Experiments in Retirement #1
Historic Menlo Park Train Station
I retired on April 1, 2008. Is there any advantage to being a retiree? I must find out. On Thursday, April 17th, accompanied by spousal unit, I went to a mid-week matinee at Davies Symphony Hall in San Francisco taking Caltrain to the City and then getting around by bus and Muni. We walked to the Menlo Park train station, a half mile from our house, and caught the 11:45 train. The round trip fare for seniors is half price at $7.50. The train is clean, quiet, and mid-day not crowded. One hour later we deboarded at 4th and Townsend into a sun-filled, warm (70 °F) beautiful San Francisco. We walked across King Street for a light lunch at a Panera Bread shop. The last Panera we enjoyed was in Roanoke, VA, this past Christmas. We then caught the #49 bus that goes south on Harrison to 11th, then after filling with passengers proceeds up Van Ness, letting us out opposite Davies Symphony Hall. These buses are pretty high tech. An LED panel up front tells you the cross street for the next stop and indicates if a stop has been requested. I had to learn to wait for the green light above the rear door before trying to open it or to stand in the stairwell. Seniors pay 50¢, 1/3rd the normal fare for buses.
San Francisco City Hall across Van Ness from Davies
Davies was built about 1980. (Before that the Symphony shared the War Memorial Opera Center next door. We’ve had series tickets for Thursday evening since the early 1980s. Our series tickets are near the left rear of the orchestra (row AA). The acoustics here are excellent, especially since the acoustic upgrade about 1990. We once got to visit Louise Davies (Exxon heir) in her home in Woodside (off of Woodside Road just east of US 280). The occasion was a fund raiser for the Midpeninsula Citizens for Fair Housing (MCFH); I was a volunteer Board member at the time. Well, the matinee was dominated by the older set, making us feel quite young. From our seats immediately behind our series seats, in row BB, we observed a virtual sea of fuzzy white hair, remarkably similar in appearance to the cotton fields of the Central Valley in late summer.
The symphony, conducted by Bernard Labadie, a French Canadian, started with Mozart’s Clarinet Concerto in A major. Clarey Bell did a great job as principal clarinetist. The second major piece was Bizet’s Symphony in C major. A minor piece was Ravel’s Pavane pour une infante défunte. Now here’s a coincidence: this piece was commissioned by Princesse de Polignac in 1899. The Princesse was born Winnaretta Singer, the 20th (Wikipedia claims she was the 18th) of 24 children of the Americann sewing-machine magnate Isaac Merritt Singer. After a first marriage to Prince Louis-Vilfred de Scey-Montbéliard was annulled because never consummated after 5 years (Winnaretta was a lesbian), a perfect match was made with Prince Edmond de Polignac, who needed Winnaretta’s money while Winnaretta coveted the aristocratic title. Prince Edmond de Polignac was best friends with Robert de Montesquiou, the pillar of Parisian gay society and the model for Des Esseintes in Huysmans’ À Rebours (English title: Against Nature), a strange book that I’d never heard of until we read it in my book club in 2006. It’s a small world.
Mission Dolores, Mission at 16th Bart Station, Mission at 16th Looking north on Missouri toward One Ricon Mussels Provencial
The symphony ended by 4:00 pm. We caught the #49 on Van Ness that took us to 16th and Mission (also a BART Station). We had lots of time, so we walked up to Dolores St to see the Mission before getting the next bus. This part of the Mission District is very multi-ethnic, lots of local flavor punctuated with upscale watering holes and other indications that there is a hip middle-class living here somewhere. It reminded me of the Upper West Side of Manhattan when I lived there as a graduate student 1966-75 (yes, that long). We transferred (free) to the #22 bus that dog-legged to 18th and Missouri where Chez Papa is located. A friend had recommended this small French restaurant in the Potrero Hill area. Actually there is an impressive view of downtown San Francisco (the new 641 foot One Ricon, cf Transamerica Pyramid, 853 feet) from this location. The restaurant didn’t open for dinner until 5:30, so they served us a glass of wine to help us bide a half hour. Being so early, we took advantage of the early-bird fix prix: spousal unit the lamb, myself mussels provincial. The restaurant is run by a French family from Marsailles who succeed to give it the proper atmosphere of a French bistro.
Looking north on 3rd St toward downtown
After eating, we walked down 18th and then Mariposa to 3rd Street where we just missed a T-Third Metro. The next one was 15 minutes later (used our free transfer again), which resulted in our just missing the 7:30 pm train for Menlo Park. So the main negative of the day was having to wait for the 8:30 train, although the San Francisco station is in fact quite pleasant. We arrived in Menlo Park about 9:30 pm and then walked home without further adventure