April Mini-Reunion

My Uncle Patrick decided to come to California for Spring Break. He and my mom were here at the same time so we had a bit of a full house but lots of fun.

After I picked him up at the airport, we met Ariel and Ash in the city. They showed us their new place and took us to lunch at a way-cool diner. I had a vegetarian Reuben.

We walked around the Mission district a bit. There, my uncle picked up some SF t-shirts for his family back home.

We drove past the Giant's stadium and heard Patrick's first-hand account of the '89 quake. He told us my uncle Mike had been at the World Series game during it. We drove up the Embarcadero past the Piers. It was a gorgeous day.

Someone said it would be a nice day to sit out on a patio and drink marga-
ritas. I offered our patio.

At my place, I also had an awesome blender (purchased with the William's Sonoma gift certificate Jim & Liz gave us for Christmas in '05) and some margarita mix made with natural ingredients. We picked up some Pina Colada mix too and were ready to party.

We joined up with my mom and Sam, who were back at the house, for a rousing game of Skip-Bo.



Our back patio is long but narrow. There wasn't much room on either side of the table to get by.

Ash improvised and took the high road. She hopped onto the deck railing and high-beamed along it, past us, back and forth to the house.





After the card game, Sam and Ash had a blast sword fighting. Ash is really great with kids. Sam loves playing with her.

The next day, we took it easy. It was a rainy day so we figured it was a good day for indoor activities. I bought groceries, made breakfast and threw dinner in the crock pot.

Sam had wanted to see The Last Mimzy, a movie about some kids who develop super natural powers and save the world.

Mom and Uncle Pat were willing to see it with us. Ariel and Ash opted to lay low and say in the city. Sam liked the movie but I wouldn't recommend it. Mimzy creeped me out.

After the movie, we went to the electronics store. Uncle Pat helped Sam think about his design and find the final part he needed for his motorized project.

He was really excited about it and wanted to take it with him to The Planet, where they'd been helping him work on it, to finish it.



Later, Cam picked Sam up from the Planet. Then we enjoyed BBQ pork, coleslaw, baked beans and potato salad for dinner.

I made the BBQ Pork Sundae sans pork. I'd also cooked up the veggies that I'd normally put into the crock pot with a pork roast (potatoes, onion, mushrooms, carrots) separately so I could eat them too.

The next day, we were supposed to have good weather again. I wanted to take my mom tide pooling. I remember her taking me when I was growing up. And it is one of the things you can do here that you can't do in Arkansas.

Ariel, Ash and Uncle Patrick decided they'd rather explore the city together. So, we met them at the Golden Gate Bridge.

Low tide was at 1pm. The middle of the day allowed us to take our time getting up and around. I'd already had time to do seven loads of laundry. Uncle Pat offered kindly to keep me company at my favorite local hang-out, the laundry mat.

But the middle of the day wasn't the best time for taking pictures. And since we weren't parked legally, we didn't dare leave the parking lot for a better angle.

Everyone enjoyed their respective activities that afternoon and my uncle took the ferry back across the bay that evening. (photo credit)

We had burgers for dinner. Some were sirloin but I had a turkey one with mushrooms, Swiss and A-1 sauce.

Good times.