San Francisco

Jeannie and I left her house at 11am this morning to drive to the San Francisco Airport to pick Ara up.  She usually flies into Sacramento, but the ticket to S.F. was several hundred dollars cheaper.

I used to think nothing of driving to S.F., to the extent of parking the car downtown somewhere and walking around.  That was then and now was now, and crowds and large cities nearly make me ill.  My camera has been terrible lately, but I did get two photos while crossing the Bay Bridge.  (Click on photos to enlarge).

There are certainly better views of S.F., but these were the best I could shoot through my side window.   We didn't have to wait long at the airport and Ara's plane came in on time.  Driving home the traffic out of the airport was so heavy that the GPS gave us an alternate route through the city.  It was interesting, but I won't feel bad if I never do it again.  There was a time when I thought San Francisco and Washington, D.C. were the two most beautiful cities in the U.S.  I still think they are special, but population explosion and traffic in both places have ruined them for me.  Maybe it's just my age though, because my kids seem to have no problem with it.

Another of my all-time favorite U.S. cities is New York, although I haven't driven there since the early 1960's.  Times have certainly changed.

I am really worn out - got back to my house around 7pm this evening, which made it a much longer day than I'm used to.  I'll be back out tomorrow to attend Autumn's 11th birthday party at her house in the afternoon - another drive home in the dark.  I dropped Jeannie and Ara off at Autumn's basketball tournament this evening and had to drive the rest of the way by myself, in the dark.  Most of the traffic was coming towards me which meant headlights in my eyes.  You can't imagine how good it felt to walk into my house this evening, and I'm hitting the sack early!

While I was at Jeannie's house this morning I took a photo of her Christmas tree.  I'll show it along with a pic that I took several days ago before they had finished decorating it.  The yellow/golden cast behind the tree in one of the pics is due to the golden colored shades on the bay window.  I did the best I could - I was no great photographer in my better days, and now the best I can do is "point and shoot".

 I'm going to fall into bed soon.  I've had a great day and wore myself out.