A Trip to San Francisco - Part 1
It’s almost two years since Ben and Agnieszka went to live in San Francisco. “I suppose you’ll go over and visit them,” my friends said when they left, and I would always reply, “Oh no, I’d never travel that far…”
Well, that changed the morning Ben phoned before I was properly awake and told me, “We’re buying your plane ticket today and you have to decide right now!”
Monday 16th December 2002
Brisbane to Sydney
Well, the plane didn’t crash and there were no terrorists on board. I didn’t get lost at the airport (at least not for long) when changing planes and I didn’t need all snacks I took in case my blood sugar dropped. My biggest problem was carrying my heavy cabin bag from one end of the terminal to the other. When I saw people blithely stroll by with their bags on wheels I realised - I could have had a cabin bag with wheels! I’d seen those dinky little cases on wheels in the bag shop, but I thought they were just cute little cases for kids!
The first leg of the flight, from Brisbane to Sydney took no time at all. I’d forgotten that Sydney was on Daylight Saving time and was surprised when the plane started to land an hour earlier than I had expected. I was on the left-hand side of the plane, so I had a lovely view of Sydney Harbour Bridge and the Opera House in spite of the smoke haze from recent bushfires.
Sydney Airport
The first welcome sight at the International Airport was a trolley. Aah, that made all the difference! With three hours to fill once I had secured my boarding pass, I could wheel my heavy bag around and look in the Duty Free shops.
In the departure lounge, I sat beside a young couple with a little boy. The young mother sat quietly sobbing as she clutched her toddler. The grandmother with them told me that the couple had broken up and the father was taking the little boy to spend Christmas with him and his parents in Ireland. “I just hope he brings him back,” she whispered.
“I’ll pray that it all goes well, ” I told her.
I didn’t like to rush away from her, but it was time to go. I took my bags from the trolley and hurried through the entrance to the boarding terminal, followed my way around - and came back out where I started! I turned and went back.
“I’m a dill,” I said to a woman coming toward me. “I just went in a circle and came out where I started!” Next minute, she came up behind me. “I just did the same thing,” she said. We discovered that what looked like a wall in front of us was actually a sliding door that opened when we walked toward it. I hurried on to Gate 53.
The man at the gate went through everything in my bags. He even unzipped the little bible in my cabin bag and flipped through its pages, but he paid no attention to the little folding stool in its case that I had tied on to the handles of the bag. (No wonder it was so heavy!) even though he had to move it from one side to the other a couple of times to unzip my bag. I could have had anything hidden in the case!
It was a relief to see Agnieszka come through the gates a few minutes later. She had been in Australia for the past month, first to complete her University course in Melbourne, then to spend time with her family in Canberra. She had been going to fly from Canberra to join me at the Sydney airport, but the airline insisted that she leave from Melbourne or else her ticket would be invalid - as if it would make any difference to them! (The ticket was for Sydney to Sans Francisco) So she had to fly back from Canberra to Melbourne, then Melbourne to Sydney.
Sydney to U.S.A.
We had a lot of news to catch up on and the first few hours on the plane passed quite quickly. About 10.30 p.m. (4.30.p.m. in Australia) they turned out the lights and closed the blinds so people could sleep. Believe me, those seats were not made for sleeping! I closed my eyes and felt dozy, but I didn’t go to sleep at all. About 3 a.m. they brought us lukewarm tea, an apple and a sandwich. “What’s in it?” asked Agnieszka. “I don’t know,” I said. “I’ll tell you in a minute.”
I took a bite of the sandwich. “I still don’t know.” I left it and ate the apple.
Breakfast was a leathery omelet and rockmelon. I didn’t need any of the snacks I’d brought to eat on the plane. The quantity of airline food made up for the quality.
As we descended, I could see white foam on the waves breaking on the shore of America. We flew over some interesting patches of water that looked like cultivations.
San Francisco Airport
Agnieszka looked tired, but she insisted on carrying my heavy bag at the airport. We queued up in Immigration to show our passports. The officer looked at Agnieszka’s visa and let forth a torrent of words about a form she should have to prove she was Ben’s wife. He was foreign and hard to understand. Agnieszka asked him, “Well, what should we do?” He just kept saying, “You should have Form 171.” but didn’t offer any suggestions on what to do about it. Finally, he said, “Go to INS Secondary and they’ll decide.”
We went to INS Secondary and were directed into a room where we sat with a group of others, feeling like suspected criminals. In an adjoining room, we could hear someone being asked, “… and where you jailed for this?”
