It's Winter, Let's Go to California

While snow flies in Canada, flowers bloom in California, and snowbound Canadians can talk to friends down south who mention, casually, "It's 80 degrees, I'm just coming back from surfing, I have the window down in the truck."

    We had no illusions though, in December even in California it's winter. It was an little chilly when we arrived at San Francisco International Airport but the Sun was out, the tougher kinds of flowers were in bloom, and we didn't have to wear heavy winter coats, high boots and thick wooly scarves. A fall jacket worked just fine.

     We had some time before Christmas and a few days after we arrived we took the Caltrain into San Francisco. We love the Caltrain, it is efficient, inexpensive for seniors, and dependable. The last time we were in the city, we missed the Museum of Modern Art, one of the premier art museums in North America. It closes on Wednesdays, and we promised ourselves that, this time, we were going to see it. Afterwards we enjoyed the wonders of downtown streets that you could actually walk on without dodging slush, or slipping on ice, or leaning against a freezing wind while snowflakes nailed into  your face.

       In the huge entrance foyer of the Museum of Modern Art (MOMA), a fan swung on a pendulum erratically just above our heads and kids tried to leap up to grab at it as it swung by in huge random arcs propelled by blades rotating at full blast. Fortunately it was suspended much too high for even the tallest person to grab it and get a finger sliced. Higher up towards the skylight were striking artworks in primary colors that had the effect of man-made rainbows. When we were there, the MOMA had an overview collection of modern art from Picasso to the present day and, on the top floor, a fun exhibit of participatory art, with mirrors arranged in dark holes that, when you looked inside, gave the illusion that you were looking into endless vistas of space. A race car was frozen in bars and loops of ice, and another exhibition featured found art arranged in cabinets, boxes and mobiles.

       Near the Museum, at 140 Maiden Lane, is the Circle Gallery Building, a contemporary art gallery designed by Frank Lloyd Wright in 1947. The circular ramp inside provides a dramatic backdrop for the artwork and when we were there, the owners were displaying ancient Oriental art at prices well beyond our pocketbook. We explained that we wanted to see Wright's work and they were delighted to accommodate us. Up the street was Union Square with an outdoor exhibit and sale of really excellent contemporary work, displayed by the artists themselves. The exhibit was closing up as we arrived, but surrounding the square was a delicious collection of upscale stores -- Macy's, Saks Fifth Avenue and Neiman Marcus. Bus routes radiate from here to other parts of San Francisco and cable cars pick up passengers at the far end of the Square, assuming you can tear yourself away from the stores.

       After celebrating Christmas with family, I wanted to buy a filter for my telescope at a telescope shop in San Francisco that I had discovered on the Internet. As a result, we went back to the city on the Caltrain just after New Years to do some shopping and sight seeing.

       Did you realize that telescope shops might not be open the day after New Years? Neither did I. But we didn't lose, because a block down the street is the terminal of the Mason Street cable car line, which is much less busy than the Powell Street line closer to Fisherman's Wharf. The line to get on the car was therefore much shorter. We just had to do it, a visit to San Francisco is not complete without a cable car ride.

     A cable really does run continuously under the streets where the cars operate, and the cable itself is turned on huge wheels in the Cable Car Barn at the heart of the system. The cars are iconic -- tiny, half open, and of course the thing that people love to do is hang outside on the hand rails while standing on the running board. If you want to do this, be quick, the gripman, who operates the levers and runs the car, will only allow a limited number of riders to hang on outside. Apparently he doesn’t want to lose people falling off half way through his run, it doesn't look good. People snap pictures as the car rolls up to the next stop and sometimes a conductor will jump out and run into a store for some necessary purchase while the car waits. It's a fun ride and some locals wave as you pass by, the cable cars are old friends that have run up and down the streets of San Francisco since  1873. The system as you see it, and the cars you ride, have not changed since 1873, and the cars themselves are designated historic monuments.

     We had lunch on Pacific Avenue and then took a bus to the corner of Pacific and Haight and walked up Haight to the corner of Haight and Ashbury, the headquarters of the hippie culture of the 1960s. Even though it is a tourist destination, Haight Ashbury still has a certain kind of excitement, a unique ambiance, especially over the New Years holidays when the streets are full of pedestrians and you can buy some sixties paraphernalia, cheap. The shops retain what you assume is a 60s feeling, and the houses up and down the streets are well maintained and architecturally interesting in their own right. Jimmy Hendrix, Janet Joplin, the locals we asked seemed to know less about them than some of the tourists who ask to see the places they used to frequent. A house once owned by the Grateful Dead is just up Ashbury from Haight, and gives a feeling for a district that has generated so much popular culture.

       There was a spectacular sunset that went on and on as we left San Francisco on the Caltrain that evening, and provided a fitting climax for a  lovely visit to California, and an antidote to the storms we returned to on the Air Canada flight back to Toronto. Soon after we left, huge rain and windstorms swept in from the Pacific and did extensive damage. Even California dreaming can sometimes turn to nightmare.