Under the (glorious) weather

Nate is a little sick today. We think it has everything to do with him unable to adjust to the manic nature of San Francisco weather. So, I'm sitting here at our new favorite cafe, Sacred Grounds (yeah, I know...), eating a peach and ginger scone with Colombia Supremo coffee. A nice after work mini-meal. (I need to save my appetite for our Stouffer's Chicen Parmagiana. Don't ask my why Stouffer's is getting all snooty about marketing their frozen meals - get over yourself, Stouffer's...it's Parmagian...there's not one decent Italian on the planet that's going to let you get away with using an authentic name.)

Moving right along...today I officially rejoined the American workforce. PG&E New Employment Orientation started at 8a.m. in San Ramon, about an hour east of San Francisco. It's gorgeous country, San Ramon - dark green rolling hills - all the evidence of the Bay Area's very wet rainy season.

I learned about gas and electric commodities, transmission and state regulation. All thrilling. The fact our company only "uses" 1% coal for energy resources is encouraging, but what's really in a statistic...I haven't completely chugged all the Kool-Aid.

Food

This morning we took the No. 21 bus downtown just in time to have the best pick at the Ferry Building Farmer's Market.

Lilacs were fresh off the farm and so were the oranges. That type of benefit - fresh flowers and citrus in season year-round - will take some getting used to.

About the oranges: They were truly the best tasting fruits I have ever had. Incredibly juicy, ripe and a deep, deep orange color. They tasted just like you imagine the perfect orange should taste. We bought five of them at 8:30a.m. for $4.37. It's now 2p.m. and there is just one left. We'll probably pay dearly for that, but it was worth it.

The lilacs were a gift along with a nice bottle of pinot noir.

I'll tell you how the dinner party goes tomorrow. Evidently, the host is quite the chef.

For all the "Vans" out there

If you're family, you'll appreciate this post.

What you're looking at is the Queen Wilhelmina Windmill on the very western edge of Golden Gate Park. It's a century-old structure and to this day serves a purpose. Housed inside this somewhat out-of-place symbol for everything Dutch is a pumping station that irrigates Golden Gate Park. There are tulips everywhere and just beyond the windmill is the Pacific Ocean.

This morning I ran the expanse of GGP - from eastern end, just two blocks from home (see previous entry for map), to the ocean. It's a hilly 3-mile run, but time passes quickly as you inspect towering cyprus and evergreens. And when you hit the coast, you remember why you packed your entire home, moved - all inside a three-week window.

This is what it looks like from the beach.

Nathan and I are planning a bike ride/picnic tomorrow - he hasn't seen it yet.

A new bed

I woke up around 6 a.m. because I couldn't stand the Aero bed, not even for one more night. The sun was up so I walked Andi by Golden Gate Park, said hello to some joggers, avoided the homeless (I have justifications for being a little stand-offish) and Andi sniffed a couple doggie butts. All in all a successful first morning.

It got even better when we decided to go purchase the bed for our guest room. Until actual guests arrive, we'll retired the Aero bed and sleep soundly. A second reason, and for the sake of our sanities, we needed some furniture in this very empty apartment. Our movers won't be out here until April 3 - nearly two weeks without couches, rugs, dishes, TV or PC - ! - ugh, no Internet.

But we got creative. The San Francisco main library, across from City Hall downtown, gives you a free hour to surf online, so we've managed to check email, Nathan is job searching and right now, I'm using terminal #480 to write this very entry.

Now, we're not going to give you a play-by-play run down of our daily lives - that would be incredibly boring. But for these first few days and weeks, some of you might find it fun to share in our first West Coast memories.

(Pics of the new apartment to come!)

Golden Gate Park

Golden Gate Park is without a doubt one of the biggest attractions that convinced us to live inside the City. This blog entry is dedicated to the giant green space...

Three miles in length, the GGP is home to museums, a golf course, rec. fields and miles of jogging and biking paths. And it's larger than New York's Central Park. With that much green space, it should be perfect for Andi and a great outlet for me and Nate.

A big perk is the proximity to our place. Check out the very bottom left-hand corner - that's where we live. You can be on-site within five minutes. A big draw living close to GGP is the exposure to an extremely diverse cross-section of people. You got the active yuppies like us on the volleyball courts, jogging paths and bike trails; then the dog lovers, horticulturists and 60-something hippies sprinkled in; and you can't ignore all the trust fund wannabe homeless.

