"And the light is softly low as our hearts become sweetly untied..."

I forgot to mention how the Palace was perfect for imagining I was in The Light in the Piazza...

In this age of the internet we can see pictures of practically anything in the world. But some things really do surpass a picture or any expectation. Michelangelo's David, for example, far surpassed what I had imagined him to be like. I almost didn't go see him in Florence because I'd seen pictures and thought that was probably sufficient, and the line to get into that museum can get very long. But he was truly magnificent in person. Indescribable, you know? You just have to see him for yourself. The Redwoods, on the other hand, didn't quite live up to my imagination. But the Golden Gate Bridge triggered an unexpected reaction: I loved it. I think it is so beautiful, and it is so different seeing it in person than on a postcard. I can't really specify a reason for loving it so much, I just know that I did. Boats were out, we saw some real-life crabs, looked at creepy Alcatraz, and took a foot-shot. Taking pictures of my feet is something I like to do when I travel, adopted from Sylvia. Just a picture of me being some place, from my point of view, my feet solidly planted in some place that I'm loving. They're just pictures of me being somewhere.

This day was gorgeous, as you can tell. Blue skies, blue water, plenty of sun but not hot. San Francisco weather is weather that I like. We found the beautiful path to get up to where we could walk across the bridge. Here's something that really struck me and which I love about San Francisco: how the city and nature are so interconnected, entwined. In a lot of cities I feel like nature has been pushed out, like our mighty metropolises will be made weaker or less functional if we allow nature to remain where it naturally belongs; we must conquer it and cover it with pavement. Now of course I'm describing an extreme here and our cities do always have some trees, some flowers, some parks. But San Francisco feels like the people are living more in nature than most cities I've been in. The trees there don't look like they've been strategically planted where they won't bother anyone or inhibit our businesses, that's just where they grow. Gardens are nurtured throughout the city, huge (some people would say inconvenient) hills are embraced-- these challenges to building and living are celebrated and are an integral part of the city's identity. Nature is clearly very important to the inhabitants there. It reminded me of Edinburgh in that way; right smack in the middle of Edinburgh, another delightfully hilly city, is Holyrood Park which includes this HUGE hill with Arthur's Seat at the top. It's this wonderful highland landscape within the city. Accordingly, San Francisco has Telegraph Hill, which I would visit our second S.F. day. And of course I'm not even mentioning the water, wind, and sky which are a presence in San Francisco.

Walking up to the bridge we encountered some tunnels which clearly beckoned to us. Yes, they were roped off, did that stop us? They turned out to be old batteries from war days. And how could we resist taking some Jumping pictures with the Golden Gate. I love jumping pictures, which is something adopted from Stephanie Breinholt. They just look so free and joyful. You have to jump in places that you love, places that make you feel how you look: so enraptured and happy that you cannot be rooted to the earth.

After walking across the bridge, which is not as good as gazing at it in my opinion but you have to have some direct personal interaction with it, and not in a car, we drove across it.

In "A Heartbreaking Work of Staggering Genius" by Dave Eggers (which mostly takes place in San Francisco), he describes this drive:

"The bridge ends, the torn cotton clouds breaking up immediately, then it's clear, Easter blue, and we're on 101, but just for a second -- two exits and then we get off at Alexander, then come back under 101 and up the Headlandsdrive. As we climb with the road, right away above the Golden Gate, the clouds are suddenly below us, rolling through the bridge, fleece pulled through a harp.

Toph and I keep going up the hill because you have to go up to get to Black Sands, first straight up the hill, the road winding in and out, past all the tourists stopped for the view, looking down on the Golden Gate, and every time we double back toward the bridge, the view, biblical, presents itself, the view where one sees Treasure Island, and Alcatraz, then all ofRichmond, El Cerrito, Berkeley, and Oakland and then the Bay Bridge, then the white jagged seashells of downtown, the Golden Gate, blood red, then therest of the city, the Presideio, the avenues--

But we keep going, and as the road continues, winding up, the cars thin out,and at the very top of the hill/mountain, there are only a few sightseers left, and they are turning arond to go back down, three-point turning right at that WWII-era tunnel at the top, because it certainly seems like the road ends, right there, at the top of that hill--

But then the road continues, and there is a gate, a flimsy metal gate, right there, and it is open, it's probably always open. We keep going, not slowing...

