Thursday April 8th.
On the way back to San Francisco we stopped in Bakersfield. This was a little out of the way, but they have a max vaccination site that said they had extra vaccines and were accepting walk ins so we decided to see if Daniel and Kelsey could get vaccinated there. Lee and I took care of Rossy while they tried their luck. It worked! They got their first Pfizer shot. I am so happy for them. Soon our whole pod will be vaccinated, except for the little kids, and maybe there will be a shot available for them by this summer.
While we were waiting we sat outside at a nearby Starbucks and talked to one of the volunteers. The reason they have so many extra vaccines is that there is a lot of vaccine hesitancy among the local population. A lot of Latinos, a lot of migrants, a lot of poverty. It’s too bad, because they are among the people that need it most, with crowded living conditions and unsafe work environments. The volunteer said she has been trying to convince her 80 year old mother to get the shot, without any luck so far.
Finally Bakersfield started advertising their extra vaccines on the news and the internet and now people are going there from all over Southern California to get vaccinated. That’s great but they really need to work on educating the local population so that they won’t be afraid and will get vaccinated too. That’s how we will finally beat this thing.
It was a long drive back to San Francisco, but we finally got here around 6. Carryout Chinese for dinner, and I slept through the night, never waking until almost 5:30. I got up to pee and went back to bed and slept until 6:30!
I did my tempo run today, 5 miles with a 1 mile warmup and 1 mile cool down. It went very well, all at pace, but the warmup and cool down were too fast. I need to cut that out because it’s going to hurt me down the line. But the tempo part felt really good. We’ll see how it goes next week when I’m up to 8 miles.
Saturday April 10th
Yesterday I ran 5 miles easy, all too fast. We got very good sushi for lunch, and later walked over to the Giants stadium. They were playing the home opener. Usually there are free seats where you can wander into the stadium and watch the game for awhile, but they are closed right now because of Covid. Oh well. We stopped at an open air bar to get drinks. I got a Manhattan, pretty good.
We tried to go out to eat at a place that’s known for their paella. Unfortunately we wanted an outside table and there were none to be had. We ordered some very good Indian food for carry out instead. No biggie.
This morning I ran 6 miles, and finally ran it slow enough. I went south this time along the Embarcadero, past Giants Stadium, through a bayside park. There’s a lot of construction going on, and when I got to Crane Cove Park it was blocked off at the far end so I turned around.
We met Daniel and Kelsey’s friends, Natasha and Shyam, and walked over to the Farmer’s Market. San Francisco has seemed fairly quiet until now, but the farmer's market was hopping. Everyone was wearing their masks but there were a lot of people out. It was sunny, a beautiful day. I got a very messy grilled cheese sandwich that included sausage and a fried egg. Lee got Turkish dumplings, Daniel got a grilled cheese with avocado and Kimchee, Kelsey got a beef wrap. After that we went to an outdoor wine bar and shared a carafe of Rosè and some olives and burrata.
That evening we drove to Burlingame and had dinner with Kelsey’s parents. We met at a great Italian restaurant, sat outside. Her mother is fully vaccinated, her dad has had his first shot. We are getting there! We had a really nice time, talking and eating. We have known OF each other for a long time, but this is the first time we have actually met. We got along great. It will be fun to plan a wedding with them, when the time comes.
Sunday April 11th
I ran 10 miles this morning at a long run pace, which is a little faster than an easy run. It took me a couple miles to settle down and then I aimed for around 12:50 mpm and stayed pretty close to that for the rest of the run.
We went on an expedition for lunch. Daniel, Lee and I got bahn mi sandwiches from a little restaurant in Sunset. I got a bubble tea, just because I’d never had one before and I was curious. The milk tea part was good, and the bubbles were novel. They are basically tapioca. They are slightly sweet and chewy, and they give you a wide straw with which to suck them up. After awhile I got tired of them, however. I’ve tried them now and that’s enough.
We’ve been lazy all afternoon. Lee and Dan are making pizza for dinner and tomorrow we head home. It’s been a great visit. We’ve had beautiful weather, great food. The weather in Minneapolis is rainy and chilly. We might even get snow showers on Monday? But I miss our dogs, and the kids. I’m ready to go home.
