Viva La Vida

The One With Perfect Day, a Perfect Brownie

We spent the morning in a hotel room. A not-too-shabby little suite on the club level of the W Hotel - built on the part of Newark that pushes out into the San Francisco bay - where the gap between East & West narrows. We finally got out the door and into the car by 2PM, and set out on this sunny day  across the Dumbarton Bridge to Palo Alto. We walked down University Ave., admiring the beautiful whether and the beautiful area. So different from "my" University Ave. back in Berkeley, Palo Alto was California liberal, and yet also very yuppie. The streets were clean and the cars put my little bimmer to shame. We wandered around and settled on a little sidewalk bistro for brunch. Hungry, we over-ordered. Later, full, this giant brownie - our dessert - was still untouched, so we got it packed. We got back on the road, heading nowhere in particular, but in the general direction of San Francisco, and decided to find a beach to eat our brownie on.

This became more than a plan, it became a mission - to only eat the brownie once we were sitting on a beach somewhere, admiring the view. We called people, got directions, and struck out in a new direction toward Half Moon Bay. We drove for what felt like an hour, listening to whatever CDs she happenned to have, and eventually emerged onto a tiny road winding through the hills out to sea. We drove and drove, hit traffic - apparently some October Pumpkin Festival - and continued along. We came out on Half Moon Bay, and drove around. We missed the beach exits, doubled-back, turned-off, and find ourselves coming up on a giant building - beautiful - which turned out to be the Ritz Carelton Half Moon Bay. We parked, walked out past the hotel to the cliffs overlooking the beach. It felt like something out of Rebecca or Gatsby. We finally found a passage leading from the cliffs down to the beach below. When we got to the bottom, shoes in hand, we walked along the beach, and found a rock to climb.

By this time it was 6PM, the tide was coming in, and the sun was setting. We found a perch on the rock, and watched the sunset, one arm around each other, the second with a forkful of brownie. When the sun had called it a day, so did we, and we drove back to San Francisco, where she deposited me at dinner, and said goodbye till next month.