Two Turtle Loaves

About an hour after posting about being a local, we took Maggie on one of her favorite outings. We played tourist and walked through Fisherman’s Wharf. It’s a great outing for Maggie. There is a ton of activity with the people, the boats, the birds and the sights. We can just wander about for an hour or so and then come home.

Whenever we go, we always stop at the Boudin Bakery. It is a two story working sourdough bread bakery and its all visible to passers by. You can watch the bakers make sourdough bread through the picture window while baskets of fresh bread pass by over their heads. The fresh bread moves slowly  on an elaborate conveyer belt system from the the racks where it is cooled to the shop where people line up to buy it and lots of other good food and kitchen supplies. It is living theatre and you can eat the results.

Here's a shot of the baker working in the picture window taken from upstairs looking down. You can see the folks watching her. The baskets of bread go by on the track system at the top of the picture. 

The baker working in the window is often making bread in the shape of various animals including Dungeness crab, alligators, turtles and the like. Saturday was no exception. The woman was shaping together pieces of dough to create sourdough turtles. 

It was only ten AM, which is earlier than most tourists bother with Fisherman’s Wharf, so we were the only ones at the picture window. The baker waved at Maggie and then motioned for us to come around to the door. We did that. She came outside, introduced herself as Anna Romo, and presented Maggie with a gift of two small turtle loaves, which are pictured above..

 Maggie was surprised and didn’t really react at first. Anna the baker asked where we were from and seemed surprised that we were locals.  I told her we love coming down here because of the excellent energy. She smiled. Maggie then decided it was time to wave and smile at her too, which made  Anna happy. Maggie was very proud of her turtle bread and held the bag herself for a while.

Anna has probably done this for other children as well because her manner was so comfortable and kind. It may be part of her job to occasionally make gifts like this.  Maybe not, I really don’t know. All I know is that she did it for Maggie.  So often people overlook or ignore Maggie, because she makes them uncomfortable and it’s easier to pretend she’s not there.  When someone singles Maggie out to do something nice for her, it warms my heart and it makes up for 100 times she was ignored.  It is a small thing but it is an incredibly nice thing.

Anna Romo, baker at Boudin Bakery did that. Her one act of kindness and generosity erased so many annoying things that Maggie has to put up with. Anna is a great ambassador for all the visitors to Fisherman's Wharf. 

Even the Locals.  

 

We tried to get a shot of Maggie and Anna together. The sun and glare from the window  kind of washes Maggie out, but I wanted to get Anna at work.