As William Saroyan said, “"No city invites the heart to come to life as San Francisco does. Arrival in San Francisco is an experience in living."
We certainly feel that way! We were here last in June of 1984, on our honeymoon. After a few days we drove all the way down the coast on Pacific Coast Highway. That’s when we first fell in love with California. I felt like I must have lived here before, in a previous life, because California just felt “right.” I've dreamt of coming back here ever since.
Anyway, we left A COUNTRY RV PARK in Bakersfield, after doing a couple of loads of laundry and calling some friends and family. We ate a fast breakfast at DENNY’S. Eric had the MOONS OVER MY HAMMY®, which is a ham and scrambled egg sandwich with Swiss and American cheese on grilled sourdough, served with grits. He was embarrassed to ask for it, because the name’s so silly, and the waitress gave him a hard time, which really made us laugh. I got a Mushroom Swiss Boca Burger and fries, which tasted great, but wasn’t nearly as funny!
We got on the road and headed towards San Francisco. Jimmy had given us good directions, which were more scenic than those that Betty (our GPS system) came up with, so we followed his and just used Betty to get us to the CANDLESTICK RV PARK, which is “30 steps from MONSTER (Candlestick) PARK.”
Jimmy was waiting for us in the campground office when we arrived. It was SO great to see him, after all these years. Jim was always such a good friend – to me and to Eric. He is a great guy, a lot of fun, and tall, dark and handsome to boot. Who could ask for anything more?
I went into the office to register. There is a HUGE crystal chandelier in there, which really blew my mind. I have been in fancy campgrounds before, but NONE of them have had a crystal chandelier of ANY size. They gave us keys to the bathrooms, and we went to check them out. They’re really nice and big, with beautifully tiled walls and floors. Also very fancy! We’ll have to see how well the showers work. Eric and I have become experts in campground bathrooms and showers and always compare notes and rate each one. Some have terrible water pressure, or the showers don’t work well, or there are no paper towels (which really annoys me).
We parked the RV at our site and gave Jim the 3-minute tour of the RV. Then, we got into his car and drove to his apartment in THE CASTRO section of San Francisco, which is like the Village in Manhattan. There are lots of great stores, restaurants, bars and clubs. We saw Jimmy’s apartment, which is adorable. He has a great eye and knows how to arrange and display all the wonderful pieces of art, toys, and collectibles he has accumulated over the years. He also has a huge collection of DVDs and CDs.
Jimmy’s building survived the 1906 earthquake, so it’s over 100 years old and has so much character – inside and out. His walk-in closet is big enough to be a tiny bedroom, and has built-in cabinets and drawers. There is the remnant of an antique phone on the wall in the hallway – just the little horn-shaped piece you would speak into, but the other part you would hold up to your ear is gone.
There is a garage in his building and indoor parking, but you have to drive through a very narrow driveway that – I swear – was just about 3 inches wider than Jimmy’s car. I don’t know HOW he does it, but he’s a pro! It’s great to have that parking, because it’s just as hard to find a space in THE CASTRO as it is in Manhattan!
Jimmy's tiny garage door:
The entrance to Jimmy's building:
Jim is a real theater buff, and this is part of his extensive collection of theater memorabilia:
We went up the block to THAI CORNER for dinner and got several appetizers, a noodle dish with chicken, a rice dish with shrimp and an eggplant dish to share. It was all delicious.
We noticed a bunch of guys in drag wearing HUGE pink wigs walk by and we realized it was the Saturday before Halloween – in San Francisco! After dinner, we walked around the neighborhood and there were people in costume EVERYWHERE. It was so fantastic. I was taking pictures left and right. It was so much fun. What a great neighborhood!
These divas were absolutely fabulous!
After walking around for about an hour, we went back towards Jimmy’s apartment and stopped into a place called SWEET INSPIRATION for dessert. I had mocha cheesecake, Eric had warm chocolate cake, and Jim had some kind of pumpkin cheesecake or mousse cake. The servings are huge and they were all so fantastic.
The Marilyns!
Here's AUDREY II from LITTLE SHOP OF HORRORS!
The Mary Kay girls:
We ran into the divas again, and they wanted to take a picture with ME!
They wanted to take a picture with me, too! I made some new friends in San Francisco!
We walked back to Jim’s apartment and he got his car and drove us back to the campground. We are going to rent a car tomorrow morning and pick him up for brunch.
It was so great to see Jimmy again. He reminded us that the last time we saw him was when he visited NY and stayed with us right before September 11th in 2001. So, it’s been six years since we’ve seen him! We’re going to make the most of the next five days here and see as much of Jim as we can!