Local Travel Blog Alert!!!

Lucky me! I got to spend a couple nights in San Francisco thanks to my dear friend, Lorraine. And it was to celebrate my birthday…one more year til Medicare! LOL So please enjoy the photos of San Francisco and a few tidbits of information…and that’s it!

The photos entering the city don’t do it justice. It was a glorious sky with incredible light.

Then came the rain. Not complaining because…drought. And what’s not to love about a hot cup of coffee, a window for traffic and people watching and a good book?

Our first stop at the day was at the Salesforce building. Lorraine had scheduled a tour – rain or shine! So we were there waiting…and waiting…and waiting…No worries! We can do the tour ourselves! This was the view from our “waiting” point. It reminded me of the “OY/YO” sculpture in front of the Brooklyn Museum. And as it was pouring down rain…en”joy”ing the moment is a choice!

From Brooklyn 2020

This is the garden on the 5th floor. We took the elevator and the security guard looked at us like we were crazy. Maybe we were, but it was still fun to wander (all alone)! and admire the skyscrapers.

Loved the messaging on this building. It might have been SLACK.

Self-tour over…onward!

And this is what you do when live gives you lemons…or when your tour guide abandons you in the rain!

What’s a trip to San Francisco during the holidays without a stop at Union Square…and Macy’s? After wandering through the store (okay…there may have been some purchases), we went out to admire the festivities on Union Square. There were plenty of tourists and we also observed so many “helpers”. It was heartwarming to watch the guy in orange (some sort of official tourist helper) offering to take photos for visitors and giving advice and/or directions. The police were also super helpful. And if you’re wondering…we were pleased to see the downtown be so well cared for and busy.

We wandered to a favorite French café for some frites and a burger…plus a cocktail and ran into the gelateria that Blair and I “visited” EVERY night that we were in Paris! Who would have thunk it?

Lorraine continued to amaze me with her planning…there was a holiday festival practically right outside her door for us to enjoy!

Followed by a trip to Club Fugazi. I had NO IDEA what to expect. We’d been there years before for Beach Blanket Babylon – the classic SF revue, but I had not heard a peep about its replacement, “Dear San Francisco”. I’m not going to say any more than…GOOOOOO!!!!! It was an incredible 90 minutes that flew by. It will be closed for 6 weeks or so and then reopening in February. Did I say…GOOOO!!!!!

So after a full day and night of rain…this is what we woke up to in the morning…Perfect day for a walk in Golden Gate Park.

This view never gets old. Best kept secret in San Francisco…and free.

In the photo below, the view is from the top of that building. The art in the foreground of this photo encircles the Francis Scott Key statue that was toppled on Juneteenth 2020. The sculptures are known as “The Ancestors” and they represent the 350 kidnapped Africans who were the first to be brought to “America” in 1619. What we know as “The Star Spangled Banner” was a song written to the tune of a British drinking song. The rarely sung third verse urged sending uprising slaves to their graves. Key was the District Attorney for the City of Washington who “defended slavery while attacking abolitionists”. His brother-in-law was the Supreme Court Justice who wrote the Dred Scott decision.

Across the park from the (removed) Francis Scott Key statue is the Spreckels Music Temple that has recently engraved “Lift Every Voice” across the top. (Sorry, no photo.) This is the title of a song (actually Lift Ev’ry Voice and Sing) written in 1900 by civil rights champion, James Weldon Johnson. The song is also known as the Black National Anthem.

Our current national anthem was only adopted in 1930 and to me, as a nation, we should rethink our choice as it clearly does not represent the entirety of our society. It’s past time that we learn (in school) that our history is complicated and sometimes brutal. Our understanding of history is incomplete and leads to false beliefs. While I’m a serious traditionalist and I love ritual, I won’t be singing our national anthem now that I know its history and understand its lyrics.

I love an impromptu concert.

It’s hard to read, but since Golden Gate Park has closed its roads to cars, there are a lot of murals painted across the roads. This one says, “We Are On Native Land”. Someone used a can of yellow spray paint and added “Stolen” above “native”. I think it’s important that we continue to think about our history more realistically and from all angles.

And…yes…while there were serious moments, being in The City was joyful and I’m so appreciative of my kind and generous friend, Lorraine who made my birthday such a special 3 day event!