Today I needed to be downtown at 12:30. Around 10:30, I started wondering how I was going to get there. 38L down Geary to Market? Nah, that’s boring. Walk? Well, it is a nice day, but 1 1/2 hours of walking for a 1 hour meeting? Nope. Big green bicycle through Golden Gate Park? Yes, absolutely!!

I went to the beta version Google bicycle to plan my route. They claimed that it would take me 36 minutes. For good measure, I assumed it would take me an hour.

At 11 o’clock, I started to mentally prepare myself for the ride. It would be my first bicycle ride in America in over two years. What if I miss a turn and have to go up an enormous hill? What if my breaks that have been in storage for two years fail as I am riding down an enormous hill? What if my tires have dry rotted? What if my back fender breaks off in the middle of an intersection? What if I took the easy way out, and hopped on the Geary bus? I almost did.

Then I thought about it, and figured that two hours of exercise in a park is a lot better than two hours sitting on a bus. Also, I would save $4 by using my own trunks instead of diesel (the Geary bus is not electric, unfortunately). If any of the above catastrophes happened, I would deal with it. At least I know my way around this city pretty well, and I speak the same language as 95% of the people I could encounter. If I can ride my bike to strange and unknown areas of Shanghai, then I can ride my bike to predictable and known places in San Francisco.

I gave Azuki a look over, and noticed that the back fender was in fact quite wobbly, so I fixed that. Then I checked the tire pressure, and it was low, so I fixed that. Then all I had to do was carry her down two flights of stairs, buckle my helmet to my head, and I was off.

Within the first block, I felt the same joy as I did the first time I rode my Huffy 10-speed on Christmas morning when I was 12. I felt invincible and one with the street. It was just me, Azuki and the stop signs.

I quickly made it to Golden Gate Park, and wasn’t exactly sure which roads headed into town and which ones headed down towards Sunset. So I kept turning left each time I came to the edge of the park, and eventually made it out on Haight Street. I had wanted to ride through Panhandle Park, but ended up riding down Page St instead.

When I came upon Market Street, my directions recommended riding on Mission. I didn’t like that plan, and I decided to go for the gusto by riding through town on Market instead. It was then that I officially became a member of the cool club of San Francisco Bikers. I bobbed and weaved with my fellow cyclists on fixes and mixties around buses, and proudly rode my 3-speed, basket front green goddess down the busiest street in town!!

Upon arrival at my destination (15 minutes early!), I locked her up and kissed her farewell for a short hour. Inside, while everyone was talking about the economic impacts of good planning, I couldn’t stop thinking about which route to take home. Should I detour through the Mission? Should I ride all the way to Ocean Beach? Should I go along the Embarcadero? Should I take Market again?

In the end, I was really hungry, and had left over Thai food waiting for me at home, so I took the quickest way possible. Or at least I tried to. I turned myself around in the Valencia/Delores/Guerro area, and ended up crossing Market at Church street near the Safeway we used to frequent when we lived on Fillmore. From there, I decided to pick Page St back up and cut across to ride through the Panhandle and into Golden Gate Park again. In my search for Page St, I found the “wiggle”. The “wiggle” is bike route that is actually marked on the streets that helps you avoid a pretty steep hill. So, I “wiggled” around Western Addition and found myself exactly where I wanted to be.

Riding through the Panhandle was fantastic. Park to the right. Park to the left. Paved bike paths. Fellow riders waving as they passed. Trees here and there to filter the sun. Same goes for Golden Gate Park. I rode past Stow Lake, the Rose Garden, the Conservatory, the DeYoung Museum and when I past the frisbee golf course, I knew I was almost home.

I turned North, and within five minutes, I was schlepping my bike back into the apartment where it now sits, waiting for another adventure. Next time, I will not hesitate.

About the bike: My brother sent this bike to me as a birthday gift during my first year in Portland back in 2004. I am extremely proud of it, and love that it reminds me of him every single time I ride it.

It is an “Azuki“, which is a sister brand to Nishiki bicycles, and they were manufactured in Japan by the Kawamura company in the 70’s & 80’s for West Coast Cycle based in Los Angeles. My brother found the bike in Denver, which means that it was probably sold by Pettee Cycle of Denver, Colorado, a sub-distributer for West Coast Cycle.

Today is Nik’s final day of freedom before starting his new job, and to celebrate, we are both working on blog posts that document our final week together (you can see Nik’s here: Wine Country & Creepy Drifter Encampment: The last post before I return to the Salt Mines)! I have a feeling that this was the last job-free week we will have together in town for quite a while, and as you will see, we did our best to make the most of it.

One morning, after breakfast, we looked outside and were kind of depressed because the fog San Francisco is known for had taken over our neighborhood. We could barely see the buildings across the street, but decided to take a little road trip anyways. We threw some edible odds and ins into a backpack, and headed north. Muir Woods National Monument (about 12 miles north of town) was our destination.