The road, now a one-way, heads straight for the water, and it looks for about twenty seconds like we're going to go straight over...so we go slow, then the road starts bending right, and then down, and in a second we're driving parallel to the water, a few hundred feet up of course, for a while without even a visible cliffside to the left, just a sheer drop -- and then suddenly we see the Headlands whole, green and mohair hills, ocher velour,the sleeping lions, the lighthouse far to the left, unbelievable given we're ten minutes from the city, this vast bumpy land, could be Ireland or Scotland or the Falklands or wherever, and we snake down, with the road bending back and forth along the cliffside...lookee here, ha ha, look at this!"

The gate at the top was closed, but I got out and headed to the top on foot. On the way up I stepped off the road, pushed some branches aside, and looked off the edge toward the west and the lighthouse. It was such a view, and I felt like I was one of few people to have seen it. At the top there were these empty building which looked like they were built for birds? I don't know, but the view was incredible. I kind of wished it had been a cloudy/foggy day so we could see the clouds around the bridge, but I was also glad we got such a nice day as we did.

I wanted to stay there longer, or find the road I could see winding its way toward the lighthouse, but we had tickets to The Glass Menagerie that night at Berkeley Rep and we had to get dinner first. So we headed back down the hill and to the east to Sausilito. (Do you hear the pepperidge farms commercial for Sausilito cookies when you read that word, because I do.) Sausilito felt golden. It's got the Italian Riviera feel to it. We were in a bit of a rush, but still walked down the street next to the water in our perusings of restaurants. We ended up at this cafe which was open to the air and provided us with the best pizza Beth has ever tasted. It was Good.

I don't know how people who live in this area ever feel like they're not on vacation. It felt enlightened, paradisical. After living there, how could anyone live someplace like Utah? Not that Utah doesn't have its own beauties, but San Francisco is just an incredible blend of wide open blue skies and water with an infusion of golden light, delicious fog, verdant growing things, culture, hippie influences, and the great outdoors verging on the city. I understand why it's so expensive to live there, it's unlike anyplace else I've ever been.

We had to be on our way to Berkeley, but almost on the way was Lombard Street, the windiest street in the world. We really shouldn't have taken the time to drive down it because we were definitely cutting it close, but how could we not. And yes, we were late to the show, which has never happened to me before. I seriously thought they weren't going to let us in and that we would have wasted $30, and I was feeling really sick about it, but they answered our hopeful knocks. And there was another couple who were late and they showed us into the back of the theatre after the first scene. It was so nice to be seeing professional theatre again. It was really well done, not life-changing, but enjoyable. I've never actually fully read or seen this play, so I felt educated.

We dragged our weary feet home and fell into bed.

The next day we headed up to the Redwoods. First we drove through wine country, which was lovely in a golden way. I wished we had time to drive through Napa Valley or something, but getting to the Redwoods is quite a drive in itself. It was really enjoyable though, I drove most of the way up and winding through trees and mountains is fun. We saw some weird hippie stores on the way which was delightful. I really did enjoy the tree-hugging feeling; I certainly don't go to the extreme that a lot of people do, but it was nice to feel surrounded by people who had similar earth-loving feelings that I have.

The first thing we did was drive through a tree. It was definitely not as cool as I had imagined it would be. I guess my imagination is just too powerful because the redwoods did not live up to it. The forests were certainly beautiful and peaceful, and I Loved just being in a true forest again, but I did not feel dwarfed like I had been expecting. As soon as we could, we hopped out of the car and started hiking through the redwoods. Our destination had been the Avenue of Giants, but we weren't really sure when we were there, so in our enthusiasm we actually got out of the car a little too soon and spent a long time hiking in a forest of not particularly impressive redwoods. Well, the first 15 minutes were impressive, (I am standing in a tree here), but then we just hiked a looong time in regular trees. We just kept thinking, well we've got to be close to the top, after this hill we'll get there and then we can have a great view and head back. But after every last stretch, there was another one. It was hot, I didn't have enough unfrozen water, and there were TONS of mosquitos.