My Trip to Visit Family in San Francisco

On the way to San Francisco, the clouds parted,

and propitious rainbows appeared, so our mood was doubly lifted.

We arrived in San Francisco, where Art, Architecture and Lifestyle collide!

Where hookers dressed like geishas openly proposition tourists downtown, and half naked women wiggle on all the rooftops. What a city!

Oh, and did I mention the shopping? San Francisco is a shopper’s paradise.

This fellow had shopped so much he had to take a nap on the street.

Speaking of shopping, my niece, Gretchen, has become quite the shopper, living in San Francisco.

In fact, even under the scowling disapproval of her aunt and the withering lectures of her mother, she couldn’t stop fondling the material and grabbing things off the racks.

Eventually, we pried Gretchen away from shopping with the promise of a drink and ended up in a swanky restaurant. My sister, Marlis, always speaks her mind first, then checks her surroundings. Here she is after saying how much she hated flower paintings.

My nephew, Chris, spent many years in Africa and contracted a strange sleeping sickness which has left him a somnambulant. Here he is in a dream state fixing us all a dinner of boots and shoes.

So, after Felicia, Chris’ wife, made us a proper dinner, we all sat down and enjoyed it. Here we all are, with Chris still blissfully unaware of the hub-bub around him.

Chris isn’t always asleep. When he is awake Gretchen gets him to do things, like pay for lunch!

Chris and Felicia have a lot of pets and they introduced us to them. Some of them were scary!

We met Felicia for the first time. She is a wonderful woman and fits in nicely to our family. She has some interesting hobbies like the rest of us – here she is in her back yard showing us her collection of pipe fittings and whalebones.

We also got to spend some time with Gretchen’s wonderful guy, Peter. Here we are at a Mexican restaurant. Marlis, who has a cast-iron stomach, challenged Peter to a hot sauce eating contest and this is the moment when Peter threw in the towel.

We got to do some sightseeing. I tried to take some pictures of the city, but this big mess of wires kept getting in the way. Good grief, someone should tear that thing down.

The beach Chris took us to had black sand – how weird is that!

San Francisco is known for its art galleries. Chris took us to one. Here some young people have expressed themselves. Note the sentiment expressed inside the heart. Now that’s “in yer face” art!

But seriously, we had a great time visiting. Peter didn’t really lose the hot sauce contest.

And Felicia doesn’t really collect pipes. She cares for wounded animals – here’s a picture of one of her patients showing off his wounded flipper.

There were lots of laughs all around.

And Chris really isn’t a somnambulant.

And I even got into the picture.

On the way home we stopped and contemplated things

And caught a lovely sunset

On the way home the surf was up in Big Sur!

And a day after we got home, the surf caught up to us. This first winter storm washed all the sand away from the beach, leaving only rocks and old pieces of the seawall.

And so I put everything in perspective. The waves, as predicted, arrived in SB, and the beach sands were pulled offshore, as they are every winter, and they will return in the spring, and Family is Family, where love is unconditional, and all is right in the world.

And oh yes, Ri and I got a shot to add to our collection of us standing in front of famous things and places.

Love to all.