I love you, fog

Anybody who is familiar with West Coast climate will appreciate this.

I just spent the past 3 weeks between New York City, Washington D.C. and Philadelphia playing tourist while visiting friends. The weather was miserable. One day in Philadelphia it was dumping rain, but hot at the same time, in fact we were in the middle of a thunder storm but could not keep cool despite my being in a tank top and sandals and soaking wet! In Washington D.C., the buildings are air conditioned excessively. I believe this is unhealthy, to require a sweater to sit at your desk and then go outside and sweat instantaneously only to enter the next building and cool down far too quickly due to the cold air blasting in your face accelerating the natural process of sweating as a cooling process for the body. New York City was just muggy and hot. I could not escape the humidity, it was penetrating. You inhale and it's like you don't get enough air, it's suffocating.

I was so excited to be coming back to California, and better yet, flying into San Francisco! I had my face pressed to the window of the airplane in anticipation, turning back every 3 minutes or so to express my joy to the guy sitting next to me. You can't imagine how big the smile on my face was when we were near landing and I couldn't see a thing due to the fog, it was like you had just given me a dark chocolate mousse cake and a bottle of chilled champagne. (Maybe that's too personal of a reference. Anybody who knows me, or well, no, that's just my life.) Upon my exiting the plane and walking through the ramp connecting the plane to the gate, I had to put on my fleece! Unlike my transfer in Kansas City where I stepped off the plane and was suddenly hot, sticky and out of breath until I entered the gate, only to be shot with blasts of forced cold air from the AC vents, at which point I needed the fleece. San Francisco was naturally cold, yes! I practically ran down to baggage claim, the luggage had not yet arrived and so I bolted outside and just breathed a breath of fresh air, and then another, and another all with a goofy smile on my face.

I collected my luggage, got in my friends car and continued with this air of climate-induced euphoria as we made the drive down to Pacific Grove. As we approached the Monterey Bay, the clear blue skies turned gray, again causing this silly smile to come across my face.

Maybe I have this association with my childhood, with my family, with my friends, with memories of being a teenager or with home but fog has become something I absolutely love. The fog here is not super bad, it starts your day off fresh, cool and energizing only to burn off and give you an even more beautiful day. The landscape is made for this duality. The oak and the pine trees juxtaposed with the ocean change in color with the change in the backdrop which is the sky (or topdrop, I guess as it's the sky but that word doesn't exist.)

It's great to be home.