Our excursion to Oakland was concluded very successfully. Wednesday morning Nicki and I took a 9:00 am flight out of Cleveland, arriving in San Francisco by 11:30 that morning - uneventful non-stop flight - leaving the chill of Ohio for almost balmy California. Rented a car and arrived at Sarah’s apartment just in time to see Martin heading off to play soccer with friends. After a bit of lunch we headed off to the Oakland Baha’i Center to help Sarah and Laura clean and set up for that evening’s family dinner.
Dinner was an opportunity to meet Sergio’s brothers and sisters and their families. Lots of little kids, good conversation and good food (
P.F. Chang's take-out ). Sometimes a little translation was needed but overall it was a good way for our family to meet his family. Afterwards it was back to Sarah’s place for some Christmas gift exchanging. Nicki and I stayed at Nisa and Josh’s place while we were in Oakland (they were out of town). Nisa’s family owned our house in Oberlin before they moved west - her dad was one of my many principals.
Thursday started with a brunch at the
Crepevine. A few of Sarah’s friends met us there. Again good exotic breakfast food. From there we dropped Martin off and Sarah, Laura, Nicki, and I drove through San Francisco, over the Golden Gate Bridge, and up Highway 1 to
Stinson Beach. The typical Highway 1 experience of twisty narrow road with great views of the ocean. It was a gray windy cool day but we were on the beach enjoying the surf. Perhaps the highlight was seeing a whale carcass on the rocks being enjoyed by the seagulls. Back onto Highway 1 heading back to Oakland this time over the Richmond Bridge past
San Quentin and past a flaming construction truck. We collected Martin and Sergio and had dinner at the SFO Pizzeria Bar & Grill in
Jack London Square. And we ended the day with TV at Sarah’s.
Friday we began the day by putting Martin on his flight back to New York. Then the 4 of us headed for the coast starting at Half Moon Bay and driving south first to
San Gregorio State Beach where Nicki and I did get out of the car despite the high winds and a bit of rain in the air and as far as
Pescadero State Beach where we didn’t get out of the car because of the higher winds and heavier rain. And did I mention rain? This is where the bad weather began for us. We retraced our steps back towards Oakland with a stop at a mall to procure the girls’ massage fix. Once back at Sarah’s apartment it was some TV and leftover food and relaxing. Finally about 8:30 Sarah and Laura headed for the Oakland airport to catch Laura’s flight back to Hartford while Nicki and I let the rental’s navigation system guide us back to the San Francisco airport where we joined the throngs as most flights, including ours, were delayed due to the monsoon rains outside. Finally at 1:30 AM our flight departed. The captain warned us the first couple hours might have uncomfortable turbulence but it didn’t really happen and the only thing uncomfortable was the awful sappy movie. I couldn’t watch it even with free headphones. And at 8:30 AM we landed back in Cleveland where it was 20 degrees cooler and just as gray but not rainy. New Year’s Eve Day was spent recovering.
All in all a good but short trip. Nice to have the family together. And certainly a memorable experience. For a more complete set of photos just click
here.
Our excursion to Oakland was concluded very successfully. Wednesday morning Nicki and I took a 9:00 am flight out of Cleveland, arriving in San Francisco by 11:30 that morning - uneventful non-stop flight - leaving the chill of Ohio for almost balmy California. Rented a car and arrived at Sarah’s apartment just in time to see Martin heading off to play soccer with friends. After a bit of lunch we headed off to the Oakland Baha’i Center to help Sarah and Laura clean and set up for that evening’s family dinner.
Dinner was an opportunity to meet Sergio’s brothers and sisters and their families. Lots of little kids, good conversation and good food (P.F. Chang's take-out ). Sometimes a little translation was needed but overall it was a good way for our family to meet his family. Afterwards it was back to Sarah’s place for some Christmas gift exchanging. Nicki and I stayed at Nisa and Josh’s place while we were in Oakland (they were out of town). Nisa’s family owned our house in Oberlin before they moved west - her dad was one of my many principals.
Thursday started with a brunch at the Crepevine. A few of Sarah’s friends met us there. Again good exotic breakfast food. From there we dropped Martin off and Sarah, Laura, Nicki, and I drove through San Francisco, over the Golden Gate Bridge, and up Highway 1 to Stinson Beach. The typical Highway 1 experience of twisty narrow road with great views of the ocean. It was a gray windy cool day but we were on the beach enjoying the surf. Perhaps the highlight was seeing a whale carcass on the rocks being enjoyed by the seagulls. Back onto Highway 1 heading back to Oakland this time over the Richmond Bridge past San Quentin and past a flaming construction truck. We collected Martin and Sergio and had dinner at the SFO Pizzeria Bar & Grill in Jack London Square. And we ended the day with TV at Sarah’s.
Friday we began the day by putting Martin on his flight back to New York. Then the 4 of us headed for the coast starting at Half Moon Bay and driving south first to San Gregorio State Beach where Nicki and I did get out of the car despite the high winds and a bit of rain in the air and as far as Pescadero State Beach where we didn’t get out of the car because of the higher winds and heavier rain. And did I mention rain? This is where the bad weather began for us. We retraced our steps back towards Oakland with a stop at a mall to procure the girls’ massage fix. Once back at Sarah’s apartment it was some TV and leftover food and relaxing. Finally about 8:30 Sarah and Laura headed for the Oakland airport to catch Laura’s flight back to Hartford while Nicki and I let the rental’s navigation system guide us back to the San Francisco airport where we joined the throngs as most flights, including ours, were delayed due to the monsoon rains outside. Finally at 1:30 AM our flight departed. The captain warned us the first couple hours might have uncomfortable turbulence but it didn’t really happen and the only thing uncomfortable was the awful sappy movie. I couldn’t watch it even with free headphones. And at 8:30 AM we landed back in Cleveland where it was 20 degrees cooler and just as gray but not rainy. New Year’s Eve Day was spent recovering.
All in all a good but short trip. Nice to have the family together. And certainly a memorable experience. For a more complete set of photos just click here.
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