We’re back from San Francisco and I apologize for disappearing without a word. I intended to post en route but we traveled around so much and time was shorter than I expected. We went out as Allan was to do a radio interview with Michael and Justine Toms on their New Dimensions program and we decided to tack on a vacation. The Toms broadcast from Ukiah, a couple of hours north of San Francisco and we drove up to that beautiful wee town in poring rain and were delighted to wake up the next day to a charming place set in a valley in the far reaches of the beautiful wine country. The Toms are doing such good work interviewing authors and artists. It was a real pleasure to meet them and I’ll let you know when the radio interview will be web cast.

So many things happened on this trip. I hadn’t been anywhere new for a while so it was fantastic to see beautiful San Francisco, the incredible landscape and seascape all around and especially to meet some great people. I love that most of all, for sure.

After Ukiah, Allan gave a presentation at JFK University set up by his friend, artist and writer, Julie Stiles. JFK actually has a Department of Consciousness and Transformation! Pretty cool and not the sort of thing we find much of here on the east coast where we have to work through things the good old-fashioned way stumbling around a bit. I met two wonderful sisters, Pauline and Gillian. They’re from Liverpool originally but have lived in San Fran for years. Pauline is a nurse who uses art for healing and Gillian uses writing to get people to step forward through telling their stories. I could have talked to them all night and hope we’ll get to share a little through the grace of the internet!

Pauline and Gillian tipped us to the farmer’s market at Ferry Pier on Saturday and we spent the day roaming around there with Julie and eating Mexican food. It was great to hang out with Julie and chat about the process of making art. I can see that we don’t give ourselves nearly enough chances to do that when we’re home. It seems like we always have things ‘to do.’

San Francisco is so full of amazing vistas and architecture, a magical place, as is the landscape and seascape all around. We spent a few days at The San Remo Hotel which reminded us of other times and other realities. It was built in 1906 after the San Francisco to house workers rebuilding the city and restored to its former self a few years ago. I think Raymond Chandler roams the halls at night which made it a kind of cool place to stay.  Truly felt I’d stepped behind the brilliant curtain of light and beauty that is so much of San Francisco into something grittier.  The rooms are tiny, the furniture original to the early 20th century and the bathrooms separate from the rooms. A modest splendor. I like my creature comforts and was, at first, reluctant to stay anywhere where I might have to pad down a long corridor in the middle of the night to use the loo but the place is full of quaint charm and history. Our neighbor, George, was a permanent resident of the hotel, a jolly man in his seventies. Who knows what brought him there but I loved his cheerfulness even though his life was lived in a nine foot square room. I met another man when I went to wash a few clothes in the laundry. He, too, must have been a permanent resident because he was washing his curtains. He was young and handsome and greatly concerned that there was only one dryer working. I don’t know too many young men who wash curtains but this fellow did.
The hotel was so intimate—total strangers toddling about in their undershorts and pajamas to use the showers and toilets. Everyone was courteous and affable. In ordinary hotels people breeze right by each other but in The San Remo they greet each other with a smile and a hello. You really do need to say something when you meet someone in the early morning in your pajamas. It was great.

Home again. We drove through Boston in a taxi last night around midnight and I found the grittiness of this city, its red brick and well-worn buildings, all so familar and somehow comforting. It’s home and it’s good but the great vistas of San Francisco are in the mind and heart now too.  Anyway, many more tales to tell and much inspiration. To be continued!