I flew in to San Francisco on Saturday evening and grabbed a taxi to my best friend’s house.  First sticker shock!  Forty dollars!  And when did they change the ten dollar bill to pink? My friend arrived and we had a great evening catching up.  She made me an open faced grilled cheese sandwich on an english muffin – with sharp cheddar cheese!  I was moaning and groaning over food the whole time I was there, as the Bay Area has such fabulous food. Don’t even get me started on her made-from-scratch pancakes.

Sunday my sister arrived in the rental car, a Kia Soul.  Never even heard of it before.  We headed out after a while for a tour here and there of our old haunts, and witnessed the deja-vu of our old house on Corona Street in the Ingleside with an Airstream trailer in the driveway.  When we owned the house (yes, we could kick ourselves for selling it in 1970 when our mom died – for $32,000) you could count on seeing my grandparent’s Airstream in the drive a lot of the time when they weren’t in the Southwest or in Mazatlán.

We ate out one night at a fantastic Chinese restaurant in West Portal, and then had a great lunch in the Mission District around the corner from where my friend works.

Oh, and shopping!  I bought a whole bunch of clothes at the Cut Loose outlet store,  and we whiled away an afternoon cruising the shops on Noe as we waited for my niece to arrive on the train from college at Santa Clara.  Unfortunately there was a bomb threat so we jumped in the Soul and headed South to pick her up where all the passengers had been unloaded.

We stayed up late and caught up on the news from Santa Clara.  Niece Anna is an amazing woman, brilliant, athletic, and funny.  We had a great time.  Her twin, Blair, is a sophomore at Redlands in Southern California, so we didn’t get a visit in this time with her.  The next day we said our goodbyes to Jeannie and headed over to Berkeley to see our other sister Wendy.  She has been working from home for the last 6 weeks as she had foot surgery.  We arrived at her house to see her attempting to vacuum while on crutches.  Hilarious.  Her husband had left on a motorcycle trip so we could have the house to ourselves!

I love just hanging out with friends and family, feeling the rhythm of their day, talking about things as they come up, reading the paper together, and all the rest.  We went to Trader Joe’s and got the fixings for dinner (including HOW MUCH two buck Chuck) and made some great vegie noodle dishes right here.  Don’t you love seeing how people decorate?  It tells so much about them.

My sister has been off her feet for so long I just had to sit in her favorite chair and look out her front window.  I love Berkeley.

After we took Anna back to school – I got a tour of campus, saw her apartment, and met her roommate – we came back to town and of course a little more shopping!

And I am afraid to admit we kind of egged sister Suki on!  Not that it takes too much!  But we didn’t just shop at shoe stores, we also had to stop for food to cook at home.  I have to tell you that I almost had a heart attack looking at this olive bar.  Waaaaah!

We had a list of things we wanted to do and see, and we accomplished a lot of them!

My sister and I went for a long walk.  I took a number of pictures along the way.  We saw lots of flowers…

Some cool rocks…

…and some crazy “art”…

…including some made using baseball caps…

The last day we were there we decided to work on my sister’s yard.  She hasn’t been able to work in it because of her foot, so we all got into our grubbies and got busy.  At the end of the day we had weeded the front beds, and a seating area had been created near the front door.

I love the little house they built in the back yard.  Spare room, meditation space, yoga studio.  Isn’t it lovely?

I’d love to be able to bop over there anytime to work in her yard.  Sometimes you just need dirt to dig in, you know?

Yes, we do look like we have worked hard in the yard, but believe me, we were all having a blast!

The next post will tell about my reunion with Tiko, our yellow-shouldered Amazon.

I’ll be done unpacking, doing laundry, bonding with the dogs and reconnecting with Paul in a day or two, and will be back in the blogging zone!  But here’s a picture to hold you until then!

I love some of our old family sayings… like the one at the top of the post.  We also said “best dinner on the beach” when we ate a good meal and “they don’t have the brains God gave a goat” when someone did something stupid.  But on to the matter at hand…

I am heading to the US for a week of playtime with my best friend and my sisters.  First I’ll head to my best friend’s house – longtime readers will remember she is caring for our yellow-shouldered Amazon, Tiko.  I’ll be curious to see if he remembers me, and also how it affects me to see him. It will be great to see my friend again, we haven’t visited since we passed through San Francisco when we drove through on our way to Mazatlán almost three years ago!

After a few days my sister and I will head across the bridge to Berkeley and hang out for a few days with our other sister.  I sound so matter of fact but I am super excited!  The three of us haven’t had a “just us” visit in such a long time!

You never know, I may do a post while I’m gone, but if not, I’ll see you in a week!