#21: San Francisco

Once upon a time back in 1967, Bruce and I made our first trip to San Francisco.  The rest of Canada was heading another way-- to Montreal and Expo 67-- but for some reason we were determined to go south.  This may have been a purely contrarian decision, or perhaps we were seduced by Scott McKenzie's music and just wanted to experience some "counter-culture" first hand.

Or maybe we knew we would get a warm welcome from our friend Alexis and her husband Garth.  These former Edmontonians had recently moved to San Francisco and were happy to have visitors.  That Garth was a physician working in a hospital near Haight Ashbury and sometimes tended to hippies simply added to feeling that we were going somewhere much more exotic than Alberta.


That summer-of-love trip still looms large in family legend, but there was actually nothing counter-culture about it.  We were just a couple of Canadian geeks hoping to ride a cable car, eat at Fisherman's Wharf and have a drink at The Top of the Mark. We sped out of Edmonton in our spiffy new green Barracuda, and the music on the radio was (no kidding) Scott McKenzie's San Francisco.  It was a good omen. If we had no flowers in our hair, that was just fine.

Not our car, but just like it.  Sweet.

The memories of that first trip are still vivid.  I can tell you about riding the elevator to The Top of the Mark, and what I wore (a red flowered dress) and what I drank (a daiquiri).  Bruce recalls none of those mundane details, but we both remember the terror of driving straight up a perpendicular street and right down again.   And crossing the majestic Golden Gate Bridge for the first time.  Then there was the un-sexy sequence from the pornographic movie (Summersex*) that we saw with Alexis. Garth had to work that night so we all regaled him with details about the peculiar scene where a naked guy does handstands on the beach, and how the theatre was so crowded we sat on the stairs and surreptitiously looked for fire exits. 

On our recent trip, once again visiting Alexis (Garth is no more), we had no need to spoil the magic of those earlier experiences.  And, besides, we have been to SF a few times since. So we spent our days in the city going to the De Young Museum and the Camera Obscura above Ocean Beach, places we had never been before.  We also took in an opera.  The San Francisco Opera Company simulcasted Rigoletto to the AT&T baseball stadium. Bleachers full of fans ate packed lunches and watched Verdi on the Jumbotron.  It was a unique experience.  There appeared to be plenty of fire exits.   

Behind home plate at the opera.

 *  By all means Google Summersex if you wish.  I did, but found no reference to the original lame movie, but lots of other stuff as you might imagine.