Northern California: (1) San Francisco, A Bit Disappointing, A Bit Touching

K and I once spent a weekend in San Francisco, visited all the major sights downtown and also took a daytrip to Carmel-by-the-Sea. It was lovely. And over the years, San Francisco/northern California became a top candidate retirement place for us. It has both mountains and ocean, we can continue hiking and cycling, we can expand into ocean sports; it's also close to the best skiing destinations in the Rockies, and it has a good one of its own- Lake Tahoe; it is diverse in culture; it has good restaurants as well as abundant resources for gourmet cooking at home; its cost of living is much lower than NY and offers much more value. Earlier this year, a thought occurred to us, why wait until retirement? It's like saving sex for old age! Maybe we should move there earlier?

Regardless, we should visit there again. It's been five years. During the time, our domestic travels have been almost exclusively skiing-related (or hiking), or we'd go to Europe and Asia. Time to do some urban travels in US again. So in June, we spent one week in Northern California, half in San Francisco, half further south in the Carmel Valley.

San Francisco is so different from other American cities. You walk up the hills, a casual slant, a spans of blue water dotted by sail boats fall into your view. The Golden Gate bridge "hanging" in the fog, with the blue sky and water as backdrop invokes nothing but awe. Even the name, "san-fran-cis-co", so different from "Chicago", "Boston", "New York"; "san-fran-cis-co", just by pronouncing it, feels exotic with a touch of romance and mystic.

I planned 3 nights and 2 days for SF, with simple agenda and clear objectives :-)
Food: Gourmet market in Ferry Building (particularly Acme Bread), dinners at Alice Waters' Chez Panisse & Micheal Tusk's Quince.
Hotel: Natural and clean design at Hotel Vitale
Sports: rent bikes and ride across the Golden Gate Bridge to Marin Headlands and Sausalito
Arts & Design: Japonesque Gallery, Limn Furniture and Gallery

San Francisco turned out a bit disappointing, you'll find out why by reading the captions in the slideshow below. Yet there are feelings that are just hard to express, I expected to be more excited about visiting it again. Maybe a blue sky above the bridge would have made the difference? Maybe an extraordinary dish? Or maybe SF is no longer exotic enough for me as a city? I think they all played a part.

However, this trip did create a very special impression through Hotel Vitale. We enjoyed its modern design with natural touches, its airy lobby, its high-quality everything and its smoothing scent. The scent is in the lobby, in the hallway and in the room. It is faint and I can not associate anything with it, but I felt it is more than clean and fresh air. Months after we returned to NY, that scent still lingers in my memory. I called the hotel concierge to find out and was told it's the lavender-soaked towels (given upon guests' arrivals) and dried lavender on the walls. I wasn't convinced. I remember seeing the hotel group (Joie de Vivre Hospitality) CEO's email in hotel magazine, so I emailed the CEO Mr. Chip Conley! He wrote me back right away (!) telling me it's probably from the scented candles burned in the spa, and he got the Managing Director of Hotel Vitale to respond with the specific scent -- Moroccan Chamomile Apple Blossom candles from Pacifica Perfume. Isn't it amazing how these high level management people care about answering (very promptly too) such a small question from an unknown customer?

I was very impressed, but I also felt guilty and silly for impulsively contacting the CEO of this big hospitality group (it has 30+ boutique hotels in California). If not the hotel concierge again, I could have called the hotel manager. Why I skipped that? I asked myself and tried to analyze. Obviously, the CEO made his email address available in the magazine given to all guests. But subconsciously, it was perhaps because of his writing, and his life and management philosophy. He had a greeting letter on the inside cover of hotel magazine, very standard corporate approach. The message and tone were nothing but though-- he started with a question "What's truly important in life?" and talked about "our material possessions aren't what sustain us. Instead, what's significant is the daily little vignettes (memories) we create in our lives". And he connected celebration of the joy of life and creation of lasting memories with the hotel experience. It was very real, personal, poetic and sincere. What's more, we shared the same thoughts about life. In the Prelude of this blog, I have written "Richness in memory is the wealth I most desire for" and "Life does not just diminish, it takes another form-- memory. Memory for oneself, memory shared by and influences given to others around ". And in various posts on my blogs, I also wrote "Good restaurants and hotels are not just expenses, they are investments for good memories".

These were the reasons I wrote to the CEO, but only through hindsight analysis. I certainly had no intention to test him out, and I did not mention anything about shared philosophy behind his greeting letter and my blogs. I just asked this big shot a tiny question, and he answered at airport on route to SF. Clearly he did not just say "creating lasting memories for the guests", he meant it and he really delivered it. He managed his business with heart.