The College Visits Have Begun! PS-That is Mt. Tam in the background.
Tag: Marin County
Wyworry Creek
Tomales Bay Shipwreck
Cheda’s Garage
San Francisco from Sausalito
Jerry Garcia’s Fingernails
when i was a kid i thought the grateful dead and iron maiden were related, both had skulls and were scary, i never listened to their music for fear, of what, i didn’t exactly know, freshman year touch of grey came out and the seniors were all about it, with their bandanas and tie dye t-shirts, i learned not to be afraid of their music, but i still never listened to the dead, ever, until college rolled around and they became unavoidable, every boarding school wannabe quasi-hippie trustafarian played the dead in their dorm room, and i still mostly hated their music, except for eyes of the world, friends tried to get me to attend concerts, but i always politely declined, there were enough burned out patchouli-smelling colby students without spending hours in a parking lot hoping for a “miracle,” so when i graduated i was glad to be rid of jerry and his band, a couple months went by and jerry died, a year later i’m living in california, my cousin is sharing an apartment with a mortician in kentfield (marin county), i’m at their place one day, dude proudly opens a drawer, finger and toenails are inside, those are jerry’s, he beams, i will never understand the obsession.
when i left terra linda high school
drive the mustang top down to silbermann’s ice cream, marcels blue moon blasting, five years of teaching completed and they want yearbooks signed, the teenagers, my students. benevolent chaos, i feel like mickey mantle as they hand over pens and pencils for me to scribble words of love on a page. descriptions of what they added to class discussions, how much history they mastered, or their uncanny comprehension of richard wright. they surround me all afternoon, a human blanket, wrapping me in june kindness and melting mint chocolate chip.
My 20 Favorite San Francisco Bay Area Restaurants
As time goes by I slowly realize that memory becomes less clear. I lived in the San Francisco Bay Area for 24 years. Specifically in: San Anselmo, San Rafael, Mill Valley, Noe Valley (SF), Western Addition (SF), and Palo Alto. For me, a great restaurant is like excellent theater, an evening where one is transported, both by the food and the ambiance. Not all of the following restaurants are still open, but these are my top 20 (in no particular order, not including the ones that I may have already forgotten).
-Kokkari Estiatorio (San Francisco)
-Wakuriya (San Mateo)
-La Ciccia (San Francisco)
-Paseo (Mill Valley)
-Gary Danko (San Francisco)
-Tosca Cafe (San Francisco)
-L’Ardoise Bistro (San Francisco)
-Iberia (Menlo Park)
-Chez Panisse (Berkeley)
-Acquerello (San Francisco)
-Lark Creek Inn (Larkspur, closed in 2009)
-Jardiniere (San Francisco, closed in 2019)
-Mister Jiu’s (San Francisco)
-Bar Jules (San Francisco, closed in 2015)
-Cotogna (San Francisco)
-Spruce (San Francisco)
-Tadich Grill (San Francisco)
-SPQR (San Francisco)
-Quince (San Francisco)
-Ristorante Ideale (San Francisco)
My Old Cedar Canoe
Years ago I lived by Richardson Bay in Mill Valley and owned this handmade cedar canoe.
Mount Tamalpais
we talk about life
stumbling upward toward East
Peak, the fog slowly
disappearing into blue sky
day on this mountain
where we remember thirty
that age when last
here, ascending together as
if time remains still
but no, five kids
between us, balding heads
failing vision, and all
the rest of middle
age, to think in
another fourteen we will
be sixty, how long
will the mountain remain
ours, before it nudges
us off fire roads, away
from crow filled branches
we look down on
Lake Lagunitas, that water
holding minutes like a
Jim Croce song that
lasts forever, then stops







