How fitting that my last post featured Joan Westgate.  I was dying to get to Alaska to meet an old acquaintance of hers.  You’ll read about that when I get to July 28.  I am way behind.  The sad news is that Joanie died on July 24.  She suffered a massive stroke the day before and left elegantly, with dispatch, with her loving family around, like the class act she has always been.  She will be sorely missed and always loved.  She would have celebrated her 90^th birthday on August 27.  Elise Currey sent me this photo to treasure.  It  was taken on July 11.

On Saturday, July 15, I got into the car and drove to San Francisco.  It’s a beautiful drive through Carneros and over the Golden Gate bridge.  I spent the entire time on the phone working with Flights by Celebrity, only to hang up with the job unfinished for reasons with which I won’t bore you. I just want you to know, I do earn my money.  But, I have to admit, the working conditions ain’t bad. 

Google maps delivered me to a lane beside the Laskers’ building called “Fern”.  I called in and Dave waved to me from the balcony and came down with Caroline to take my bags up to my next billet.  On to The Towers, San Francisco’s ritziest assisted living.  It took me three tries to park the car in the guest space, so I wouldn’t have to look for another skinny friend to back it out.  That accomplished, I made my way up the elevator to a washroom and the front desk, where I had to create a nametag for myself at a little workstation.  Small price to pay for good, safe parking in San Francisco.  Chris had arranged it, because there was none available in Laskers’ building, and The Towers was only a block away.  I couldn’t leave the car on the street or even in a public garage, because it is a new BMW with Florida plates.  That screams “rich tourist” and makes it a target for break-in, you see.  I don’t know about the “rich tourist” part, but it would have been mightily inconvenient to lose my computer at this point. 

Chris Silver came down to meet me and take me up to their apartment, where Larry and her friend, Karin Irvin, were waiting.  We had a nice little chat, called a taxi and went down to meet it.  It was taking us to the Orpheum to see Les Misérables.  Karen and I had both seen it soon after it came out in 1985.  It’s now the longest running musical in London’s West End, which is where I saw it around 1990, with my mother, on one of her “last trips”.  There were quite a few of them, and I paid for all of them but, as Karen pointed out, I did inherit the money she saved.  As for this iteration, I liked it just fine but Chris found there was just too much of it.  When you think about it, she has a point, but I was happy. 

We took an UBER back to The Towers, where we had wine and cheese appetizers and dinner in the dining room.  Like everybody else, they are short-staffed after COVID, but have found a very modern solution.  Our meals were carried out to the dining room by robots, so the servers could just stay there and, well, serve.  Yes, I was too dumb to take a picture, again. 

It was still light after dinner, so Karen and Chris walked me the block over to Laskers’ condo apartment.  Val and Dave were just finishing dinner, so I had a glass of wine with them and turned in to my luxurious digs.  I love staying with good friends and am very grateful that they are willing to have me.  I was sorry this was my last night with them.  Check out the view, subtract the fog with your minds and think about these lucky dogs.

The day after was Sunday, the 16^th and my next hosts, Melinda and Ralph Mendelson, were picking me up at noon to go see “Dear San Francisco” a circus show playing at Club Fugazi.  It’s a show born in Montreal, from Les 7 Doigts de la Main, using mostly performers with Bay Area connections.  It was obvious they loved their jobs.

After the show, we walked around North Beach for a bit, stopping into Lawrence Ferlingetti’s bookstore “City Lights”, killing time before our dinner reservation. 

I have gone and forgotten the name of the restaurant, but it’s an old local favorite from back when Melinda and Ralph lived in the City and it’s always packed.  It’s high quality local seafood, Italian cuisine, complete with attitude and no nonsense.  It was delicious.  Ralph had seafood pasta and Melinda and I had sole, nicely washed down with a crisp white wine.  Then they took me back to my car in The Towers, and I picked up my luggage at Laskers and kept Melinda with me, as a guide to their Point Richmond place, which I had not been to before. 

I have seen quite a few nice Mendelson houses, starting with Pedregal in St. Helena.  They have all been lovely and all have been home to outstanding glass art as evidenced by this photo:

Yes, that’s a real Chihuly in the foreground.  It spread out over an area twice this size in St. Helena, as there are many smaller pieces inside the three big ones.  They bought it in the 1980’s, and it just may be their very best performing investment.  At one point, their St. Helena cleaning lady broke a piece, and you can imagine how she felt.  She need not have worried.  Ralph called up Dale Chihuly himself and asked what the one piece was worth.  Chihuly said $25,000.  Ralph reported this to their insurance company, and they cut him a check.  Then Ralph and Melinda took that check shopping for more glass art from up-and-coming artists.  They have never missed the missing piece that was worth more than they paid for the whole thing in the first place.  I just love this story.

They have a pretty spectacular view, too, if it weren’t for the fog.  On a good day, you can see the San Francisco skyline and the Golden Gate bridge.  I could have had a whole apartment on the lower floor, but my ankle was acting up and I didn’t feature the stairs, so I took the ground floor guest room, which was very comfortable.  One morning I got up, took the door from my room to the courtyard, and out the front gate for a picture of this spectacular bougainvillea:

I worked the first morning, until I heard chopping noises coming from the kitchen.  I knew that was my cue to go up there and help as we were having the Women’s Technical Wine Group the next day.  This particular tasting had been postponed from the winter and its menu included a hearty soup, made from scratch.  I went up to the kitchen to fulfill my promise to be Melinda’s sous-chef.  So I chopped or diced two onions, three zucchinis, one kohlrabi bulb, a big yellow pepper, three big potatoes, and a pile of green beans on the diagonal.  Melinda had sliced the carrots before I got there.

We went out to dinner that night, right in Point Richmond, at the Hotel MAC, just reopened four days ago.  There were still balloons all over the place.  The ambience was old country hotel lovely and the food was good.  The wait staff lacked training, though, so we did our best to supply it.  We made it an early night because we had big doings in the morning, hosting the Women’s Technical Wine Group. 

This was a very unique tasting and a full departure from six bottles same varietal, same year general rule.  We have often broken it before but never like this.  We were trying the wines of Georgia, the country, not the state.  Here’s Melinda trying to explain:

Take a look at the wines, for starters, two whites, one of them sparkling and cloudy, two reds, and two oranges.  The Georgians have been making wine for 8,000 years and they are very happy with what they produce.  We didn’t find any keepers, but to each his own.  They ferment, age and store the wine in huge earthenware vessels called “kvevris”.  They use particular clay and coat the insides of the kvevris with wax.  We found a lot of off flavors, that might just be attributable to the wax.  Georgia won’t be replacing Napa wines any time soon, but, to each his own and we learned a lot.  So, thanks, Melinda.

And more thanks for dinner at the very famous Chez Panisse Café, in Berkeley, where the wait staff are trained to perfection and they turn the tables smartly, without making you feel rushed.  Alice waters wouldn’t have it any other way.  It’s tough to succeed in the restaurant business but this 50 year old restaurant makes it look easy.  I wish I could remember what I ate.  It was wonderful as was the apricot galette it finished with, and my hosts Ralph and Melinda.