“I can get away
before the storm hits.” 
Neil Gaiman

Neil Gaiman had the right idea. This past weekend, the local news channels were predicting that a series of significant storms would hit the San Francisco Bay Area beginning on Wednesday, so I took advantage of the opportunity to get away for a walking day in The City on Tuesday. It could not have been a better day.

I left my home in San José around 6:15 in the morning, hopped on CalTrain in Santa Clara, and arrived in San Francisco just after 7:30. I took the #30 Stockton bus to North Beach, stopped into Caffé Trieste for a raspberry danish and hot chocolate, then got back on the #30 bus and took it to the end of the line at Crissy Field. It was there that I began my 9-mile, 22,000-step adventure along the San Francisco Bay.

The weather in The City was ideal. When I arrived at Crissy Field at 10:00, the temperature was a mild 58 degrees. By the time I got back to the CalTrain station around 3:30, it had warmed up to a comfortable 66 degrees. The strong winds predicted for later in the week had not yet arrived, so conditions were perfect for my walk.

My journey took me from Crissy Field, past the Marina Green, and through Fort Mason to Aquatic Park. I made a quick stop at the Argonaut Hotel (it’s nice to know where there are clean restrooms along the way) and proceeded through Fisherman’s Wharf and past Pier 39. 

As I approached the Ferry Building at the foot of Market Street, I decided to check-in to see how the English Language Institute of San Francisco is doing. The school is located in the #3 Embarcadero Center building. In the summer of 2008, I helped my friend Yoko, who owned the school, to secure reaccreditation of the institution after it had been revoked. Yoko has since passed away. The new owner of ELI is an energetic educator who has enabled the school to thrive, despite the pandemic years. It is so rewarding for me to see classrooms full of foreign students studying the English language in such a healthy setting.

After a quick bite of lunch at Harrington’s Bar on Front Street, I returned to the Embarcadero for the remainder of my walk back to the CalTrain station. As I passed Oracle Park, it was clear that they were already preparing for the Giants’ return to The City. The team is scheduled to host the Detroit Tigers in a preseason match-up on Monday, March 24th. The Giants’ home opener of the 2025 season will be on Friday, April 4th when they take on the Seattle Mariners at Oracle.

My timing was fortuitous, as I arrived at the CalTrain station just in time to hop on one of the new electric trains and enjoy a relaxing ride back to Santa Clara.

My next visit to The City is scheduled for Saturday, April 5th, when I will join my friends Rob & Cathy Gibbs for the Multiple Myeloma fundraiser walk and picnic. Hopefully, we’ll be blessed with agreeable weather that day, too. 

As columnist Herb Caen so insightfully expressed, “If one day I do go to Heaven, I’ll look around and say, ‘It ain’t bad, but it ain’t San Francisco.”