“I just hope Ben’s not waiting for us,” whispered Agnieszka. She didn’t know if he would have come from work to meet us.
Finally, she was called to the desk and told that they would only extend her visa till the end of February. “That’s all right,” she said. She and Ben intend to return to Australia before then, anyway.
We went back out the way we’d come in - and ran into the same officious foreign officer again! “I need to see your passport,” he told me.
“You’ve just seen it,” I said, pulling it out.
“Where is your customs form?” he asked Agnieszka. She produced it.
“You need two!” he demanded.
“We’re one family,” said Agnieszka. “They told us we only need one.”
“You need one each!”
“Then you’ll have to instruct your staff!” said Agnieszka crossly.
He let us go. We were becoming too difficult.
We proceeded to collect our luggage. I found mine quickly. I had tied a bright ribbon to the handle so I could identify it easily. Agnieszka was still looking for hers.
“Don’t tell me they’ve lost your luggage!” I joked. “I think I’ll go home. You’re a jinx!”
It really was lost. I sat on a seat and listened to the American voices around me while Agnieszka went and checked with the airline. She looked so tired.
At last she came back. “They’ll send it on,” she said. “Let’s go!”
There was no one else waiting in customs. They didn’t even open my bag. They just put it through the scanner and we were free to go!
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apartment
We stepped outside into winter. The air was crisp, but not too cold. We caught a shuttle bus to Ben and Agnieszka’s apartment. The next problem was to get my heavy suitcase up two flights of stairs. I opened it and took out some of the heavier items and between us, we dragged it up the stairs.”Let’s have a cup of tea!” said Agnieszka.
Later, Agnieszka phoned the airline to see what had happened to her luggage. They were not very helpful. They had no record of it and told her the file had been closed. “It’s no wonder you’re going bankrupt!” Agnieszka told them.
Agnieszka put on a video about California, but neither of us saw much of it. We slept for a couple of hours till Ben came home from work.
We went to bed at 10 p.m. The airline phoned at 2 a.m. to say they’d found Agnieszka’s luggage. Apart from that interruption, we had a good night’s sleep. I didn’t wake till 10 a.m. next morning.
Tuesday 17th December 2002I couldn’t believe I’d slept so long! Ben had already gone to work when Agnieszka and I woke up.
It looked cold and bleak outside. We stayed in, waiting for the airline to deliver Agnieszka’s luggage. I explored the bookshelves while Agnieszka spent what was left of the morning looking up moving companies on the internet. She and Ben were planning to return to Australia very soon.
Finally, the airline delivered the luggage at 3.30 p.m.
“Now we can go for a walk,” said Agnieszka.
“How cold is it outside?” I asked. “What should I wear?” I had no idea what San Franciscan weather was like outdoors.
“Just put on another layer.”
I grabbed my parka and umbrella and we ventured out, down the staircase bedecked with Christmas garlands, and out into the crisp San Franciscan air.
“How far can you walk?” asked Agnieszka.
“Oh… I guess I can walk a few blocks!” I’m not the world’s most energetic person.
I was glad I’d worn my parka. There was a chilly breeze and it was raining lightly as we crossed Washington Street, and started down Franklin Street.
“My goodness, look at this hill! I’ve never seen anything like it!”
“It’s not so bad going down,” Agnieszka reassured me.
“Yeah, but it will be uphill coming back!” I leaned backward slightly to accommodate the steep decline. “Ooh, look, Cyclamens!”
There were planter boxes at the front of many of the apartment buildings, and bright cyclamens, pointsettias and geraniums were flourishing in the middle of the concrete jungle.
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FortMason
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Alcatraz
It was twelve blocks we walked, (I just looked it up on the map) from the corner of Franklin and Washington Streets, down to Fort Mason, then we walked along to the Aquatic Park. We could
see the Golden Gate Bridge and Alcatraz in the distance.
“We could catch a bus back,” Agnieszka offered.
“No, I think I’ll make it!” I trudged on very slowly. It was when we were coming back up Van Ness Avenue that I realized, “Hey, my back’s not aching!”
I’d been full of aches before I left Australia. It happens every summer - I think it’s the humidity. Now they had all gone!
But the tops of my feet ached for a couple of days. They weren’t used to bending at 45% angles on steep slopes!
It was dark by the time we got back. We’d been out for two and a half hours. I was glad to rest while Agnieszka cooked delicious meat balls with paper rolls for our dinner.
