Good-bye, San Francisco

It's incredibly hard not to fall in love with San Francisco. And I did fall in love.

Sure, I also found a boyfriend here, and that could be tainting my view a bit. But it's the city itself that's tugging at my heartstrings tonight.

When I visited Ocean Beach a few weeks ago, I was already upset about leaving -- but it was looking north and south along the coast that made me burst into tears. Would I really leave that beauty behind for a job?

Tonight I rode in a Miata over the Golden Gate, to Sausalito and back. I had Two-Buck Chuck at a friend's apartment, then dinner at a Polk Street eatery. I walked home with Vivek, who pushed his bike, and bought ice cream at the corner store. We crossed the Hyde Street cable car tracks just before we hit our door.

As I write this, I can see the lights of Marin from my our living room window. It's nothing much to look at right now. But I know that earlier today, the sun gleamed off the waters of San Francisco Bay, with white sails of sailboats framed against the gray fog of the city. I know that on a sunyy day, the water is blue as blue from here, and my vista looks like something out of a Mediterranean tourbook. Outside, the Powell-Hyde cable still is humming.

I'll leave this beautiful city in just 36 hours, en route to what I'm told is a beautiful, beautiful country, India. But it's hard to imagine the sort of postcard scenes I've encountered daily here could be found anywhere else on this planet.

For my own sake, I hope my first trans-Pacific trip proves me wrong. But for now, I'll go to sleep with visions and dreams of San Francisco, the city I know to be just about the most beautiful on earth.