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Showing posts from August, 2012

Drinking Coffee and Admiring the Palm Trees in San Francisco

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The very first caffeinated beverage I drunk in San Francisco was a latte at SFO. It was not exceptional. In fact, I don’t even remember the name of the cafĂ©. However, outside of SFO, San Francisco boasts a robust and unique coffee-drinking culture.  It totally makes sense that there are often two to three cafes on any given block. People need energy to ride bikes, walk up and down hills, and keep up such amazing gardens and streetscapes.  (Palm trees are everywhere in San Francisco, and they are NOT native. They are all planted from seeds—the Mexican Fan palms, the Canary Island Date palms and all the others. They grow in public areas, around institutions, in wealthy neighborhoods and in very modest areas, as well. The climate, it turns out, is well suited for all types of palm trees, eucalyptus and scrub oaks...) August is a perfect time to drink coffee in San Francisco, because it is fairly cool.  During my family’s 2-week visit, every day around 3:30, as the fog started to roll