July 2009

So the first time I stepped foot on the west coast was July 15th. Before that the farthest West I had been in my life was at the age of 11 to Albuquerque, NM. Were ironically the first place I  saw snow.  So I’m wondering when it will be ok for me to act like a tourist. This is the first time out here and Its to live here. So I decided I don’t care if I look like a tourist when I’m snapping away at random things especially landmarks.

I get that the reason people don’t want to be seen as tourist is that they are temporary were they are and that most people will try to take advantage of them. I get it and I don’t disagree with that logic. But I also don’t like living in fear. Plus I don’t want to look back at this time in my life and wish I would have gotten a picture of my self in golden gate park or go see alcatraze. I also don’t want to not know about the local history or have not seen all the cool things this city has to offer because I was afraid of looking like a tourist. This is the only shot I get to have a first  time for everything in San Francisco. I want to enjoy it so if you see me on one of the double decker busses downtown San Francisco marveling at the sky scrapers… you’ll know what’s up.

I waited a really long time to get this opportunity I’m planning on making it a full experience. Its like when I buy anything electronic. I read the owners manual cover to cover to make sure I get all of the goody out of it.  :0) I’m planning on doing the same thing with San Francisco.

Besides, with all the awesome stuff out here you can’t help but walk down the street gawking.

So I found out this past month that Sausalito is not just a cookie and Sausalito cookie is not the nick name of the town’s “working lady”.

I moved out to Sausalito to have a place to stay for more than a day. The place I started out in was super nice in town town Oakland. But my friend’s roommate was a bit on the crazy side and there was an incident. My friend is not to blame, she was trying to help me out. But her over privileged roommate wasn’t having it so I had to go someplace else. I crashed on another friend’s sofa for a night. It may have turned into something longer term but the resident boy cat took one look at Loralie and hissed and growled. He was not happy with her being there. So I had to find another place. So the people next door were kind enough to take Loralie and I in for a few days.

When Sausalito came up as an option I thought why not? I could see the North Bay and finally meet the legendary Amilcar. My friend Sue has the wonderful friend Amilcar whom I had heard so much about and was willing to take me in. So rather than strain the friendship of my new found friends I went out to Sausalito looking forward to another leg of my adventure.

Sausalito is Gorgeous!! Wow you have mountains on one side and water on the other. Its cooler than the east bay because of this. The top crimes there are bike theft and speeding tickets. Its apparently a training ground for cops so they have nothing to do so they write citations. Sausalito has some of the best bike and pedestrian laws I’ve ever seen. They have car lanes, bike lanes, and pedestrian lanes. You can get from one end of Sausalito to the other on a bike completely on a bike trail.

But alas there isn’t much in the way of stuff to do for people in my age bracket. Its more of a touristy retirement spot. I quickly missed the buzz of the city but hung out for a little over a week. I looked at it as the sumer vacation I haven’t had in over a decade. lol It was peaceful and I got a lot of work done. When I went back to the city for a visit or to the east bay it would take about $7 one way and 2 hours or more to get there. I would start out walking to a bus stop, bus ride over the golden gate, then a ride on the BART to get to my friend Jacky’s house. I enjoyed the ride and the solitude but I realized that if I had to go back into the city for an interview that could complicate things not just time wise but also start to hurt the pockets.

So I contacted my new friends I had stayed with before Sausalito. I was able to stay there a little over a week. I like Sausalito, I have volunteered for the arts festival and I’m going to work as part of the stage crew for two days. North bay is beautiful but its far away and really price to live there.