SF State of Mind: Work, Painting, Music, a Track Meet, and the views...

 What a year!!!! And it's not over yet. 

Took a contract job in Millbrae, CA; 2 miles to SFO, a mile to work and the BART station. And whatever this monstrosity is...

On the way down, a stop in Berkeley to see Lou, a fellow Naval Academy grad. His house has a spectacular view of SF Bay. 

Rented a small ADU for a month, then found something a bit more suitable....gawd. 

That house was a ridiculous and fortunate find. A mile to work, 25 minutes to downtown, quiet neighborhood....and did you see the pictures?!?

The roof from work had a nice view of Runways 1R/L. 

Some nice eats across the street. IYKYK....

One of many video chats before she came down. 

Bruce's beau Kristin had a fundraiser or something with some guy who evidently played basketball with MJordan and now does some coaching for the Warriors. 

It's important to have the desk properly outfitted. 

Some lunatic was regularly seen on the town's streets at 0600 doing lunges with a heavy resistance band. 

I flew up to Ashland to help Zoe move out of her dorm. 

Nice kicks. 

She's collecting some cool toys. 

Moving her inventory into storage. 

Classmate Al, a United Captain, flew into town and we had a great dinner at the Stinking Rose. 

That's a whole lotta garlic!

And that's a whole lotta garlic ice cream! I didn't know such a thing existed....it was a little...unusual. 

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Al's departure the next morning. Puerta Vallarta would be a right turn off Runway 10, but Al decided to go left and give his pax a visual tour of downtown. 

I had some awesome bike rides along the bay, down to the San Mateo Bridge and beyond. 

Chinatown is as advertised. 

The GG Bridge and Alcatraz...

Another Face Time with the kid....

Bob Barker: you've just won....A NEW CAR!!!!

Her 15 year old Subaru, aka Bernard, needed an expensive overhaul, so I opted for an early graduation present instead. The kid was thrilled. 

Never gets old...

Nice to share a drink and dessert with your kid. 

NBC pacing himself. 

Now, the 'Find Out' portion of our show. 

Dim sum (one of the few dishes I didn't make)

Not sure what this was...

My world famous street corn...

Salmon on a rough tapenade. This was GOOOOOOD!

Some kind of pasta that we devoured...

Red posole...

Shrimp and gnocci....i need to buy stock in garlic farms!!

Best dinner date ever!

A big bike ride north....

Say hey.....the other Willie has his own cove...

The kid is going to an EDM festival here soon. 

Hunter's Point Shipyard, long defunct. It was a happening place back in the day. 

This place also used to be rocking. 

Many an indoor track meet at the Palace back in the 1980's. 

A long overdue meetup with classmates Tim and Jack in San Jose. 

Some excellent city tours with Zoe. 

The coastal towns of Half Moon Bay and Pacifica

Some of Zoe's friends came to town, they had a blast in the city. 

Didn't see any Dead Heads up here...

Amoeba Records!

We spent lots of time in that gorgeous backyard. 

This was one of her projects. All done by hand....she thoroughly enjoyed her backyard studio. 

I did well in my supervisory role. 

Zoe has done 70 music gigs in a year. I told her that when she has her breakthru performance or first professional art show, I'm going to wear something like this, along with top hat and cigarette holder....and I will not be quiet. 

More tours....

UCSF

Team building dinner. 

Zoe took a side trip to a Portland event, where she met her DJ role model. 

A brief interruption to attend the USA Track and Field Championships in Eugene...

Wallace tried to run down Bolt in the 2008 Olympic 200m, but got himself DQ'd for steps on the line!

My man Suds was rocking the attire. 

The view from Hayward never gets old!!

My man Dr Chuck: 1984 Olympic Trials finalist, oh so close. One of his daughters ran at this meet. 

This guy...

Good eats in the dining hall...

Pretty spicy temperatures out there....I'm good at finding shade between races. 

Remember the food fight scene in Animal House? It was right here...

Dude stayed on the rail in Paris, kicked like a beast, and walked to the top of the podium. 

Badass UOregon jav thrower Cyrus, who doesn't know how/why i named my car after him. 

Breakfasts were the usual, until I realized the Mexican line had their own version. Much better!

Bill Bowerman, longtime coach, and co-founder of the company that became Nike. 

RCV toy? Yes...also the javelin retrieval system. 

Great meet. A quick drive to Bend before flying to SF. 

Zelalem introduced me to Remy Martin....great guy (both of them). He invited me to Addis Ababa when he heads back. 

Zoe and her best friend bought tix to Outside Lands, a 3 day festival in GG Park. She's dressed appropriately, I believe. 

I tried to get this shot from Twin Peaks at night, but kept getting fogged out. 

Lunch with some of the guys....Simon is young and can put away the food!

All Star maintenance planner Tyler

The historic Cliff House, now vacant...many a posh event was held here. 

A little nosh at the Seal Rock Inn...

Hayes Street Hill, infamous for its 6% incline during the Bay to Breakers road race. 

I didn't get up to South Lake Tahoe....Echo Summit was the site of the 1968 Olympic Trials. You can make out the location of the track...center right, the tall trees on the infield of the track!! 

Transamerica Building....for a long time, the tallest building in the city. 

Better shots from Twin Peaks the second time around. 

When flying in/out of SFO, always get a left window seat. The views from the air are magnificent, given the counter clockwise traffic patterns between here and Oregon. 

A walkabout past The Stinking Rose in all its garlicky glory

Sigh. 

One of my favorite memories from the summer was two straight months of mornings with my kid....a slow hour of coffee and conversation. 

Fabulous time. In a month, she starts her final year at school. After that: who knows? Seatbelts are fastened, tray table in the upright locked position. 

I love you, Zoe. We'll remember this summer for a long, long time.