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For those who come to San Francisco, be sure to wear some flowers in your hair
By Kate | January 22, 2008
There are times a trip will provide you a fresh perspective & gratitude for your home. There are also times where a trip will make you wonder, “Why the H do I still live in Utah when places like San Francisco exist??” This weekend was one of those times. We headed to the city by the bay to celebrate civil rights in style (note: in Utah ML King day is officially called “Civil Rights day”). It was as fun as eating dippin’ dots at a summer rodeo and felt as fancy-free.
We stopped first in Berkeley which, after seeing a few stop signs grafitied with “driving” underneath STOP, Neil was in love with. After eating at Alice Water’s restaurant Chez Panisse, it was all I could do to convince Neil to come home with me back to Utah at all. It lightened our pockebook a little, but made our minds soar with delicious possibilities.
We stayed right downtown San Francisco in the Nob Hill area of the city with Neil’s college roomate Heber. He has a beautiful apartment, and was a gracious host. We toured around downtown, Fishermans warf, SFMOMA, Golden Gate park/bridge all without hats or gloves or snowboots. In fact, the weather was delightful. I would brace myself for the bitter cold when exiting a building as I normally do in Utah, only to be confronted with a mild breeze. Ahhhhhhhh.
We did a little shopping at gloriously cheap H&M and Zara, ate at a great vegetarian Indian place, found a Trader Joes and had a generally good time.
What also enhanced the enjoyment of this superb weekend was likely the fact that we took a “vegan break” for pretty much the entire trip and ended up eating stuff found in the picture below. 
When I finally persuaded Neil to get in the car & come home on Monday we headed back. We had to lie to the checkpoint guard at the Tahoe pass and say “All wheel drive, yep. Uh-huh no problem.” These white lies were the only way we avoided buying chains and were able to keep going on I-80. Our little Scion handled the snow like a true champion and passed several “SUVs” on the way.
She brought us safely home to Utah. Where it had snowed during our absence. The temperature was in the teens. Our house was freezing. Why do we live in Utah, again?
It’s true what Rudyard Kipling said, “San Francisco has only one drawback. ‘Tis hard to leave.”
Tagged with: Adventure • san francisco • trip
January 22nd, 2008 at 11:36 pm
I feel bad for missing the trip… next year I guess
January 23rd, 2008 at 12:55 pm
Why do you live in Utah? There’s good fodder for another post.
January 23rd, 2008 at 2:23 pm
Yes, we know why the song “California Dreamin’ was written . . .”
So glad you had a wonderful time, but . . .
also so glad you all four returned.
We MISSED you!!!
January 23rd, 2008 at 6:09 pm
i’m glad that your tastebuds were as tantalized this weekend as mine were-thanks again for lending us Veganomicon. i read it several times, like a novel, and made several of the recipes, all delicious. i think we should have a weekly potluck/testimony meeting where we make recipes out of veganomicon and then tell each other how we know the book is true because it makes us happy.
January 28th, 2008 at 1:58 am
The bay is fun to visit, we still do every once in a while. I made some of my best friends ever at the Stanford ward and in the linguistics faculty. But you would need about four times the income for one, to actually live there.
I am not sure that one couldn’t take from the difference in cost of living and tax burden and use it to go to SCF and many other places!
I am not a huge fan of Utah in every way, but low cost of living is a good thing. Not to mention low taxes. I even miss both those things in Portland. If they let us keep the money that Utah would we could afford Chez P!
January 28th, 2008 at 11:42 pm
I only lived there for a little less than 2 years, but I still miss it every once in a while. *sigh* I’d never rule out moving back eventually . . . Ah well. Lemme have this baby first, then I’ll start plotting. Boston area has its advantages too.
I must confess I envy that Chez Panisse dinner most of all!
So glad you enjoyed Sam Clam’s Disco!