i have totally wimped out on writing about our honeymoon. to redeem myself at least a little, i will write this.
we stayed at the hotel rex which happened to be named after kenneth rexroth, beat poet. we ate dinner the first night in cafe andree, their restaurant, named after rexroth’s late wife, andree dutcher. the food was great, the restaurant was quiet on a sunday night, we sat by the window and marvelled at being in san francisco. our room was small and almost always warm. it went well with the warm colors on the walls and the bed.
the next morning we woke and i peeked out the window at monday morning san fran, busy street as everybody made their way wherever people in san fran go on a monday morning downtown. we were just a block and a half from union square, it is definitely the area i would return to stay.
there was great shopping around union square, all the big stores, though we didn’t do much shopping. the financial district was nearby and it reminded me of my uncle terry jones, old-school san francisco, who operated an import/export business in the city for many years and this was his working neighborhood, him in hat and coat and the chronicle reading herb caen’s latest, him grabbing a cup of coffee in the damp morning on his way to a meeting in an office on an upper floor of some skyscraper. many of the hotels in the area were being picketed because of a lockout of housekeeping staff. those people earned a lot of respect when we saw them marching in a circle on a little taped-off piece of the sidewalk, making a lot of noise, going around and around and not giving in and then we found out this was the fourth week and i realized the sacrifices they were making with the hope of gaining just a little something, maybe health insurance for their kids…
we had breakfast at the restaurant next door. a breakfast of the sort that i’m not well-suited for. spent a while getting showered, dressed, bags packed up, katie’s hair and makeup done, finally leave the hotel room… only to step outside, walk next door and force ourselves to sit inside for another 45 minutes. wait for service. order orange juice. break out the guidebooks and browse through information, maps. order breakfast. read books. wait. eat hurriedly. pay go.
the guidebook session was pretty good because it gave us a chance to plan out our day, something we had resisted doing back in minnesota but which was necessary to make sure we saw what we wanted and with the least running back-and-forth all over the big city. knowing that we would soon step out the door to make our way, consulting the guidebooks had an exciting immediacy.
after that, we left. we walked down sutter street to powell and then down powell to union square where i got a big cup of coffee (for some reason, small cups of
restaurant coffee just don’t give me the fix i need) and we sat on the plaza with
other tourists milling around. there were palm trees and a big metal heart by where we sat. the heart was part of san francisco’s latest public art initiative and they were actually setting up a stage on the plaza for a ceremony later in the day to kick it off. i think. they were playing old music over the PA and across the square an older couple danced a little to the music and then kept walking.
fast-forward. we caught a cable-car up and over nob hill and then disembarked while everyone else continued on to fisherman’s wharf. we wanted to check out north beach so we walked a few blocks on a bus driver’s directions and found ourselves outside city lights books. wow. a big store. on the edge of north beach where neighboring chinatown was slowly creeping into the old italian neighborhood.
we went in. a sign in the window by the door said “turn your cell phone off. be here now.” i dropped my bag at the front counter and then went up the few steps into the first area of books (in san francisco, eleveation changes frequently and rapidly).
…to be continued.
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