From San Francisco...

In a word? Epic.

The past three days have been a whirlwind of experience I didn’t expect to have at this juncture of my life. Especially considering that before Monday, the farthest west I’d been was Ohio in 2003.

Aside from the first minute and a half and the last minute and a half of the flight from Philadelphia, which terrify me, traveling west was a nonfactor in the tale of the journey. Once the plane hit the tarmac inSan Francisco, very smoothly I might add, it became very clear to me just what type of ridiculous this trip was going to be.

Knowing that I wanted to be in Reno, NevAda (short A,please) by ten pm local time at the latest, I set off to do the touristy San Francisco things. I parked in a public lot and wandered around Fisherman’s Wharf for about an hour that included a trip back to the car to retrieve the camera that I’d foolishly left behind. Touristy would be the best word to describe the Wharf, full of brightly colored shops (one of which was loaded with Rainier Cherries which were delicious) and overpriced restaurants…but the sea lions were cool, as was the view of Alcatraz. And the college/pro shop that was there was clutch, because it was in the mid-fifties and lightly hydrodizing and I’d left my raincoat in New Jersey. So I acquired a gray 49ers long sleeved shirt to wear under my T shirt and carried on. Oh, and coffee. That’s going to be a theme.

My next stop was Lombard Street, with its well-manicured gardens and ridiculous curves and five miles per hour speed limit. After parking at the top, taking pictures, walking down to the bottom, taking pictures, and walking back up, I drove down in the Little Kia Rio I rented. Next, I headed across the Golden Gate Bridge and parked on the north side at a little vista that overlooked the bridge, the bay and the city and then drove to the Golden Gate National Recreation Area. To get there, you have to drive through a one lane tunnel with a five minute long red light at each end, and then up a curvy mountain road. After driving in and out of a cloud I came upon great vantage points from which to see the bay, the bridge, the city and off in the distance the Pacific Ocean. On a clear day, the view would be breathtaking;on a rainy day, the view was still spectacular. In fact, while I was there, the mist lifted off the bridge for about a minute and a half of frantic picture taking, and then resettled and obscured most of the view.