Listics

Today I met Lulu, a sweet kitty and I failed to take her picture. I can only pleas exhaustion - jet lag - something like that. Maybe I’ll get to snap her before we head out of town. How did my day go otherwise?

Light breakfast, aq little exercise, then out into the holiday streets looking for poinsettias. Found mistletoe, holly branches, and cedar boughs on our first pass through the downtown flower kiosks. Mourned the passing of Podesta-Baldocchi. Back to the room to decorate, beth making fanciful and creative use of the bathroom wastebasket to contain the major ah-rahnj-a-mont. We were hungry and we remembered that San Francisco is home to…

Great food… we picked up our dear friend and headed out to the high numbered avenues on geary and had the best dim sum I’ve ever had. Madison is a dim sum free zone, so it’s always a treat to visit the City and have the little plates of dumplings (today there was an emphasis on pork and/or shrimp) and exotic veggies (snow pea greens?! shaved asparagus! pork stuffed mushrooms…). We were served the best pork bow I’ve ever had. The steamed bun was light and sweet and the chef had stuffed it with more barbequed pork than I’m used to seeing in three or four of these when they’re served elsewhere. Jasmine tea… dozens of delicacies we were too few and too full to select. The only item I consciously avoided was the chicken feet. I may die without ever knowing how these are prepared or how they taste. The name of the restaurant escapes me, but when it surfaces I’ll pass it on. These dim sum are the best.

Then we walked and walked, from the east end of the Lincoln Park golf course around 28th avenue out to the Cliff House along the cliffs below the VA hospital. Walked back along the high road above the cliffs stopping at the Palace of the Legion of Honor for a few snapshots of the Rodin in the courtyard. The museum is closed Mondays. We paused too for somber reflection at the George Segal sculpture placed as a holocaust memorial.

Returning to the car, we drove down through the Presidio to Crissy Field. We learned that George Lucas is doing something wonderful at the old headquarters, a new ILM shop of some kind. At Crissy Field we acknowledged the generosity of Walter Haas who funded the major part of the salt marsh restoration project that is underway. I felt a little politically incorrect to be wearing Wrangler jeans here in Levi-land.

Tonight I had a cadillac Burger and garlic fries at Lori’s Diner in the Tenderloin.