luckycanuck

Ok enough complaining about lost bags and delays. (Even though everything in the bag was slightly damp when it finally arrived late Monday night.) I promised a review of my activities in San Francisco.

JAQ came to town around lunchtime on Friday and we popped her things off at the hotel before heading out to get something to eat. We went to a very kitchy looking deli that she loved from way back in her time living in the neighbourhood. She told me I tip too much. We shopped a bit and wound up at a party later that night. We left around 1am but weren't too tired yet so she took me for a walk to a bar she knew where we exchanged stories about growing up and first kisses, and for a tour of the places that had meant so much to her. She showed me the flat where she once worked as a nanny, the hostel she lived in when she first moved to the city at the age of 18, the pizza place next door where she ate her first meal as what she called "a free woman."

Her enthusiasm for the place was infectious. She loved the city, and I loved that she loved it. I like San Francisco, but to see it with someone to whom it so evidently meant so much made it way better.

I first encountered JAQ quite by accident online about two and a half years ago, and we became friends. Real friends. It got to the point that when we first met in person in her flat in Queens late last year, we both remarked that it was like meeting an old friend rather than meeting someone for the first time. We both knew about each other's vulnerabilities and hopes and fears and struggles, and there was a wonderful feeling of familiarity that time and throughout the whole weekend that just passed.

On the Saturday we slept in from our big Friday and later hired a pair of bikes to cruise around the city. We went through The Castro and Haight-Ashbury where pushups were done,

before making it to Golden Gate Park where we visited the Japanese Tea Garden. Tea and more pushups were had,

and I enjoyed being around one of her favourite places in San Francisco.

Then we made it all the way to Ocean Beach for more pushups.

I told her that if she got in the water and swam far eough she would come out in Collaroy. She wasn't keen to try it.

Then it was up to the Golden Gate Bridge.

And then over the bridge to Sausalito.

On the way down the steep hill on the north side of the bay I realised I hadn't arranged travel health insurance. I fixed that little problem as soon as I could but in the meantime I was very careful not to fall. We had lunch in Sausalito (I ordered something without meat in case the vegetarian JAQ wanted a bite) and lay back in the park near the ferry where we talked for so long we nearly missed our boat back to the city.

Saturday was considerably quieter but we spent the whole day going at our own pace around a city that really lends itself to being visited as I did, with a close friend whom you love.

JAQ said it was the best time she'd had in a long time given some of the frustrations she has been faced with recently. She told me she chose to see the weekend as her showing a visiting friend around town as if she lived there. So often she would point out little shops or restaurants or bars or streets that meant something to her. With all the difficulties in her life she was just lit up the whole time she was there, and so was I. It was the perfect way to start my own holiday given that I've had my own frustrations over the past few months.

Now she has decided that she will be moving back to San Francisco, so it looks like I will have another excuse to visit again.