Un Peu de Mystère

Hundreds of times I have gone full circle 'round the roundabout at the end of our town, near the end of our peninsula, and I never ceased to be amazed at the sights I see at any given moment of the day. Mornings hold a particular glory, with the sun in its many costumes. San Francisco is just there, behind a dense wall of fog, as the Angel Island ranger's boat putters over on its morning run.

The nice folks who run the corner café must think I'm nuts, the way I jump out of my car and go running for the water's edge each time I drive by; there's always something new to capture: a leopard shark, a seal, a manta ray, a schooner, a skiff, a cloud front. The city skyline, dazzling in sunlight or shrouded in mystery. A scooter with a broken headlight, a penny on the pavement, an egret in flight.

Here's the secret: I refuse to see anything less than the spectacular in the everyday. It's my contest with myself. Just one amazing thing; it's not that big of a challenge, but it does mean you have to be waiting for something, expecting something. If you're looking for it, you're bound to find it. Believing is seeing.

The Intentional Tourists

“Ah, silence,” sighs James as we head into San Francisco, and nothing more is said until we reach our destination. We could be crossing an international border instead of the Golden Gate Bridge, for all the distance it puts between us and home (where we’ve left my dad and Debra holding down a raucous fort).

It’s no accident that we’ve chosen Hotel Vitale* for the latest installment of our S.O.S. Plan (Save Our Sanity); it’s a jewel in the diadem that is the Embarcadero Waterfront. We can practically see our house from here and still feel as though we’re worlds away. When we arrive, we discover that we’ve graciously been given a circular Panoramic Suite in lieu of the water view room we reserved.

In our spacious Room with a View, we're treated to a welcoming bottle of champagne accompanied by fruit, chocolates (Rechiutti!), and a personal note from the managing director. On the desk is a large bouquet of pink peonies (in December?), one of my very favorite blossoms. We put up our feet, raise our glasses to every perfect detail, and enjoy being pampered tourists in the City by the Bay without having to move an inch.

From this marvelous vantage point, we can see the San Francisco Ferry Building, the Bay Bridge, the Port of Oakland, and the Audiffred Building, circa 1889. There’s an outdoor art museum at our feet, including Cupid’s Span by Claes Oldenburg and Coosje van Bruggen and the newly installed Crouching Spider by Louise Bourgeois. And for a little karmic irony, since we’re here to spend time off from kid-related chaos, there’s a giant Gap baby staring straight at us…

We don’t leave the hotel except to enjoy dinner at Boulevard, where Franco-Californian cuisine is served in a setting of pavonian splendor. The rest of our brief getaway is spent practicing the Art of Doing Nothing. Ahhh… It could be (should be) habit forming.

*A note on the Hotel Vitale: it’s a Joie de Vivre hotel, related to a number of places
we recommend to our visitors, including the Waters Edge and Acqua Hotel.
Come see us; what are you waiting for?