As Major League Baseball makes its triumphant return this month, millions of fans will breathe a collective sigh of relief. Winter will officially be over, and the next six months will bring 162 opportunities to enjoy bleacher seats in the sun and walk-off home runs. But for a devoted few, winter already ended weeks ago with the first pitches of spring training baseball.
For much of this blog’s life, I’ve written about the virtues of living and traveling in the San Francisco Bay Area. From towering redwood forests to a ruggedly beautiful coastline, the natural splendor of Northern California has made it one of the most alluring destinations in the United States. So what happens when you add in a world-class wine region and some of the most acclaimed restaurants in the nation?
Some people are just born lucky. They’re blessed with a creative mind, a unique talent, or the ability to learn—and retain—foreign languages. They have model good looks or always win raffle prizes. But in my case, luck (and some very wise parents) would give me the opportunity to grow up on the edge of an extraordinary city—a lovely confluence of hills, fog, arts, culture, and cuisine, all packed into a seven-by-seven-mile square.
“In the Grand Canyon, Arizona has a natural wonder which is in kind absolutely unparalleled throughout the rest of the world. I want to ask you to keep this great wonder of nature as it now is. I hope you will not have a building of any kind, not a summer cottage, a hotel or anything else, to mar the wonderful grandeur, the sublimity, the great loneliness and beauty of the canyon. Leave it as it is. You cannot improve on it. The ages have been at work on it, and man can only mar it.”
“Nature is always lovely, invincible, glad, whatever is done and suffered by her creatures. All scars she heals, whether in rocks or water or sky or hearts.” —John Muir
The Long Weekender 