Bay City Rollers

The butt lights flickered on at dusk under a watermelon-colored sky. They blinked red, with naughty, traffic-stopping insistence, which is why they’re attached to the working hips of dozens of in-line skaters.

My friend Nancy and I were in San Francisco for the weekly Friday Night Skate, where hundreds of skaters typically roller blade down streets, up hills, over railroad tracks and through tunnels. The tricksters among them reportedly skate backward down spiral staircases, leap over the hoods of parked cars and rappel down the sides of buildings on blades-- though we didn’t see any of this. And it can be dangerous: One participant recently broke her leg on a fall in a tunnel.

We caught a flight after work one Friday to make the skate, which starts at 8 p.m. in a parking lot near the rumbling, truck-belching Bay Bridge. We checked in at the Harbor Court Hotel on the south waterfront, four blocks from the start. Our weekend plan was to get a good workout in a cool playground, to relax and indulge in San Francisco’s pleasures, but burn off more calories than we consumed.

Nancy and I are beginning bladers, with the hubris of try-anything fitness freaks. We have kick boxed, kayaked and aerobicized ourselves into halfway decent shape. We don’t skate more than a few times a year but figured that we would try to keep up--or at least eyeball the tail end of the group. But this was our first time skating en masse, in traffic, with fanatics.

“I’m human powered,” one triple-earringed, 40ish skater told me, meaning he gets around on skates or bikes only. That includes an occasional 450-mile San Francisco-to-Los Angeles skate.

Luckily, we joined a night of slow skaters, with most of the hard-core crowd off at a blading race in the Napa Valley. On typical Fridays, the event draws more than 500 people. The Midnight Rollers (skating ends as the clock strikes 12) organizers say this is the “hottest nocturnal in-line skating event” in the country.

In the parking lot where skaters gather, the vibe is communal and low-key--no fees, no sign-ups, no release forms. Regulars greet newcomers. A volunteer skate patrol tags along for emergencies and to remind participants of safety rules, such as no hitching onto cars.

On this night, the crowd ranged from 5-year-old kids to 60-plus. Participants stepped out of new BMWs and Porsches as well as beat-up Toyota Corollas. One man stripped down to briefs behind his Saturn, changing from a business suit to a loose sweater and skating pants. A blader circled the lot, talking into his cell phone. A boombox blared Hot Chocolate’s “You Sexy Thing.”

An organizer grabbed a microphone, ticked off a few safety tips and then yelled, “Get it rolling!” but the crowd was so loose that no one left. He had to say it twice.

Finally skaters trickled onto the sidewalk and crossed the street to the Embarcadero. The blading parade shot ahead of Nancy and me in a bay breeze, with their winking taillights, helmet lights and powder puff-sized mirrors attached to wrist guards (“To check my hair,” one skater joked, but he also checks for traffic). Most people skated in full protective head-knees-wrist gear, which is recommended.

The 12-mile route is known to most local drivers, who usually watch for the Friday night skaters on sidewalks, streets and hills. From the Bay Bridge, skaters head past Fisherman’s Wharf, the Aquatic Park, Marina Green, the Palace of Fine Arts, Union Street, the Broadway Tunnel, the Stockton Tunnel, Union Square, South of Market and then back to the departure point--by day, big-time stops for tourists who have mostly left by nightfall.

At the first break, about 30 minutes into the skate, bladers join hands, skate in a circle and then spin off into curlicue swirls--so I’m told. We skated too slowly to keep up with the crowd and got to Pier 39 too late to join the circle of love. An organizer earlier told me that most beginners make the first two miles to Pier 39 and then turn back before the uphill climbs.

Still, we had a lovely skate once we toughed out the first bit of uneven, poorly lighted blacktop in construction zones. The rest of the route was mostly on well-lighted, roller-rink-smooth sidewalks and pathways, past brassy restaurants smelling of cioppino, past fishermen with their daily catch in nets slung over shoulders.

