Day 27 – San Francisco

Happy 4th of July!!

It seems that Daniel and I could not get out (or find time to blog) in LA, but we did find time to record some music in the studio, spend a few days at the beach, see some cool music, go to Yogananda’s Self Realization Fellowship, make some new friends, see some old ones, and have some great food along the way (did I mention Santa Barbara??). But, it’s time to move forward to today.

Day 27 – San Francisco

One of the observations that Daniel and I have had about California was the lack of edge we felt while being here. Everything has been so relaxed and even LA there was not the energy that you feel in many parts of the East Coast. San Francisco had this edge, but in a good way! Maybe it’s the people, the crowded streets, or the hills we walked up . . . but it had something we’d been missing.

After staying the night with our Mom’s childhood friend Terry, we headed into the city a little before noon. Being that it was the 4th, the public parking garages had raised all of the day-long rates, making it $25 for us to park the car for the day. Ouch. But, once the car was in place, we were off.

We started the day with some cappuccinos in Little Italy, which were nice. I was wish there was more when I get to the bottom of the cup . . . ce la vie. The feel of Little Italy was nice and I wish we’d had the budget to have a nice meal in that part of town. Next was Chinatown. Wow, what a happening place. From the old guys playing cards in the park, to the dried fish being sold, to wondering “am I still in the United States?” Chinatown was a welcomed culture shock. The streets were filled with people and the smells of food I’ve never seen before were intense as we walked through the streets. I’ve learned the Chinese character for “tea” so it was cool seeing that in some of the stores.

After getting lost, we ended up in Japantown and the Fillmore area. It just so happened that there was a Jazz Festival happening on Fillmore St. and we partook of the Festivities. There were folks all over the place and the music was rocking! We saw a group called the Jazzonauts (with an incredible piano player who couldn’t have been more than 19), who were quite good at contemporary jazz and really young (scary). The seemed like Berklee machines (musicians – you know what I’m talking about). Walking through all the vendors made me hate myself a little for choosing to be a vegetarian, but I think seeing all the meat in the windows in Chinatown earlier in the day made me think I was making a smart choice for the betterment of my body.

It was then off to the Haight. Legendary in music history for being the center of the counter culture movement led by groups like the Grateful Dead, Haight-Ashbury still has the air that I would imagine it had in 1969. Tie-dye shirts, dirty white folks with dogs, lots of smoke shops, and an anarchist bookstore (who knew??!) were some of the sights we saw coming into this part of the city. By this time Daniel and I had not eaten anything all and decided to stop at the People’s Café for a late lunch/early dinner. It was Mmmmm good. Their veggie lasagna had cinnamon in it!!

After finishing the food and finding a cool blue blazer (yes!!), I ran into the famed record store, Amoeba Records. Working in the music industry, it has pained me to see the demise of the record store. I spent so much time there growing up, working, buying and learning about music, that it made me sad to see that the new trend toward digital music was robbing people of this experience. Amoeba renewed that feeling of excitement about visiting a record store, and man, what a selection!!! They had tons of Folkways stuff, lots of World music, a ton of jazz records, and they even had the majority of Rahim AlHaj’s catalog! Their record buyer knows what’s going on. I got outta there and spend $50 (could have been a lotttt more) on the new Wilco album, Jorge Drexler’s 12 Segundos de Oscuridad, a Ruben Blades record I love but never had physically, and a record highly recommended by Pat Metheny called We Three by Phineas Newborn, Roy Haynes and Paul Chambers. Soooo looking forward to checking these out. Amoeba – you rock.

After a quick visit to Golden Gate Park, it was off to see the fireworks for the 4th! SF did a great job with these and Daniel and I found a great spot to see the activities. They even had fireworks that exploded in the shape of a planet with a ring around it (aka Saturn). A nice way to end the day.

Tomorrow we will investigate Berkeley, have some famous Berkeley burritos and maybe meet up with a friend of Daniel’s. Ahh, maybe we will get to the Tea Garden at Golden Gate park too! Suggestions for Northern California are welcomed. . . .