chase the light

Awww hello former house in San Francisco. Today will be full of nostalgia.

It’s also Canada Day. Sorry suckers I’m in ‘Merica. It’s he start of a hell month of nothing but traffic and crowds in Vancouver because of events. Canada Day, cruise ships, the fireworks shows, a couple of marathons blocking all roads out, Pride, just…. all our summer time, summer time madness… Really happy to be out of town for once. Some days you can’t even leave your neighbourhood because so many streets are blocked. But that’s not here, is it!?

Today’s plan is get to L.A. but first a few more visits around the city. I wanted to get out of that crap motel in Berkeley as soon as possible so I got up early but had to wait for a small camera shop to open down the road. Nice store but there was a better one in the city that opens at 11am and that’s what I’m really aiming for. I did need some film so I picked up a few rolls just in case and then headed into the city. There are no toll booths on the bridges anymore and you have to pay with a transponder or wait for them to send you a bill in the mail based on your licence plate. (Future me has not received a bill in the mail and from what I’ve read online it seems maybe Canadian plates cannot be tracked to a home address). Hooray!

First stop is Pier 39 as I told my son I’d pick up some ducks for him from the duck shop. What did I discover at Pier 39? No sea lions! What the what?! They’ve always been there since the earthquake!! In 1989 after the earthquake they just showed up and never left but it turns out they still migrate in the summer and most disappear. Well that’s disappointing. I’ve spent enough time at Pier 39 so I just went to the duck shop …THAT WAS CLOSED! OMG. Oh, no, they just moved, whew. Okay, ducks acquired, Alcatraz looked at, and now on to that crooked street. It’s actually hard to take a picture of Lombard Street to show off its crookedy features. I thought a resident’s SUV that was parked there was particularly funny because its left rear tail light area is totally getting smashed by drivers not paying attention. That sums up touristy Lombard Street pretty well.

Next stop my house by Golden Gate Park. Oh god, sigh, such an amazing time there and some of the most amazing memories of my life. Oof, right in the feels. When I moved there I wanted to be in the city even though the commute to work was long. This was also the first place I ever lived alone. Not that I did anything to the place but it did feel uniquely mine. That was new to me because I did feel isolated at times. I didn’t know many people left from my school days but I could walk to Golden Gate Park and Haight Ashbury and all the museums were right there. Alone but surrounded by many. I could call Zip most nights, or Keith and Shelli nearby but it was very different working there compared to when I went to school. I actually had money, but as a student I was surviving on Costco tortilla chips and Otter Pops. Made my stomach hurt. As it should. The house was very quirky and if I ran the microwave and the toaster at the same time I’d have to go downstairs to a little breezeway to reset the electrical panel. It was dark down there. Old home things like that. The bedroom had a chandelier because it used to be the dining room. Ha! When you went in the front door it had this super long ass hallway all the way to the back of the house. The front room was amazing with a big bay window and the rain would pound against it during violent storms. I had one of those 35” tube TVs which just seems ridiculously small now but then it was state of the art. Watched so many films late into the night curled up on the couch and sometimes I’d pull out the bed and sleep there. One of the windows you could even see the top of the Golden Gate Bridge so the location was fantastic.

The parking was atrocious though and my car got broken into 11 times. One time they tore the whole dashboard off to get my stereo and it cost me something like $1200. It was a car stereo that had one of those removable faceplates. I had it in the house with me!! Total geniuses. I missed home too much to stay and on my penultimate day there I took a long walk around the area to soak it all in because I felt like that would be last time I’d be there for awhile. And it was. I remember there was a crew screening for Shrek the day I was leaving and I pulled up in my moving truck and said goodbye to people in line at the AMC Kabuki cinemas. That closed that chapter in my life. Many core memories.

Well then, let me wipe away those tears and I’m outta here. First a quick stop to a funny little place in the Sunset District. That place where Patty Hearst liked to do her banking. Three SLA members and Patty Hearst AKA “Tania” entered the Hibernia Bank and she was caught on camera with her rifle. I always found it so weird it was just some tiny bank on a corner by my school. Now it’s just some Medical Services building but has a lone Bank of America ATM on the outside. I suppose she could still fall off the wagon and rob the ATM for old time sakes.

I had planned to go the Casa de Fruta route through the Pacheco Pass but the traffic was so bad going through San Jose I headed east through Livermore. I was supposed to get to L.A. tonight but I was wrapped up in all things me and San Francisco and was way behind schedule. Stopped in Santa Nella of course to stretch the legs. My friends and I have a thing where as you pass through Santa Nella you have to take a photo of the windmill at Pea Soup Anderson’s. It’s a fun tradition we’ve been doing for many years. It was late in the day so I was able to get the sun through the blades which is rare for any of us.

Oh and back in San Francisco I bought a camera. A black Olympus OM-4. I love it but no lens. So I have a job ahead me to source a lens.

I really tried to get to L.A. tonight but I could only make it to Vallejo so I slept in the shadow of Magic Mountain. Just too tired. It’s also cheaper than staying in L.A. I can’t believe two nights ago I was in the redwoods. Two long days of driving, friggin’ hell California is big.