On Saturday I went down to the city with Stephanie and her mom, Chris. Stephanie had a meeting for most of the morning, so her mom and I drove all over the city, starting at Lake Merced then winding our way from Daly City to Twin Peaks. I’d never been before, and the weather was cold, windy, and drizzly, but I still managed to get out and take a picture (which was pretty much black and white to begin with).

Afterwards all three of us went to the Fisherman’s Wharf in search of lunch and some souvenir magnets for Stephanie’s sister. We stopped in at the new Boudin Bakery and had chewy sourdough pizza and salad in their downstairs cafe. We were in a bit of a rush, with Chris’s flight back to France leaving at 4:15pm, so we spent a few minutes looking for magnets, found the perfect one in the shape of a cable car, and got on our way to SFO.

I was sad to see Chris go. I realized later that I’d known Stephanie with her mother around almost as long as I knew her alone. Chris had been in California since mid-December, and in that time, she cleaned Stephanie’s apartment, cooked us delicious French meals, gave me a haircut, accompanied Stephanie to her dance classes, and somehow managed to knit like a dozen scarves (écharpes).

Afterwards, Stephanie and I had a few hours to blow, so we drove over to Pacifica and watched the surfers ride waves in the rain.

Then we headed back up to Marin to see the Pilobolus dance company perform. Their dancing is very acrobatic with graceful, almost weightless movement of connected bodies. Think Cirque Du Soleil but without the cirque.

I haven’t seen much dance in my life, but somehow back in the day I went to the American Dance Festival as an undergrad, and happened to see Pilobolus perform. I know this because I remember quite clearly a piece where they flooded the stage with about an inch of water and slid across it in a very controlled, almost choreographed manner. They did that again on Saturday night to close out the show.

I can’t recommend going to see them enough. It really gave me an appreciation for the human body and would probably expand (or at least challenge) most peoples’ preconceptions about art.