“It is an odd thing,
but everyone who
disappears is said
to be seen in
San Francisco.” 
Oscar Wilde

Okay, so it’s not exactly that he disappeared, but my good friend, and former college roommate, Pierce Murphy was seen in The City this past Friday. This I know for sure. We took CalTrain together from Santa Clara to 4th & Townsend in San Francisco to begin a delightful day in the City by the Bay.

I met Pierce in September 1976. We were both undergraduate students at Santa Clara University and both employed to teach part-time at Bellarmine College Prep in San José. Although we had not yet completed our undergrad degrees, we were both 22 years old. No one seemed to mind that we lacked the proper credentials for teaching as long as we did our job and did it well. 

Since those years, Pierce has lived in Santa Barbara, Spokane (WA), Seattle (WA), and Boise (ID), while spending time in Costa Rica and Belize along the way. After retiring from a career as an ombudsman for the police departments in both Seattle and Boise, Pierce and his wife moved to Morgantown, West Virginia to be near some of his grandchildren. I have had few opportunities through the years to get together with him. This week, Pierce was in town to spend time with family (he’s originally from Menlo Park) and friends in the Bay Area.

As I mentioned, we caught an early CalTrain to The City, then hopped on the #30 Stockton bus for the quick ride over to North Beach. There we enjoyed breakfast at the legendary Caffé Trieste, a quintessential San Francisco coffee shop. From there, we walked to Ghirardelli Square, Fisherman’s Wharf, and along the Embarcadero to the Ferry Building. Pierce suggested that we take the ferry over to Sausalito for lunch. It was a good call. While the weather in The City was nice, Sausalito was enjoying even warmer temperatures throughout the day. We ate lunch at the Sausalito Bakery & Café before wandering the streets of the downtown area. We then caught the ferry boat back to The City.

Once back in San Francisco, we continued along the Embarcadero, past Oracle Park, and jumped on CalTrain for the ride back to Santa Clara. 

It’s no secret that San Francisco is…, well,… unique. Comedian and actor Robin Williams once said, “I can walk down the streets of San Francisco and here, I’m normal.” Yes, The City is filled with a variety of characters, but that’s part of the charm of visiting there. In recent years, the media has portrayed San Francisco as filthy, dangerous, and filled with unhoused people and drug users. While this might be true of a few small neighborhoods, in general the City of Saint Francis is still one of the most beautiful cities in the world, which is why it continues to be a desired destination for global travelers. 

The well-known news journalist, Walter Cronkite, once said, “Leaving San Francisco is like saying goodbye to an old sweetheart. You want to linger as long as possible.” This is still true.

I am grateful to have had the opportunity to visit San Francisco once again, but especially since I was able to do so with my friend, Pierce. I have been blessed to know many truly good people in my lifetime. Pierce is, without a doubt, one of those people. To have maintained a friendship with him for almost fifty years has been a true gift.