Weekend in the Bay Area!

Gus and I had an amazing weekend! It was probably slightly more amazing for me, since I hadn't been back in the East Bay (AKA "home") for about four years. It felt so good to be back in familiar territory, even if a lot of things had changed in that time!

Anyway, the reason for the trip was to attend our good friend, Mary's, wedding on Sunday. Mary was our neighbor back when Gus and I first met in 1998. And her Maid of Honor, Elaine, was another neighbor on the same floor in the dorms. Aaand, both Mary and Elaine were my bridesmaids back in 2005! So, we wouldn't have missed this wedding for the world! :)

At any rate, we drove up on Friday, and spent Friday evening with my grandma. It was such a nice visit! Sadly, I didn't take any pictures. What was I thinking?? The next morning, though, we went to have brunch with my old college friend, Natasha, who (coincidentally) ended up moving to my hometown-- about three minutes away from my parents' old house! So we had a great time visiting with her and her husband, Jeff. It was just like old times!!
After our visit, Gus and I headed downtown to the BART station, and took the train into San Francisco for the afternoon. We had fun just walking around and playing tourist, along with about a million other people. The weather was absolutely gorgeous, so there were thousands of people crowding the Embarcadero. We wandered around Pier 39 and Fisherman's Wharf, got ice cream cones, bought a Christmas ornament (our vacation ritual), and just enjoyed not being on any sort of schedule whatsoever! Here are a few pics from the afternoon:




That night, we met up with Tash and Jeff again to go see "Eclipse." Certainly not anything to write home about, but it was fun-- and made more so by the good company AND the fact that we very rarely get to see movies in theaters these days! So we had a blast.

The next morning, we got up bright and early to make the long drive into the wilderness for Mary's wedding. We had been to the location once before, for Alayna's wedding back in 2003, and we were looking forward to going there again! It really is such a gorgeous spot. And Mary was such a gorgeous bride! What a great wedding. It was next to impossible to hold back tears, because they are just so darn sweet together. I had a blast seeing my old friends (Mary and Elaine), and meeting some great new friends, too! We were seated with some members of the bridal party, who I had met at her shower last month, so it was fun. The wine was flowing and the conversation was great-- what more could you ask for?


After the reception (and a few glasses of wine), we headed back to the hotel to relax for a few hours before the formal Chinese banquet that evening. We decided to take a short nap... only to wake up, hours later, and realize that the banquet was starting in 10 minutes! And was 30 minutes away!!! Aack! We got ready really quickly, though, and managed to make it there when pretty much everyone else did (fashionably late!). Whew! However, when Mary and Will made their rounds, I reached into my purse for my little camera and... it wasn't there! I had taken lots of pictures at the morning wedding, and I had NOT taken the camera out of my purse. And so the panic began. Was it on the floor of the restaurant? No. Was it in the car somewhere? No. Was it back at the hotel? No. Had I dropped it somewhere at the morning wedding, or at the hotel? No. Ugh. After searching the car three times, I ended up finally finding it under the seat (which I had checked every single time!) the next morning. Talk about relief! That very nearly ruined the whole trip for me!

Sooo... I suppose it goes without saying that I didn't get any photos from the Chinese banquet, which was quite impressive! I think there were about 10 courses, mostly seafood, and all very fancy and spectacular. We enjoyed our tablemates, who were mostly Will's groomsmen and their wives/girlfriends. And two of the couples had young children, so we definitely had things to talk about. It was fun!

The next morning (yesterday), we made the long drive back home, stopping in Orange County for a few hours to pick up the kiddos. They had a blast with Gus' parents and sister this weekend, but were ready to go home. And Maya woke up with a fever yesterday morning, and was a little cranky (today, too-- I'm keeping an eye on her). All in all, it was a jam-packed weekend of fun! But coming home is nice, too. :)