Valentine’s Anniversary
Tuesday, February 14th, 2023: Relationships, Society.
Exactly thirty years ago I had the best Valentine’s day ever.
We’d fallen madly in love a year and a half earlier, and had just reunited after a brief crisis and a few weeks’ separation.
Over the winter holidays, I’d helped her pick out a blue satin party dress. And for Valentine’s Day I gave her a dozen red roses. I know, conventional, but after the last few weeks, I wasn’t taking any chances! She set them on her side of our bed in her apartment on Grand Avenue in Oakland’s old Adams Point neighborhood, a block from Lake Merritt.
We both had the day off, and we packed our evening clothes into my Geo Tracker, and dressed for a day outdoors. We drove north through Berkeley and Richmond to the Richmond Bridge, and from there to Tiburon, where we parked and rode the ferry across the Raccoon Strait to Angel Island. It was a cool, blustery, but sunny day.
We rented mountain bikes at the landing on the island, and spent the day riding over and around the eucalyptus-clad hills together. The sparkling Bay surrounded us on all sides, with sailboats running and tacking, the white city of San Francisco sprawling over its own hills in the distance, the Golden Gate a window onto the vast western ocean.
In late afternoon we caught the return ferry to Tiburon, where we changed clothes in the Tracker – her satin dress rustling in the back seat.
Guaymas, the Bay Area’s fancy Mexican restaurant, was right next to the ferry terminal and parking lot, and I’d made a reservation. We chose a table on the outside deck overlooking the Bay, and were seated as the sun began to set.
After our drinks were delivered, the mariachis made a beeline for our table. My partner was Mexican-American, and she requested “Sabor a Mi”.
Our dinner was fabulous as usual.
We drove back to Oakland.
All I’ll say about Valentine’s night is that it literally couldn’t have been better.