Starting out with warmth

The Beach Chalet is one of my family’s favorite restaurants, a place my parents visit every trip out here if they possibly can. One of my Facebook profile pictures was taken inside the Chalet. It was thus a fitting place for us to start out 2017; my father made reservations there for the afternoon of New Years’ Day and we made the pilgrimage over there to the Pacific coast of San Francisco. We arrived a bit early to walk on the beach like we often do, but unfortunately this time it was windier even than usual, so we were sandblasted the entire walk.

We eventually made it inside and traipsed up to the second floor. We took in the view as we waited to be seated, and were given a table where we could continue to look out. Granted, the restaurant is all along the ocean-facing side of the building, so most tables have at least some view of the ocean. I had coffee, guava strawberry lemonade, and the ahi tuna burger. The guava strawberry lemonade was delicious! They actually bring you a decanter of lemonade and mix in a guava strawberry syrup right there at the table, so there’s a bit of a show for you. My mother got the pomegranate blueberry lemonade and it got the same treatment.

Apparently frescoes traditionally ‘cure’ for a century, and the ones in the Beach Chalet’s building are now nearing that age? I always remember admiring the frescoes, but this visit was the first time I learned that.

My mother had lent me her headband while we were getting sandblasted since she also had a hood, and when I didn’t hurry to return it to her she asked about it. I thought it was my sister’s! My mother had lost her own headband towards the beginning of the trip (on Mt. Tamalpais), and my sister had a similar one that she’d given my mother to use during the trip. Now that the trip was wrapping up, I thought the headband was going back to my sister, since my mother had originally given it to her as a present from New York City! It turns out the headband was indeed going back to North Carolina with my mother, since my sister thought it had more meaning to my mother, and she had plenty of headgear. I just filled with warmth thinking about the interconnectedness the whole muddle embodied. In the meantime, I’m working on knitting my own new hat, but I got to join the hat muddle for a little while.