alamo Square from above.  The park remains closed but the sods we saw planted last fall are firmly established after a winter of rain.  The other hills, Bernal and Corona and those outside town are also brilliant green with hints of other color from the multitude of flowers.  The orange green and scarlet Allen’s Hummingbirds are zipping among the blossoms and the Pacific Wrens producing a zippy and colorful song from the bushes. 

On the day after our arrival, when we stayed in our rig here in Half Moon Bay a storm shook the house and brought waves of rain along the coast.  That evening we picked up Alex at the multi-colored complex of buildings in the Facebook campus and whisked him and us into the city.  The sun came out after that, first with clouds and then clear sunshine.

San Francisco town was much as we had left it after our visit last fall.  Our jogs through the Panhandle Park passed missing benches that have yet to be replaced “because of the rain.”  Californians will have to discover how to operate when water falls out of the sky.  The rest of us do.  The Golden Gate Bridge remains iconic with its great towers and strand of highway across the great inlet.  So many new apartments under construction are now occupied, for lease or sale, or coming to market.  Considering how much our son’s company has grown, more may be needed.

The food remains wonderful and extravagant.  Anne bought products of the sea to create a wonderful cioppino.  We shopped at Bed Bath and Beyond and worked on household projects with Alex.  He rises “late” so Anne and I catch a bus to the sea shore at dawn and return to see him off to work.  All activity is make-shift, a break from our usual schedule of running to target destinations each day when on our own. 

As I write this we prepare for our last day’s visit.  We will drive with Alex back to San Francisco, and finish all projects.  He will take us out to dinner and we will say good-by.  Then we will return to Half Moon Bay, a place we have scarcely seen on this visit, and pack for an early Sunday morning departure.  That may be good as we plan to take the rig north across the city and the bay bridge to Oakland.  Then we will work our way out of the Bay Area and into the northern central valley.  There it will be warmer, at least during the day.