Once we crossed the Golden Gate Bridge, the fog began to dissipate, the temperature started to rise, and by the time we made it to Muir Woods, it was a beautiful day!

We parked the scooter around 10:30am, and the closest parking lot to the entrance still had a few empty spots. By the time we returned around 1:00pm after our 4.1 mile stroll, the two closest parking lots were full and cars were lined up for quite a while along the road leading to the monument. The moral of the story: arrive early!!!

Most of our stroll was in Mt. Tamalpais State Park, which has an extensive hiking trail network with several trailheads off of the Muir Woods Monument boardwalk. So if we go back, we will probably just hike through Mt. Tam…it consists of the same amazing trees and the trails aren’t manicured. My favorite part of the day was seeing the young redwood sprouts everywhere. Sure, I enjoy seeing 100+ year-old trees, but seeing 100+ year-old trees right next to 10-day-old trees is pretty amazing!

As always, we stopped to take photos pretty often, and this photo of Nik next to the scooter with his helmet still on reminded me of the road trips we would take in Chiang Mai. In fact, seeing this photo made me realize how similar the past month has been to the days we had in Thailand. Wake up, have breakfast, browse the internet, go on an adventure, eat lunch, browse the internet some more, walk to the local market to pick up fresh fruit, have an afternoon coffee, go on a walk, make dinner, browse the internet, go to sleep. It sounds pretty boring, but these are the days together that I love most. We have been doing exactly what we want to do on our time. We won’t always have this luxury!!

One day, we had planned to spend the day on Angel Island. To make the first ferry over, we had to wake up at 7:45am. When the alarm went off, we decided not to wake up. So we slept in, and then rented a car to take a drive through Sanoma & Napa Valleys. Again, it was foggy and cold in the city, but as soon as we crossed the Golden Gate Bridge, the sky cleared and the temperature rose. The drive was beautiful, we had a picnic lunch next to grape vines, we drove up to the Sanoma County Dump and then stopped at a random winery in Napa for a tasting.

We made it home just before sunset and watched as the fog continued to roll in across the bridge.

We did spend a couple days pretty close to home running errands and being domestic. Over the course of the week, we have made meatloaf, french toast, biscuits, butterscotch brownies, strawberry lemonade,  grilled salmon and chicken enchiladas. We have also eaten at least three picnic lunches, brewed at least 10 pots of coffee and eaten at least 4lbs of strawberries. We have also played tennis twice, thrown a frisbee for a couple hours, feather kicked to Nik’s heart’s content and are both nearing the end of our books.

We have also hit up our favorite coffee spots. One being Angelina’s on 24th & California, and the other being the Warming Hut. Our Warming Hut afternoon was especially exciting because a little fisherman caught a huge fish!! There was quite a commotion because his line got tangled with another one while he was reeling his catch in, and the rival fisherman was boisterous and kept telling everyone what to do. Then as soon as the fish was on the beach, the little fisherman scurried away quietly and continued his daily routine!!

Then another day, we drove down to Fort Funston in hopes of seeing hang gliders flying in the wind. The weather conditions were perfect, but I guess there aren’t many people hang gliding on a Thursday afternoon. Oh well. We did get to walk around in the sand dunes while watching dogs play and sea foam fly as the waves crashed in.

Today, Nik requested a low-key day, and we have had a low-key day. We took a walk through the neighborhood to Sutro Heights Park this morning, where Nik discovered a secret garden filled with overgrown plants and hobo possessions. On the way back, we stopped at a Hong Kong-style cafe specializing in dim sum on Balboa & 33rd that transported us back to Shanghai. So really, today we saw the best of both worlds…fantastic Asian food AND fantastic American scenery!!

Now we are home for the evening, enjoying each others company while browsing, writing, playing, eating, drinking, cooking and watching our neighbors.

One note: The table and chairs we are seated at was recently found at the Alameda flea market, and is our very first furniture purchase together!!! It is also the largest furniture purchase either of us has ever made, and even though it has only been ours for a week, I hope that we will have it for a very long time. It is solid teak and marked “Made in Denmark”. The table has built in extensions that come out on either side to seat six or more. The upholstery isn’t in the best shape, but is probably original and will eventually need to be replaced. Regardless, it is fantastic and perfect as our work table that will occasionally be used as a dining table!!

A reminder to go to Nik’s blog post because he takes better photos than me and he writes better than me:

Wine Country & Creepy Drifter Encampment: The last post before I return to the Salt Mines

Last Thursday…

On Friday…

Throughout the week…

Then today…

Wouldn’t it be fantastic if this really was a typical week in San Francisco? I would be naive to believe that it will be, because life will catch up to us very soon.

Nik’s account of the week can be found here: Frisbee Golf and More