This was the first time she's come to visit me, and the first time we'd spent any one-on-one quality time together since our cruise! She was very low key about the whole thing--no, there was nothing she particularly wanted to do or see, we would play it by ear. If nothing else, I know some great restaurants, and Katie loves great food. If we had to, we could just eat our way through the weekend.

I don't remember the chronology anymore, but there were some definite highlights I wanted to mention.

One thing I spotted in the paper was an exhibit called Eternal Egypt at the Palace of the Legion of Honor, an art museum in the Presidio. I didn't know anything about the exhibit except the name, but Katie has extensively studied archaeology and anthropology and stuff--and we both love ancient art and museums (we went to Greece together after all) so there you go. Or, there we went.

What I didn't know until we got there is that the exhibit was on loan from the British Museum in London, so it was really something special. And it was extraordinarily popular--what a line! We braved it, and Katie managed to get us a fat discount since she is a docent at a Very Important Museum in Los Angeles. We practically got in for free--yay!

The exhibit itself was phenomenal. It really hits you at times that you're looking at the evidence of a 3,500-year-old society and culture. I mean, we've been around a puny, paltry 225-ish years. And we think we're so great. Ha! I have always preferred Greek art to Egyptian art, but the exhibit was mind boggling nonetheless.

My favorite piece was this one giant stone head guy (a Pharaoh, of course, whose name I don't remember) with the most amazing serene smile. I pictured this guy supervising the building of the Giant Head, I pictured the ancient Egyptians walking past the Giant Head--I was transported.

One other thing Katie wanted to do was see the labyrinth at Grace Cathedral--it's a pattern etched into the stone, which one is supposed to walk as a type of meditation. This was cool (and definitely quieted the mind) but the amazing, amazing thing is that Grace Cathedral has a replica of the Ghiberti Baptistry doors (the Gates of Paradise) in Florence. I mean, an exact, golden, shiny replica.

This is a piece of art I have wanted to see for years and years, something I thought I would have to go to Florence to see. But there's a copy of it right here, in San Francisco--one of only three copies in the world! (Interestingly, one of those copies is on the Baptistry doors in Florence--the originals are in a museum.)

It really is a remarkable piece of art, and finding it in the middle of my very city made it all the more remarkable.

We went out to dinner with Joey and Laurie and Jenfu, to a French restaurant called the Foreign Cinema that Jen told us about. (She's got her finger on the pulse of the city, that's for sure.) This place serves French food and plays foreign films on a giant projection screen at the same time. The food is amazing, but the ambiance is what really makes the place special.

We also went to a couple of psychics-Katie is going through some Life Issues, but that is not my story to tell. Suffice it to say that we had a lot of great long Life Issue talks, and visited a couple of interesting psychics.

My psychic told me that I would live to my late 80s--are psychics really supposed to tell you that? And that my book would be published eventually, but I would have to travel to get there first, and I would be rejected three times first. (As if it would be that easy.) Also (and I am just getting this down for posterity) that I would meet my True Love in 2003, and make a lifetime commitment in 2004. Hmm. We'll see.

One more thing I forgot to mention-- when we went to the Legion of Honor, I was able to show Katie my favorite painting, and tell her the coolest story ever. I haven't told you this story yet, but now I am going to. Are you excited?

Anyway, I wrote, "I guess what fascinates me is that it's painted by a woman. Hyacinthe's hair is blowing in the wind; she looks happy and free somehow, in a way totally unlike the usual women in portraits painted by men. "

Not long after that, I got an email from, would you believe, her great great great great great granddaughter? A woman named Sarah, who told me she found my entry while researching her family's history. She told me a bit of her great (x5) grandmother's story:

Yeah she was my great great great great great grandmother back in the mid 1700s. She was actually my GGGGG Grandfather's (Marquess Wellesley) mistress for many years, although they did end up getting married in 1794. They had five kids illegitimately which of course was a major scandal in those days especially for someone like the Marquess Wellesley.

Wellesley by the way was the Duke of Wellington's eldest brother, so it really was a scandal, especially since Wellesley went on to become Governer General of India (but Hyacinthe refused to go with him, she didn't like India at all!)

Hyacinthe was the daughter of a French actress and her French lover Colonel Fagan, but Hyacinthe was actually given her mother's husband's name Roland (although everyone in the family knew she wasn't really Roland's at all!!). So it was just one scandal after another really!

Anyway the portrait was painted by Le Brun in 1791 in Rome while Hyacinthe and Wellesley were travelling through Europe. She probably looks so free because she was, in a way. There she was flitting around Europe, staying in all the best places with her rich lover, they had left their two little kids at home and were basically just escaping for a while.

It's a remarkable story, and the fact that this woman found and emailed me is even more remarkable! File that under "why the Internet rules."

Anyway, what else? We hit all the neighborhoods-- we had crepes in the Haight, chicken in Chinatown, drinks in North Beach, French food in the Mission, and I don't know what all. We had long heart-to-heart talks. We watched the last game of the World Series and cheered opposing teams. Even though her team won both the election and the Series (which doesn't seem fair) it was a fabulous visit. Love that girl.