In the past I’ve told you that my sister Gail and I take a trip together, just the two of us, every five or six years – well we decided to include our little brother Mark and go this year to visit her in Oakland, California at the end of June. We had meant to take him on a trip 3 years ago when he turned 60 but schedules did not work out. Mark lives in Irvington too and has delivered our newspapers. So this is Day 1 (flight) and Day 2 of an 7 day trip.
Mark and I flew Southwest and got an afternoon flight. I hate doing those early morning flights. I didn’t realize Southwest doesn’t assign seats but they do line you up according to how early you booked the flight. I kept looking for what I thought was our seat number until a flight attendant said sit anywhere. There are 3 seats across and of course I’d love to have the seat between us empty so that’s what we did, until they announced a full flight. A very attractive large woman sat on the aisle next to me and she had a very soft arm so even though I was crowded I was comfortable. We had a layover in Kansas City and then a handsome young Hispanic man sat next to us. He worked as a dolly grip on films and was from Atlanta. He talked non-stop the whole trip, but was very interesting so the time flew.
My sister picked us up and after dinner we went to bed early with the 3 hour time difference, we were exhausted.
On Saturday, we decided to go into San Fran because Sunday was the Annual Gay Pride celebration and the traffic would be horrible and it was pretty bad. We drove up to Knob Hill to see Grace Cathedral which is the Episcopal Diocese of California. The original Church was started in 1849 during the Gold Rush. It is now a magnificent Cathedral with famous mosaics, murals and stained glass windows.
Paula Nicewanger/Weekly View
Mark Collins and Paula in front of the fountain.
The Cathedral faces a park with a lovely fountain and 2 famous hotels facing the park —The Fairmont and the Mark Hopkins. We visited both. The Fairmont was nearly completed before the 1906 Earthquake which heavily damaged the interior. Architect and engineer Julia Morgan was hired to repair the building. She pioneered the innovative use of reinforced concrete, which could produce buildings capable of withstanding earthquakes and other disasters. The hotel is magnificent and we wandered through the lobby and hallways. In the Mark Hopkins we went up to the restaurant on the top floor and took photos of the city.
We stopped downtown to visit my sister Gail’s office — she is an architect in a an international planning, design, and consulting firm. She has been working on the Stanford Hospital with a million square feet and a billion dollar budget (pictured here with the model which is almost complete).
Afterward, we decided to see the Palace of Fine Art before sunset. It is a monumental structure originally constructed for the 1915 Panama-Pacific Exposition in order to exhibit works of art. It is one of only a few surviving structures from the Exposition. It was designed by Bernard Maybeck, who took his inspiration from Roman and ancient Greek architecture. It’s a fictional ruin from another time and today used as a backdrop for many a wedding party. There is a reflecting pond in the front with swimming swans — very picturesque.
As night fell we drove past the City Hall to see the rainbow lighting in readiness for Pride and then drove through the Castro which was a sea of tail lights. The Castro was one of the first gay neighborhoods in the U.S. Then we went on up to the highest point at Twin Peaks to see the city and the nighttime lights. The Twin Peaks are two huge hills with an elevation of about 925 feet located in the center of San Francisco. There’s a large park up there which you get to on a very winding steep road. You can see 360º from there— what a spectacular view!
Then my sister Gail took us to one of her favorite restaurants that serves turkey, dressing and all the fixin’s everyday — it was delicious.
Thus ended Day Two of a seven day adventure. Next time, we’ll visit Oakland where my sister has resided for 20 years. paula.weeklyview@yahoo.com
