A Tourist in My Own Town

With featured act the Kingsboroughs, Rin Tin Tiger performs at Blondie’s Bar for the City Sounds, sponsored by NBC and Jack Daniels Honey.

In a fog-ridden city like San Francisco, it is often a relief when it clears, and you come out on the other side.  For almost the last 12 months,  I’ve felt I was traveling through a fog, and I’m just emerging from it.

Surely, the city by the bay has lots of stuff going on to cure the blues, and hanging out  with family and friends is perhaps the best medicine–they do well to keep me balanced.  Music is one of my favorite things, and taking in live music with my brother and his friends this month for the City Sounds in the Mission was what the doctor ordered.

With Wendy, my longest-known friend in the Bay Area, I went to Sunset Magazine’s Weekend Celebration and later Chipotle Cultivate Festival in Golden Gate Park, which was also humming with live music.   Both were delightful foodie events, with cooking demos by chefs (some celebrity) and cooks.

Profane with a Touch of Whimsy: “The Salty Pimp” (chocolate-dipped soft-serve vanilla ice cream, dulce de leche and sea salt) from the Big Gay Ice Cream Truck.

At the Cultivate fest, I enjoyed Chipotle’s tacos and even its foray into Southeast Asian cooking called ShopHouse.   I also had a bacon-wrapped hotdog from one vendor and “The Salty Pimp” from the Big Gay Ice Cream truck.  Every bite of the vanilla soft-serve ice cream was so incredible, as though the milk just came from the dairy farm.

Wendy has her ear to the ground more than I do, it seems.  I wasn’t in such a wonderful space at the time, and I had trouble being in the moment.  My head was simply somewhere else.  But when I brought myself around to be more present, I felt more anchored and grateful that Wendy gave me the opportunity to escape for a few weekends.  After all that’s what friends (and family) are for.

The Truck Stops Here: Straight from NYC, unicorns and rainbows under a gray sky and an intriguing ice cream menu.