The Final California Trip Recap

Time ticks on into my busy October, and given that I leave in the morning for Apple Festival, I think I will make one last, long, wrap-up post about the California trip from a month ago. Get a drink and make yourself comfortable, it's a really long one.

Sunday:
The day we flew out. Yes, as I remembered, it is a long flight! Almost all of my flights the last few years have been Boston-Florida, which at three hours is around half of this flight. Even when nothing goes wrong, coast-to-coast feels endless. (And I know, if I'd ever flown farther than from the east coast to Europe, I would be laughing at this, too. Perspective.)

I did do one thing that I've never done before, and placed an Amazon order from the plane (a seat cushion for my mother for the return flight; she has no padding where those uncomfortable seats make you want it). Otherwise, knitting, snacking, reading, chatting, and taking mostly washed-out photos out the window, though this one, on the way into SFO, was intriguing: what are those? Fields? Bogs? Why red? Anyone know?

So eventually we landed. CR met us, we got our luggage, and he shepherded us to Oakland and we found the hotel (on the second try; why are there two Marriotts a block apart?). We did a little unpacking, then went out to get an early dinner at a Chinese place nearby. We were arriving in the area on the tail-end of record-breaking heat in the Bay area, and most places aren't air conditioned, so the restaurant was really hot and super-LOUD, but the food was absolutely delicious.

Monday:
CR came over in the morning to join us for breakfast at the hotel; the place in the lobby was simple and Starbucks-based, but surprisingly good. After eating, we moved over to lounge seating to keep on chatting, and discuss what we wanted to do, before deciding that really, what we came for was to see his new house, so we went over there. And it's adorable! He's still working on it, but it's a perfect little nest for him. The neighborhood is a bit more ... gritty than I personally prefer, but he and I differ in that, and he is very happy. He showed us the crops growing in the front, the fig tree in the back, the feral kittens that live in the back, his less-feral cats (who we've met before), and so on. A few photos:

His raspberry bushes were almost played out, but he saved a few berries for me. Yum!

Fig tree.

Feral kitten climbs fig tree.

Kittens kept a close eye on us, you bet.

Though a little grooming time can always be worked in.

Alonzo says, "What are you doing out there?"

Reluctantly accepting scritches. "Dad, who are these people?"

The library. The LIBRARY. Anyone who ever said (or even thought) that I have a lot of books, hush.

We went through a bunch of family photos and papers that CR brought back from cleaning out my uncle's apartment. Ephemera, I think that's the word for some of it. My grandfather's social security card, which was metal! Birth certificates, death certificates, school reports of distant relatives in Polish (dated 1893, for instance), the menu for my uncle's bar mitzvah dinner, celebrated together with his parents' silver wedding anniversary, in 1949... on and on.

After that, we went to Berkeley for the play in the park, which I already wrote about. We found a place called Luka's in Oakland for dinner, and it was good, but I wish I had had the forethought to take a picture of my mother's clam chowder, since I later thought of the perfect caption for it. Much to her surprise, it came with the clams in the shell, so of course the caption would be: "Clam chowder, some disassembly required."

Tuesday:
I covered the zoo day here, and (mostly zoo) butts here, as well as the cat cafe (which actually happened on Thursday, so much for my attempt at structure).

Wednesday:
After another breakfast at the hotel, we walked over to Preservation Park for the tour. After that, we went back to CR's house, where I noticed something I hadn't, the first time. Apparently it was a housewarming present. Interesting friends, my brother has.

In addition to seeing more of Mr Cautiously Friendly:

We got a glimpse of his skinny and much more skittish brother.

Blue collar! Different cat sighting confirmed!

"You people look dangerous."

We ate lunch at a Mexican place, then took BART and a bus out to Piedmont Yarn, which was very nice. They carry some good lines and a few of their own, of which (of course) I had to make one my own. More wide-striping socks will be coming my way!

By that time, even with all the sitting on buses and BART, my ankle was a bit cross (the day before was a lot of walking), so we went back to the hotel and hung out for a while, ankle up, before going out and to Jack London square, for dinner at Lungomare. Which was, again, excellent.

Thursday:
Thursday night was when we were flying back, so in the morning we got up, packed, and checked out, but left our suitcases there. We had an early lunch at Ike's, where I found this:

That is, I had the butterscotch root beer, on the right, though I was also amused by the Leninade.

This is when we went to the cat cafe, seeing some interesting points on the way. Personalized bike seat.

Accordion store.

With, naturally, an accordion sculpture in the window.

From the cat cafe, the bus we took was one that went through Alameda, so we could see it, and my memory said, hmm, yarn store? I looked it up, and yes, craft store, anyway, and right on the bus route. So we got off and went into the ReCrafting Co., which is a craft consignment store, such a great idea.

Words to live by. I had some fun there, then we got back on the bus and went back to CR's house to hang out. We went through those family photos again (this time with an eye to sorting, such as "we don't know any of these people, toss it" or "I bet so-and-so's family would appreciate these photos of the cousins more than we would" and so on). We also lured the cats closer with wet food, and I got the only photo proving there really are two of them.

Also, feral kittens sleeping in an adorable pile.

Back into Oakland for dinner at Galeto Brazilian Steakhouse, which is a splurge but worth it, and after all it was CR's birthday dinner as well as our farewell, and quite amazing and delicious. From there, it was a short (and stuffed) walk back to the hotel for our luggage, and then onto BART and to the airport connector, which would be a great view of the area during the day.

We took the red-eye back, and not only is it a late flight to begin with (I mean, duh, by definition), it was delayed around 90 minutes, so we spent a lot more time at the airport than we were hoping to. And although I would prefer not to take a red-eye again, now I know that, if I ever do, I must get aisle seats; I generally prefer the window, but when the person in the aisle seat goes right to sleep, you can't get up when you have to go to the bathroom, and it's just awkward all around. But we got through it, and then had several days to recover, so the memory fades, right?

Which is why I wrote it down. More words to live by.

Now, that's it for the stories of California, but I've thrown together a few photo-heavy posts for tomorrow and Saturday, so swing by while I'm away, won't you? And next week, it will be time for the Apple Festival photos!

Other blog posts about the trip:
Color Everywhere
Yarn and things from California yarn stores