You can take a virtual tour on this site
http://www.virtualguidebooks.com/CentralCalif/SanFrancisco/FortPoint/TopFortPointTrail.html
Wednesday 18th December 2002Down Town
A man from one of the moving companies came to give a quote. (Ben & Agnieszka were moving back to Australia at the end of the month.) He sat at the kitchen table and explained all the pitfalls of moving. I never knew it was so complicated. It would be cheaper to for them to pack everything themselves, but more likely to cause problems going through customs…
He talked about his family and sounded sooo American. When he’d gone, Agnieszka and I grabbed our coats and went out.
“We’ll catch a cable car,” said Agnieszka. I was tempted to sit on the outside – it would have been an exhiliarating experience, but opted for a safer ride inside the cable car. The conductor and most of the passengers were black and everyone seemed to be in a jolly mood.
We travelled downtown and walked down to the wharf, where we had a good view of the Oakland Bay Bridge. It looks a bit like the Golden Gate Bridge from a distance.
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seagull
A large bird swooped down and landed on the railing beside us.“Ooh, what kind of bird is that?”
“It’s a seagull,” Agnieszka informed me. It was much bigger than our Australian seagulls.
We strolled back toward the city and stopped to look at some stalls on the sidewalk. A man with long hair was selling photos and wooden flutes.
“What is that accent?” he asked, when he heard me speaking to Agnieszka. (I thought it was the Americans who had accents!) When we told him we were from Australia, he picked up a flute and played what he thought was “Waltzing Matilda.” It sounded a bit like it.
“What other Australian songs are there?” he aske
“There’s ‘Advance Australia Fair.’ It’s our national anthem,” I said.
He hadn’t heard of it and I wasn’t too keen on singing it to him in the middle of the street. I could have played it on the flute if he’d let me, but I didn’t like to suggest it. Probably better not to mix the spit!
We met Ben for lunch/afternoon tea. I had curried butternut squash soup. Very nice. Then Agnieszka and I went shopping for decorations for their Christmas tree. It took us a while to decide whether the gold or silver ribbon would look best with the shiny purple and mauve balls that Agnieszka already had. I thought silver, but I was glad that Agnieszka chose gold because it looked lovely on the tree. I bought a string of golden stars to go with it.
I decorated the tree when we got home while Agnieszka cooked a delicious Thai dinner. We stayed up late playing a new game that Ben had bought Agnieszka, “Carcassonne.” It’s a good game. Ben won of course – he nearly always does!
Thursday, 19th 2002Too cold outside!
It was a bitterly cold rainy day. Ben said he saw snowflakes in the rain, but they melted before they hit the ground. Two more moving men came to give quotes. We thought the first one would never leave. He told us the story of his life and the lives of every client he’d ever had. It wasn’t so bad for me – I managed to have some breakfast while he was talking to Agnieszka in the lounge room, but Agnieszka had nothing to eat till after he left!
Agnieszka and I stayed indoors all day. I wrote postcards and read while Agnieszka worked on her assignment and battled with the clothes dryer that wasn’t working properly.
We stayed up late again that night playing “Carcassonne” again. Ben won. He kept sneaking men into our fields!
Friday 20th December 2002SF Momo Art Gallery
We met Ben down town and had Pizza for lunch, then Agnieszka and I walked to the SF Momo Art Gallery. We went on a guided tour of the works of Gerhard Richter. I liked his photos best. They were studies of all kinds of people.
The Asian attendants guarding the exhibits appeared to be all made from the same mould. They were of uniform size and each wore the same lugubrious expression. I wondered what thoughts went through their minds as they stood all day, watching…
Saturday 21st December 2002Cable Car Museum
We caught a bus about a block from here. Standing room only. “You have to hold on,” said Agnieszka.
“I see what you mean,” I said as I slid around the pole and almost landed in the lap of an inscrutable old chinese man.
First, we got off at the cable car museum. We looked down on the huge wheels that keep the cable cars running up and down the hills (They’re really more like mountains) at a steady 9.5 miles an hour.
Ben put a quarter in an antique viewing machine and we took turns to look at pictures of San Francisco as it was, just after the big earthquake.
After looking at the exhibits, Agnieszka and I sat and watched a video on the history of cable cars and we explored their shop.
“How about Dim Sims for lunch?” suggested Ben, so we walked a little way to Chinatown.
The Dim Sims were good. I had one with pork inside, one with prawns and one with (I think) ginger. And a coconut soy drink which was very nice.
Then we explored the markets. The first shop we went in had all kinds of food I’ve never seen before. Big barrels and jars of things like abalone, ginseng, dried seahorses, shark fins… Ben picked up a big bag with a whole dried octopus in it.