Pics

The tan building in the foreground is our new home.

There are six units in all, and the highlight for me is the backyard (not shown). It's completely overgrown at the moment but the landlord encouraged me to take all the green thumb freedoms necessary to turn the perrennial and annual boxes back to life. Might try growing some tomatoes, too.

Now the highlight for all of you that want to visit is the second bedroom - we purposely wanted an extra room so friends and family could stay with us - and offset the rather pricey airfare. In fact, our living room could double as another bedroom. Something to think about when you're planning your first visit.

For more pics from our recent long weekend in San Francisco - which turned out to be a scouting trip to land this apartment - click here. You'll see shots from the Ferry Building Farmers Market and pics in and around the Golden Gate and our new neighborhood, the Upper Haight.

Upper Haight? NoPa? Panhandle?

Here it is! Fulton & Cole

Hello cruel blog world! Please go easy on me. This is my first post ever, and I'm worried by admitting this I’m starting down and have already lost all credibility. It makes me feel like the last person to get a phone, and upon further thought this seems like a pretty good analogy. I picture this conversation between "Stella" and "Old Lyle" with the role of Lyle being played by myself.

Stella: We need a phone.
Old Lyle: Stella, for the last time, if I want to talk to Jebediah, I'll ride my horse the fives miles to his farm!
Stella: Fine. But the next time you lose your teeth riding over there to borrow Fixodent, you can find them yourself.
Old Lyle: Whatever.

fin

Feel free to examine this for deeper meaning, but back on topic. To start, I wanted to be able to say that Greg is once again not quite spreading disinformation but disseminating something less than the full truth. However, it looks like our neighborhood is, indeed, Upper Haight. I thought we were in NoPA (and actually might be) but that neighborhood seems to be a little more east. I wanted to be in NoPa, or North Panhandle, because it has a real live neighborhood association with meetings, block parties, and a crime watch. From there I alternatively thought we might be in Western Addition, Richmond, and Pacific Heights. I haven’t completely ruled any of those out yet, either.

Confused? Me too. Just pick your favorite sounding neighborhood, and we'll just go with that.

Upper Haight

You're sitting there wondering if it's pronounced "Height" or "Hate," right? It's the latter, and don't feel bad you didn't know. It went over my head, too.

This weekend Nathan and I learned quickly the Haight was a big piece of '60s cultural revolution. We are children of the 80s and 90s, so give us a break... we're not completely in tune with our references to the Summer of Love.

So, the Upper Haight. It's our new neighborhood as of Saturday, March 15. We signed a year lease in a very cool 1910s-era building (about 6 units) with 2 bedrooms, a small fenced in back yard (great for the dog) and walking distance to shopping, both commercial and bohemian. Very cool. Pics of the apartment and neighborhood to come.

We're two blocks from Golden Gate park and steps from the University of San Francisco. Everything we need and everything we really want are within a few minutes walk.

This week I wrap up work and tie up loose ends so Friday, MOVING DAY, goes without a hitch!

So much for long-term planning.

If we haven't been staying in touch like we should, then you'll be surprised to know Nathan and I are pulling up our DC stakes, packin' up the wagon (with our dog, Andi) and heading to San Francisco.

Why San Francisco? Let me explain.

What brought us to DC in the first place was an opportunity for me (Greg) to build a new Web presence for the National Association of Manufacturers. That, and an opportunity for Nathan to grow roots in either his education (law school) or network his butt off to find a great career start. He happily went for the latter. I worked downtown, literally steps from the White House and Nathan did his 9 to 5 on the waterfront in Alexandria.

And so here we are. A long introduction to what's happening in our small world, but now you have enough to digest.

Keep coming back to our blog. Subscribe to our RSS feed by clicking "Posts (Atom)" at the bottom of this entry. RSS lets you check back in to see how the move went, how life is treating us and how another chapter of our lives is unfolding.

...moving details...

Apartment hunting: March 13-16
Pack-up/movers come; all worldly possessions shipped: March 21
Family move via airplane: March 24
Worldly possessions in San Francisco: March 27
1st day at PG&E: April 7