Things I Never Would Have Imagined

Recently I went up to San Francisco to look at some locations where I’m setting scenes in the novel I’m writing.  I had been to most of the places before, though not recently.  Others I had never visited.  While I was writing the first draft, I used Google Images, Google Street View, pictures in Yelp, my own photos, and web searches to give me an idea of the locations.  However, pictures can only show, at best, what a place looks like. They cannot tell what a place smells like, sounds like, feels like.  Using memories and imagination, I populated the scenes with sights, smells, sounds, and temperatures to fit the scenes.
 
However, I was unwilling to rely only on images and imagination, so recently I went up to San Francisco on a whirlwind tour of locations for the book.  Though sometimes my imagination hit a detail spot on (yes, it was very windy at Alta Plaza Park), mostly I was struck by all the things I saw that were more interesting and unique than I imagined.  For example, the woman in Golden Gate Park wearing a ball cap with brown feathers on the sides, like a redneck Wagnerian helmet. The graffiti heart atop the staircase at Fort Mason. The man carrying a cymbal under his arm at the Ferry Building. The whales surfacing off Point Lobos. 

The bride and groom taking wedding pictures in front of City Hall:

The pink ballet slipper tossed over the wall at the Sutro Baths overlook:

​The woman sweeping the rocks in the Academy of Science’s penguin exhibit.  

The homemade Batmobile parked at Land’s End.  

I’m not sure which (or any) of these unexpected sights will make it into the book. But this trip reminded me of how strange and wonderful the world is—much more so than we imagine. We just have to look.