SF Bay Area, Part 5: San Francisco

 

9/28/26 San Francisco

Since I hadn’t sketched in San Francisco since 2015, I knew that anywhere I went would feel fresh to me. Over two days (an easy BART ride from Berkeley each day), Cathy showed me both familiar places and new ones.

Our first day in the city, our focus was on the Presidio and the Palace of Fine Arts, which I had remembered well from that previous visit. After making a page of small motifs, it was fun to get it stamped at the visitor’s center (top of post).

Under the Palace of Fine Arts' dome

Palace of Fine Arts

Cathy's first (and my second) Waymo ride!

After nearly 15,000 steps of being tourists, we ended the day at the San Francisco Museum of Modern Art, where the lobby area displayed the spectacular installation “Giant Arc,” by Jacob Hashimoto. Suspended from the ceiling were 75,000 elements constructed by hand of paper and bamboo using kite-making techniques. In some areas, the suspensions hung nearly to the floor. Entering from the upper floor, the clouds of tiny “kites” appear white, then more and more colors and patterns appear as one descends the staircase to the lower level (see my Instagram for a video). Of course, attempting to draw it was futile (and being limited to pencil was frustrating), but we both tried anyway. What a visual sensation!

9/28/26 Jacob Hashimoto's "Giant Arc" at SF MOMA

Each of 75,000 pieces is built like a tiny kite

Salesforce Park was the main attraction of our second day in San Francisco. Four stories above a street level transit center, the park is a four-block-long oasis of multiple gardens where people can walk, run and play. We even rode the gondola for a (laughably) short ride back down to the street level. I loved all that soft, organic greenery against the backdrop of blue and gray glass and steel! If I lived or worked nearby, I would be walking that half-mile loop every day, sketching along the way.

9/30/26 Salesforce Park

Process notes: With all the touring we were doing (not to mention desperately getting to Magic Donuts five minutes before the bakery closed – whew! Tragedy barely averted), I got back to my rental and realized I hadn’t sketched as much as I had wanted to. I even had some empty spots on a sketchbook page that were just waiting to be filled. For the first time in maybe ever while traveling, I looked through my phone and made a couple of sketches from reference photos (the Bayfront Park sculpture and the 181 Fremont Building, below).

9/30/26 San Francisco

Yes, you read that right – Tina made some travel sketches from photos! Oh, I know you’re probably laughing; most people think nothing of mixing sketches from photos along with those made on location. But I’ve always been such a purist about urban sketching, especially during travel, that it felt strange to me. Still, while my preference is always to sketch on location, I see the benefit of being flexible. Would I rather go home frustrated that I didn’t sketch a particularly striking building? Or use a photo to help me preserve the memory almost as well as drawing from life? (See, the old dog continues to be capable of learning new tricks.)

Surprising landscaping at Salesforce Park

More than 600 types of trees and 16,000 plants...

...with a steel blue urban backdrop.

By the way, if you were observant, you already caught one other sketch I made in Berkeley from a photo because it was noted as such on the sketchbook page. (Just keeping myself honest, I guess. Go ahead and laugh.)

All in all, I had a fantastic time in the Bay Area. Although eight days wasn’t very long compared to many other trips I have taken, it was my longest time away from home since 2019 – and my longest ever solo. Planning this trip alone, navigating logistics alone, and sometimes being alone in unfamiliar places all made me miss Greg very much. We had always been such great travel partners. But I’ve missed a lot of years and places that I still want to visit. I want to get my travel legs back and gain confidence in traveling by myself – and farther. Many women do it happily and well; I’m ready to become one of them.

Have donut, will travel (this one from Third Culture in Berkeley)