“…Off to see the world

There’s such a lot of world to see.”

–Moon River, from the movie Breakfast at Tiffany’s

In the heart of Golden Gate Park, there’s a serene garden called the Japanese Tea Garden. It has gently combed gravel designed for meditation, statues of Buddha, koi fish in reflecting ponds, bridges you can climb over, and a tea house to eat in. 

It’s free to the public on Mondays, Wednesdays, and Fridays before 10 AM, so on my final day in San Francisco, I went there for breakfast.

I had green tea and what was basically well-seasoned chicken nuggets for breakfast, but with a lovely view of bonsai trees.

After that, I stayed in Golden Gate Park to go to the California Academy of Science, where I watched butterflies land on students’ backpacks in an indoor rainforest, and penguins dive into the water of an aquarium, before falling asleep in a warm, dark planetarium.

I took a ride on a cable car as a last hurrah and got some of my best views of the city by far. I couldn’t have envisioned a better final day in San Francisco. 

My initial impression was that San Francisco was a charmingly-messy, mild-mannered city.  

My new, better-informed impression is that San Francisco is a moody town that’s constantly reinventing itself. It’s in a troubled time, crippled by a homelessness epidemic that is distressing to think about, much less look at head-on, and a gentrified, monocultural tailspin with no end in sight. 

But I believe that it will prevail. 

So much of what I saw fit the reputation of classic San Francisco. 

I saw two men having sex on a nude beach and had them look back at me with a “you lost, girl?” look. Likewise, I was offered magic mushrooms by a guy on the street, which I politely declined. A building had Jimmy Hendrix painted on the side of it, because he’d once lived there, but it had since been converted to a pet shop– the undercurrent of rock n’ roll being never far behind.

I managed to beat the heat for about five days at the start of summer by being in foggy San Francisco, famous for its mild weather year round. 

This trip marks one of the first times I’ve voluntarily ventured out into the world. As a person who likes her solitude, I often have to force myself to leave my house, but I wanted to experience the world, since there’s such a lot of world to see.

While in San Francisco, I stumbled upon a nude beach, walked across The Golden Gate Bridge, tried to get the attention of some sea lions at Fisherman’s Wharf on Pier 39, visited a Japanese Tea Garden, did some thrifting, and rode in a few self-driving cars and cable cars. There are still many more things I’d like to do in San Francisco: taking a trip to Alcatraz and properly seeing Lombard Street both come to mind. But for now, I’ve gotten my fill of the city and will be thinking about it for a while to come.

Thank you again Raj for letting me stay with you and helping me learn enough for my novel. I will never forget it. 

The Tragic Queen,

Raquel