Sometimes in life things happen in weird and mysterious ways. Our perpetual state of flux carries us along through experiences that shape us as people and it is often a series of conscious decisions that determines the outcome. It was by no mistake that last weekend I got stuck in San Francisco and got to spend time with some great folks.
For work I had to travel to my office in central CA and spend a few days on a project. It was a nice 5 day business trip with Monday and Friday being travel days. I was anticipating either a longer or shorter stay, so I booked a more expensive refundable government airfare with flexibility that would come to be key later. The tone of the trip was set early on at Washington Dulles, I volunteered and got bumped to a slightly later flight and received a free roundtrip voucher to the lower 48, woohoo!
As Thursday came around, the forecast was looking grim for the DC area- they called for 30+ inches of snow! So I called United and asked for the next available flight home, which was Monday the following week, oh man. However, we worked it out so that I would spend the weekend in San Francisco, with friends- perfect! The price of my fare didn't go up either, woohoo! I even saved the government money by staying with friends and not at a hotel! Life is darn good.
In fact, it gets better, my flight into SFO from Fresno coincided with Ashley and her 2 best friends: Megan and Akilah, we all met at the baggage claim. Ashley's mom (Mrs. D) came and picked us up and we headed straight for a late lunch at Starbelly (check it out here: http://ericspursuits.blogspot.com/2010/01/touch-and-go-starbelly.html). Ashley and her friends were in town for the Kaiser Half Marathon race, an interesting coincidence. I really had some fun hanging out with all these women throughout the weekend, we were a bit directionally challenged, but we made it everywhere we wanted to go without too much of a hiccup (and help from Esmay- the navigator). After eating a tasty lunch we all headed to do a bit of window shopping in SF, which was great- because all the while the DC area was getting pummeled with snow! Ashley's best friend Akilah had a flat up on Nob Hill, which had a stunning view of the city, and we caught it just at last light:
The ladies went to their respective places to stay and Ashley's mom was super helpful in dropping me off in the Presidio to meet with Leslie. That night I would spend time with Leslie and Dan at one of the best restaurants I have eaten at in SF, and it was Bhurmese! Nowhere else can you get such a tasty tea-leaf salad!
The next day, I woke up at Leslie's sauna-like flat (shes likes to live warm!) and we had a quick breakfast before heading to the climbing gym. Some great memories came back from climbing with Leslie and Dan last Spring, I was pretty amazed at how strong they both were, as they climbed on lead like crushers. Me, I felt out of place like Sarah Palin in Washington, with quivering and fully extended limbs hauling myself higher without style or due diligence. We had a great time nonetheless and afterwards I accompanied Dan to Berkeley to check out some camping gear and the campus of a world famous school. Dan is going to be cooking for a whole crew of Yosemite volunteers/climbers this summer and needed to be properly outfitted for the task! We finished our East Bay excursion with a light lunch and he dropped me off for an early dinner at Ocean Beach with a great view that happened to have a bunch of beautiful women sitting with me (;
Ashley's 2 best friends, herself, her lovely mother and myself feasted at the Cliff House Bistro. All in attendance thoroughly enjoyed the food, the atmosphere and most importantly, the company. This was to be an early night, because all the girls had to rest up for their respective races in Golden Gate Park the next morning! I made plans to meet with Mrs. D the next morning at her hotel and we would cheer on the runners while we relaxed to coffee and cake at an outdoor cafe (it was a theory at least!).
Leslie was particularly helpful and dropped me off back at Mrs. D's hotel where we embarked on an adventure to find the Kaiser Race. Megan was running the 5k, while Ashley and Akilah were running the 13.1 miles and so our primary mission was to get to the 5k finish to meet Megan. Road closings and crazy SF road layout made the drive from Nob Hill to Golden Gate Park take a bit longer than usual, also there was a stop for several litres of coffee (;
We made it to the race and found everyone. Mrs. D probably thinks I'm crazy because I led her running after Ashley towards the end in our cheering pursuits, we actually ran our own race! Everyone had a great finish and were stoked with their times, so we headed north towards Ashley's parents place in Santa Rosa, stopping along the way for a few Kodak moments:
Dinner that night during the super bowl was a gourmet feast! Mr. D grilled a phenomenal tuna steak and put together a rissoto, Mrs. D prepared a delicious salad. I was thoroughly impressed, and great wine flowed like water! Woohoo for accomplished runners, good food and good company! Before I knew it I was headed back to peace in the east and a cool 2+ feet of snow to greet me, the whole way reflecting on how fantastic a brief trip I had to CA.
I can't take hardly any credit for how this trip came together. I got some great friends who are so accommodating to me- they made it happen. If a blizzard hadn't come, Ashley's flight hadn't arrived on time, my airfares weren't so flexible and any series of unfortunate events happened and the universe was not aligned to make this wonderful weekend happen- it would not have. Sometimes flux can be fine-tuned to our best advantage and thats what makes life so grand.
The higher we went, the deeper it got, particularly in the meadows:
The temperature dropped fast when the snow came and there was an splendid effect on all the trees as the individual snow crystals stuck to them, it does get any more winterlandish than this:
Our first long run down was so magnificent we just had to skin back up for another go, on the way back up, we paused and look around to a clear view across Canaan Valley in all its splendor:
The last long tour of the day took us from Bald Knob to Weiss Knob via the pipeline trail. We were the first to traverse the route and enjoy it to the fullness!
We were all smiles all day, I don 't know about Brian, but my teeth ached from too much exposure to the cold.
