Aug. 17, 2026 - I LEFT MY HEART IN SAN FRANCISCO
The traveling couple. The hills of San Francisco were certainly a challenge my little Mobility scooter, but we made it work and covered most of the city by cable car, train, foot and scooter.
San Francisco was very cool for August…not something we are used to…. But when the sun came out, the flowers would just smile, and so would my Julie.
I first met Lawrence Ferlinghetti in 1967…. His writing had tremendous impact of my life, and I’m glad to see there’s a street with his name on it
Julie and I had dinner together in North Beach at a beautiful Italian restaurant. Now this week I will spend time making pesto to see if I could make it as good as the one that Julie had for dinner.
My Rose and her little Talia
The Barocio family at a park amongst the giant trees.
Saturday was the birthday of my middle boy, Benjamin Francis. He’s been doing the work of God once again….he is taking care of his grandmother, Barbara who is 91 and still enjoys an occasional glass of wine or a beer!
I LEFT MY HEART IN SAN FRANCISCO
August 17th, 2026
Dear Friends,
After a busy day back at the store on Saturday, while on the drive home, I was discussing my upcoming "John’s Corner" with Julie. I told her "I only have the title so far", and she said "what is the title?"….and I kind of choked up and said "I don’t know if I can tell you that". "Why not?", she asked ……So I told her what the title was and we both just of teared up and barely spoke the rest of the way home.
The most special part of our recent trip to San Francisco has been spending time with my beautiful granddaughter Talia Rose Barocio….At 18 months, she is just a little wonder and I hope she will remember me. Every morning she would come our the bedroom, pull herself on the bed and sit on top of my belly and beg me to show her pictures on my iPad. Now I have 70,000 pictures on my iPad so we spent a good amount of time looking at pictures of the people and the places in our history. The age of 18 months is a very special time. At that age kids don’t have language to express, but their receptive knowledge is just starting to peak. She would study pictures and make associations with people and places. It was as if you could see the light going off in her head as she recognized cousins and aunts and uncles and places the she used to call home. Don’t get me wrong. I’m very excited for my daughter and her husband to have taken fantastic teaching jobs and living in the heart of a beautiful city by the sea. It is a dream come true for them, but it always tugs at the heart when your children spread their wings and fly. It’s always a life-changing event and I have but only one response…….. we will visit as often as possible. San Francisco may become our new travel destination.
I have included several other photos from the past 12 days with captions as we have been on a whirlwind tour with Jose and Rose….I’m looking forward to the next visit….
With peace,
John Bernunzio.
Oracle Baseball Stadium is the most beautiful place I’ve ever watched baseball
Coastal Drive along the Bay
Jose was a great driver giving us a real inside and outside San Francisco tour
The city parks were a special part of our visit
Coastal drive….. Rocky and dry
Home at last in the Finger Lakes