California Dreaming III

We met at Serena and Cole's in the City at 9:30 am on Saturday. Serena’s girlfriend, Lea from Albuquerque via France, her Senegalese/French boyfriend, Stephan and Paul, from England, arrived shortly. Serena served homemade wheat biscuits, fig, peach, red and green chili jams, with tea and freshly hand-ground coffee to get us started. We shuttled in two cars across the Golden Gate Bridge and up Hwy 101 along the Bay to San Raphael where we cut across the northern peninsula on Sir Francis Drake Hwy to the coast. First rendezvous, the health food store in Fairfax to pick up lunch. Each car put together a combination of breads, cheeses, beverages and desserts for the hike.

We set off to meet at the Limantour Beach parking lot, to hike the Muddy Meadow Trail. On the way I wanted to note the location of the Spirit Rock Meditation Center. As we passed the sign and entry, we spied a vulture on the side of the road with a fresh deer carcass…. all things holy! When we arrived, we waited for a half hour watching for the white rental car. We decided then to go ahead and begin the hike rather than wait the day away since everyone had food and the good company of each other.

The trail lived up to it’s namesake as it had been raining for days. After widening the trail several times to get around the mud puddles, we decided to pick the driest spot we came to and eat. More great crusty bread and some gourmet cheeses from Point Reyes’ own Cowgirl Dairy and oranges. We headed back to the beach to see if our comrades had arrived.

There they were entrenched in the grassy dunes along the wide, sandy beach finishing up their picnic. Apparently there were two parking lots. We straggled onto the beach in pairs and small groups to dodge the waves, marvel at the stones, shells and driftwood, and wander aimlessly on the sand and in our minds.




Back in the City that night, Stan dropped off Serena and me and headed back across the Bay. Once re-grouped, we decided to go to Cole’s most recent favorite restaurant for Ethiopian food. Serena and I volunteered to get a table and order pitcher’s of Full Sail beer while the other’s circled the block to find parking. When all were present I found myself sitting next to Stephan, the Senegalese eating Ethiopian food in San Francisco. I love this place!

The standard fare of spicy lentils, garbanzo bean paste, cooked cabbage and cooked spinach, and salad greens is served on an extra large plate covered with a “tablecloth” of Injera. This thin spongy sour “tortilla” is made of Tef, a flour not available here but closely approximated by buckwheat. Although the food was not extremely remarkable, I was totally anesthetized by the atmosphere, being here in my beloved city with these intelligent, sophisticated, worldly and witty young people… and maybe the beer. To top off the night Cole invited everyone back to the apartment for Turkish coffee. Oh, for the endurance of youth!