I Left My Heart In San Francisco

I've just come back from the recreational athlete's equivalent of Nirvana and I have to say, I'm feeling a little blue.  I thought it might be jet lag but I really do think I'm missing the ocean and the mountains. Where did I jet off to this time you ask (as if the title of this post didn't give it away already)?  The beautiful state of California, specifically San Francisco.  We have friends that moved out there last year so we figured it was high time that we paid them a visit.  What better time than the first long weekend of the summer?  We headed out early on Wednesday morning and with the time change, we were in San Fran by 9:30 PST so we had a full day.  Our first day was spent hanging out in the sun at our friends place, which is in Tiburon about 25 minutes north of downtown San Francisco, in a beautiful spot called Paradise Cay.  They have a yacht club at their door step and Robin Williams lives around the corner so to say it was nice was a bit of an understatement.  No complaints about the view, that's for sure!

Morning View from the U.S. branch of Cabana Cadman

I couldn't wait to get out and run so Thursday morning Gary and I drove over to a little waterfront trail called Blackies Pasture.  The trail was short but I didn't care.  It ran right along the water and it was packed dirt and gravel.  Bliss!!  Out and back was just over 8km.  8km of pure joy.  The air was fresh and the breeze was cool.  I was completely energized by the time we were done.  And it was great to run with Gary.  We don't get a chance to do that very often.

 

Gary running through Blackies Pasture

Friday was spent shopping in Union Square in downtown San Francisco.  So many stores I thought my head was going to explode.  We lunched al fresco and wandered through various shops and department stores.  I scored an amazing pair of shoes (surprisingly not the running kind!) at 50% off.  Gary finally bought himself a non-baseball hat (this is a big deal!).  It was a lovely day.  We covered a lot of ground, some of it incredibly hilly.  Like almost straight up and down hilly.  I couldn't believe the sheer angle of the roads.  With roads like this, these folks are darn lucky they don't get snow.  They'd be screwed.

This is not an optical illusion.

Saturday morning was a lazy one.  The boys went riding and I went for a short run around the Cay and then hung out with Sue.  Saturday afternoon she introduced me to the shopping wonder that is T.J. Maxx.  Oh my.  It's like Winners on steroids.  We spent 4 hours in there.  4 HOURS.  I tried on no less than 30 pieces of clothing.  I kid you not.  I guess my love of endurance events carries over to shopping as well.  It was well worth it as I scored a bunch of great things, my favourite being a dress that just so happened to match the awesome shoes I bought the day before. 

Sunday was our busiest day.  We got up very early so the boys could hit the road for a ride and I could get a long-ish run in before G & I headed off to Alcatraz and Pier 39.  Gary dropped me off at a rec centre in the middle of a gorgeous town called Mill Valley.  The boys were going to climb up to the Headlands and I was going to run the trail into Sausalito.  It was a very warm morning, even at 7:30 am and I was wishing I wore my tank top.  The run was lovely.  I kept seeing a blimp circling the bay in the distance and I figured it was aerial coverage for the 100th annual Bay To Breakers race, which is something that I've always wanted to do.  Had I been thinking I would have actually checked to see if the race was sold out before we left.  But alas, I wasn't thinking and as I found out later on that morning, it wasn't sold out so I could very well have run it.  It would have been the perfect taper run.  Running 12km across the bottom of San Francisco in a sea of 50,000 runners, most of which are dressed in costume.  How much fun would that have been?  It just means we'll have to go back again.  I'm sure I won't have a problem convincing Gary to do that.  There is still so much left to explore there!

For now, this little jet-setter is done traveling for a while.  At least until November when we head to New York.  I think I've gotten over my jet lag so I'll lace up my shoes tonight and go for a run.  The view won't be the same but that's ok, I think I'll live.