“Do you think I could take it back to Joel?” I asked him.
“You’d never get it through customs!” he said.
The meat in the market was fresh. It was so fresh, it was still hopping around. There were great big bins full of the largest frogs I’ve ever seen. There were also crabs with their legs waving, and turtles…
One poor turtle had his leg twisted up against the side of the bin. Agnieszka gently lifted him to a more comfortable position and turned over another one that was stranded on its back. “The first time I came here,” she said, “I felt like calling the “SPCA.” I managed to close my mind to the horror of it while we were there, but that night, I kept thinking of the poor things.
Sunday, 22nd December, 2002Golden Gate Park
We went to Golden Gate Park. Ben took his roller blades. It’s an enormous park and we only saw a small section of it. Some of the images that have stayed in my mind are…
Tall trees - are they Cedars?
Lots of people on bikes and rollerblades.
Dogs. Big silky labradors, little woolly mutts, all looking excited and happy to be outdoors. One little white dog was literally bouncing for joy as it kept running a few yards ahead then back to its owner. It must have been dog tired by the time it went home. Another, a big silky grey-brown dog, threw itself into a patch of wild daisies and rolled with its legs in the air.
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pagoda
We wandered through the Japanese Tea Gardens. An Indian family handed me their camera and asked me to take a photo of them in front of a pagaoda. (They didn’t know my reputation for cutting off heads.) I think I got all the family in. I don’t know about the pagoda.We stopped for Jasmine Tea and Cookies and Crackers. My fortune read “You have great persuasive powers and can convince others.” They don’t know me very well either!
By the time we left the park I was ready to collapse in a heap, but our walk still hadn’t begun!
Ben wanted to eat at a BBQ place.We walked the full length of Haight Street and finally took two buses before we found “The Brother-in-Law BBQ.”
The meat was very tender. It was impossible to eat it with a plastic fork without getting the sauce all over our hands and faces. Ben used my glass of drinking water to clean his face.
On the bus going home, there was a young Chinese mother with identical twin boys. They were so cute, they wouldn’t have been more than 3 years old. The mother was instructing them to be ready to move quickly off the bus when it got to their stop.
“Quick, now!” she said as the bus pulled in. The little boys jumped down off the seat and did their best to hurry, but they were hampered by the fact that the first twin was dragging his jacket by one sleeve and the second boy had managed to put his leg into the other sleeve.
Ben beat us again at “Carcassonne” again that night.
Monday, 23rd December 2002A trip to Alcatrraz
It was a beautiful sunny day. Just perfect for our trip to Alcatraz.
Agnieszka and I caught the bus to Fisherman’s Wharf. The sea air was fresh and fishy. We could hear the seals barking, and soon saw them - there must have been about a hundred of them on floating platforms by the wharf.
We sat on the top deck of the ferry and had spectacular views of the city behind us as well as the bay and Alcatraz Island.
The Island is the equivalent of thirteen stories high. We took the tram up the steep hill, since it wasn’t crowded with people less mobile than us. Just as well, because I don’t think I could have walked around the cells if I’d climbed the hill.
We were given earphones to listen to the guided tour as we walked through the cell block. It must have been very depressing, locked in the small cells with just a narrow bed, small folding table, a shelf, wash basin and toilet.
And cold, too. I could feel the cold concrete floor through the soles of my shoes. It was a relief to go back outside in the warm sunshine and admire the views of the Golden Gate Bridge and the City.
Tuesday, 24th December 2002Christmas Eve was bitterly cold. It was hard to believe that on the other side of the world, it was a hot Christmas Day. We stayed inside. Agnieszka worked on her assignment and after our days of activity, I was glad to curl up with a book. Agnieszka went out for food during the afternoon and came back to report the shops were full of people packed shoulder to shoulder. I was glad I’d opted to keep out of it.
After dinner, we phoned home. All the family were at Lea’s place, enjoying Christmas. The kids were whooping it up in the background.
Ben insisted on opening one of his presents before he went to bed. He’d been feeling them under the tree each day, trying to guess what they were. He opened the one with a reindeer pooper in it.
Wednesday, 25th December 2002Christmas Day in SanFrancisco felt different from Christmas in Australia. Instead of waking early to a hot day, we slept in quite late then got up and put on an extra layer of clothes. It was cold and bleak outside.
After breakfast, we opened our presents. First, we felt everything and guessed what was in the parcels.
Agnieszka made a delicious dinner with turkey and cranberry sauce. Then we played a new game she received for Christmas, “Mexica.” I forget who won – probably Ben.
