Meeting #7: Beyond Book Club San Francisco
May 17, 2018 – May 20, 2018
“If you’re going to San Francisco
Be sure to wear some flowers in your hair
If you’re going to San Francisco
You’re gonna meet some gentle people there”
San Francisco – Scott McKenzie
After our 6th book club gathering in Guatemala, we weren’t quite sure where to go next. We had lots of ideas, and went back and forth, but eventually the obvious choice became clear. It was time for us to go west. We’d talked about it before, and floated the idea, but for our seventh trip together, we knew it was high time to visit the west coast and go to San Francisco.
Visiting a rare host duo, we were all greeted by members Holden Warriner and Chris Bechler. Though all of our trips have been memorable and successful in their own right, our book club trip to SF stood out amongst the rest with an even greater amount of activities and adventure.
On our first day, we rose bright and early to hit the waves on Pacifica State Beach. With some knowledgeable (and more importantly, extremely patient) instructors, we put on wetsuits (very flattering), got some detailed lessons in what NOT to do on a board (“do nothing. Less than that. Even less.”), and got into the icy waters of the Pacific. For many book club members, it was their first time on a board. Next, we visited California’s nicest Taco Bell (the view! The beach! The ambiance! The Baja Blast!) (we should probably keep this to ourselves, but when you grow up driving 25 minutes to the nearest Taco bell at 2 in the morning, old habits die hard).
Our first day in SF continued with some heated basketball, followed by our first book discussion of the weekend, about Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie’s “Americanah,” a stirring work exploring race, family, love, and the immigrant experience in disparate cultures. Our first night was capped off with a soiree at Chez Warriner, and a tour of the San Francisco Nightlife.
On Saturday, our second day in SF, the book club wasted no time in literally hitting the road. We rented bicycles, gathered at Dolores Park, and cut a path across the city, until we reached Golden Gate State Park. It was in a sunlit meadow that we parked our bikes and gathered round for the second and final formal book discussion of the weekend.
We discussed “How to Get Filthy Rich in Rising Asia,” by Mohsin Hamid, a work that examines a life fully lived from conception to death, and all the loves, tragedies, triumphs lived in between; in the turbulent churning economy of an unnamed Southeast Asian country.
After our discussion under the Californian sun, we got back on our bikes and rode to the magnificent hulking red emblem of the city itself, the Golden Gate Bridge. As we often like to remark, they said it couldn’t be built. Nobody said that about our book club, but it’s a fun quote. After our day of riding and discussing, we picked up (not our first, nor our last) some very well deserved burritos from the mission.
On our last day in SF, we took part in the illustrious athletic costumed tradition known as Bay to Breakers. A local celebration that represents the best SF has to offer, what seemed to be most of the adult population turned out in style to walk, run, or dance from the bay side of the city to the ocean. As 10 Batmen, and one (yours truly) Robin, we spent our last day arm in arm zig-zagging around the streets of San Franciscan neighborhoods. It was a fitting end to one of our finest book club gatherings.
Beyond Book Club 