A cable car making a stop on Nob Hill.
Jill and I went to meet some of my co-workers for lunch this morning.
We had forgotten, after 1.5 years in Beijing, how gorgeous San Francisco is each and every day.
The Christmas tree at The Fairmont Hotel.
Especially today.
It was a balmy day and we didn’t even need jackets or sweaters.
It was a short sleeve day on December 22nd.
Just amazing.
We had a wonderful lunch with my co-workers and then decided to just walk around and breathe in the clean air and take in the sites.
It is really hard to explain how luckily we feel to be out of Beijing and free of the pollution, the crowds and the constant pressure of living under regime that we were always worried about in regards to our own safety.
It was interesting, to ride the buses and walk the streets of San Francisco, and see how many homeless, and mentally ill, are out and about.
Christmas at the Fairmont Hotel
We almost never saw any mentally ill, and only a few homeless, out in Beijing.
This is probably because the government wouldn’t allow them to be out and made sure they were not in public view but I’m not sure. Just my guess from what I’ve seen their government do to people they don’t want seen or heard from over the last 1.5 years.
The USA has problems, no question, but we are free and happy compared to what we lived under in Beijing.
We don’t take it lightly how lucky we are to have been born in the USA and the choices that gives us in our lives.