Cool-City Staycation
In a sweltering world, San Francisco is a chilly oasis. A few of my favorite haunts...
With so much of the US suffering under an unrelenting heat wave, it’s a great time to stay put in the coastal Bay Area.
Earlier this week, it was 86 Fahrenheit at our house on the Peninsula, so we drove eighteen miles to San Francisco, where the temperature dropped to 64. We went to the SF MOMA, then had a late lunch at an old haunt, Goat Hill Pizza, home of sourdough-crust pizza since 1975. Even though I used to teach at California College of the Arts less than half a mile away and my husband has been to Goat Hill Pizza dozens of times, we must have looked like tourists or something, because the server asked, “Do you know what It’s Its are?”
Lord have mercy. We have been known to procure our It’s Its from the actual It’s Its factory. You can get your It’s Its there too, as long as you have room in your freezer for a case. At Goat Hill Pizza, though, they roll their It’s Its in Girl Scout Cookies. We’d had too much salad and pizza to finish off the meal with It’s Its, but I do like the idea of a chocolate-coated, moon pie shaped ice cream sandwich rolled in Thin Mints.
On our way out of town I couldn’t resist snapping a photo of the “Extreme Heat” warning sign at the on-ramp to 280, urging travelers to “stay cool” and “drink water.” Set against San Francisco’s iconic fog, the sign seemed unnecessarily dire, though it’s true that on the same day, you could drive about ten miles inland and suffer under a 103F heat dome.
SFGate has been running photos of locals crowding our famously foggy beaches, seeking relief from the inland sun. On Bay Area beaches, you’ll notice very few swimsuits even on a “hot” day. Normally, you have to wear a puffy coat at Ocean Beach or Stinson Beach, especially in June and July. This year, you can get by with a t-shirt, although by evening the temperature drops to the fifties. When I hiked from Land’s End to China Beach last week, I got warm enough to ditch my sweatshirt—a rarity in all my years of walking the Land’s End path.
Out in the Avenues
Whenever these summer heat waves hit, I find myself regretting the fact that we sold our house in San Francisco’s Outer Richmond fifteen years ago. The fog is the city’s beloved natural air conditioning, and the fog is its most cool, beautiful self out in the avenues. We drive out to the avenues all the time, most often to see a movie at the Balboa, grab dumplings at Wen Cheng Dumpling Restaurant, get fresh-roasted coffee at Simple Pleasures (the “oldest coffee house in the Richmond”), enjoy a burrito from Chino’s, or hike Land’s End. Drive a few blocks inland and you’re at the wonderful Green Apple Books. After filling your book bag, walk up the street to Georgia’s Pizza.
The Mission
Although I’m obviously partial to the avenues, I also love the Mission, where you’ll find some the best food in the city. One evening last week, we went to the Mission to see the premiere of The Secret Art of Human Flight at the Roxie. Written by Jesse Orenshein and directed by H.P. Mendoza, it’s a sweet, beautiful movie, the kind of offbeat feel-good film we might all be in need of right now. I’d describe The Secret Art of Human Flight for you, but the logline does it best: A grieving widower turns to a mysterious self help book from the dark web written by an eccentric guru, which promises to unlock the power to fly.
In a Q&A after the film, Mendoza revealed that he’d shot the movie during the pandemic immediately after his father’s death, and the entire cast had lived together on a closed set in the house where the film is shot for the duration of filming. This lends an intimacy to the film that would be difficult to replicate in “normal” times.
After the film, we walked over to La Cumbre, home of the original Mission Style Burrito. (Whatever you do, don’t leave San Francisco without trying a burrito on Valencia Street).
San Francisco: Small City, Lots to Do
My son, who is home from college for the summer, had friends visiting from the south for a little over a week last month, and they drove to “the city” (as we call it here on the Peninsula) almost every day. San Francisco is quite small (seven miles by seven miles), so you can see the highlights in a few days. They visited Haight Street (home of two of my favorite iconic San Francisco shops, Amoeba Music and The Booksmith), Valencia Street, Dolores Park, the Castro (where I managed an apartment building when my husband and I first moved to SF from New York City many years ago), Crissy Field, Sutro Baths, Land’s End, and Golden Gate Park.
They even walked over the Golden Gate Bridge. I recommend this rather unpleasant activity for anyone exactly one time, no more, and definitely not with small children. We lived in San Francisco for nearly a decade before I walked across the bridge. My editor was visiting from New York City and wanted to make that iconic journey by foot. We both nearly froze. Afterward, we had drinks at the Cliff House, a historic San Francisco spot beloved by locals, which has sadly been shuttered since 2020 but is rumored to be reopening in 2024.
We’re supposed to have another heat wave headed our way in the Bay Area. Locals know where to go: coastward. But if you’re not from around here and you’re hoping for a cooler vacation during next summer’s inevitable heat wave, consider San Francisco. No swimsuit needed (but you will want to bring a jacket).
If you enjoyed this post, you might enjoy reading my San Francisco-centric novels. You’ll find them on Bookshop.org and Amazon.
I still have the fleecy gilet I bought in SF on the Fourth of July over a decade ago, having arrived totally unprepared from LA
This made me miss SF so much! SoCal not at all the same thing!