We breezed by the city lights of the Transamerica pyramid building, Coit Tower and other San Francisco landmarks. It was a feel-good, wind-on-our-flushed-cheeks way to see the city, and we turned in that night psyched for Saturday morning’s hike.

At 9 a.m. we boarded a Tower Tours bus to Muir Woods, 12 miles north of the Golden Gate Bridge, grabbing a bagel and OJ across from the company’s Fisherman’s Wharf ticket kiosk. We skipped the 15-minute naturalist talk and hit the trails.

The hills overlooked Bohemian and Cathedral groves, which have the biggest trees in the forest; one coast redwood is 252 feet tall. The coolness and stillness of 1,000-year-old trees shut out the blue jay-colored sky and the weekend throngs. But we heeded the bus driver’s warning not to dawdle, though we had less than an hour there before the bus left for the city; it’s a $75 cab ride back to the hotel. We avoided the crowds on the lower trails and headed for the steeper ones at a heart-pumping pace, but not long enough to burn off much more than breakfast.

Back at the hotel, we first checked to see whether the friendly staff had replenished the fresh oatmeal cookies left for us the night before. They hadn’t, so we took the high road for the Embarcadero YMCA next door.

The hotel offers guests free passes to the YMCA’s hip gym, with Olympic-size pool, basketball court, sun deck, jogging track and treadmills facing windows on the bay (a day pass is $12; telephone [415] 957-9622). But I had forgotten my running shoes, so I sat in the whirlpool while Nancy swam.

The gym passes made up for the size of our hotel room, which was slightly bigger than the elevators. But the room was clean and perky, and the price was right in expensive San Francisco--$144 a night including taxes. (We paid half the brochure rate for the cheapest room by booking through San Francisco Reservations, a discount hotel service.)

With the day’s workout behind us, we had dinner at Greens, a vegetarian restaurant run by the Zen Center of Marin County. Greens overlooks the Marina in a chic warehouse space that didn’t seem very Zen, with bright abstract paintings on the wall.

Saturday’s dinner was a $40, four-course fixed-price meal--excluding dessert and beverages--with produce supplied by local organic growers and the center’s own farm. We were filled but not stuffed after pungent mesquite-grilled asparagus and potatoes in a honey ginger sauce, stuffed portabello mushrooms and ginger crunch cake, and a great Thai tea.

I had half-hoped to be in calorie deficit by Sunday morning. Instead, I found myself at Kate’s Kitchen in Haight-Ashbury, staring at a family-size platter of granola, yogurt and fresh fruit heaped on a bed of orange-spice bread (um, for carbo-loading purposes). The French Toast Orgy, with maple syrup, is a signature dish at Kate’s for breakfast.

Time to strap on the skates again.

We wrapped up the weekend at Golden Gate National Recreation Area, the “Skating Capital of the West.” On Sundays, when a two-mile stretch of John F. Kennedy Drive is closed to traffic, 5,000 to 10,000 bladers roll through the park.

We explored the park on main trails until we saw a turnoff sign that said “Lake.” Up a baby hill we spotted the Stow Lake boathouse, which provides boat and in-line skate rentals. A thicket of trees hugs the lake with its “Fantasy Island”-like waterfall.

On an amphitheater stage nearby, young men in Dockers and young women in billowing skirts danced to swing music, and we stopped to watch. Next time. Dancing burns major calories too.

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Budget for Two

Air fare, LAX-SFO, United Airlines: $236.00

Harbor Court Hotel, two nights: 288.00

Cab fares: 87.00

Dinner, Greens: 122.98

Brunch, Kate’s Kitchen: 24.90

Other meals: 48.87

Tower Tours: 60.00

FINAL TAB: $867.75

Harbor Court Hotel, 165 Steuart St., San Francisco, CA 94105; tel. (800) 346-0555 or (415) 882-1300, Internet https://www.harborcourthotel.com. Friday Night Skate, at the Embarcadero and Bryant Street; Internet https://www.bayinsider.com/community/groups/CORA.