A twelve hour perspective.

After arriving in San Francisco on Friday afternoon, and concluding my business with the Korean consulate, I found myself with some time to kill in the city before I had to return my rental car.  I made a quick pilgrimage to the Full House house to take the predictable fan picture, and then decided to drive around until I found a place to spend some time. I found myself a couple blocks from the Palace of the Fine Arts, so I grabbed my computer, found a park bench, and decided to write about what I saw…

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12: Directly in front of me, a fountain throwing water skyward at the south end of an otherwise undisturbed man-made pond populated by seagulls, ducks, and even a swan or two.

11: An hour to the left I can see a bride and groom, embracing for their photographer. The impressive faux Roman ruins glowing in the waning afternoon light will provide a stunning backdrop.

10: Corinthian columns the color and size of redwoods flank a courtyard. There should be a toga and olive branch dress code, and conversation would be peppered with the latest scholarly endeavors.

9: Standing my periphery, the willow tree providing shade enough to see my laptop screen is taking a nap in the soft breeze.

8: Winding back the clock and up a slight embankment, the intersection of Bay and Lyon streets is surprisingly quiet.

7: The biggest house on the block loiters at the corner, looking out at the park and asking passers by Do you have any idea who my father is?

6: Directly behind me, floor-to-ceiling bay windows answer I know who his father is, because my father and his father play polo together on the weekends.

5: I can see the only building that doesn’t look like it doesn’t belong; a deep red brick exclamation point punctuates a sentence of pastels.

4: Glancing over my shoulder, I watch a black car, obviously driven by a tourist, slow down to look for parking and admire the park that just beckoned him to sit and have a picnic.

3: Opposite the willow is the small grassy hill that I passed in favor of this park bench.

2: The hot spot for picture taking seems to be the small finger of the path extends into the pond.

1: I’m looking at the now-empty spot in front of me where, during the course of writing this, the married couple had migrated to and concluded their photo shoot. I congratulated them as they left.