We spent a weekend together at my sister's place in Oakland, and it was such a nice time. We shopped a lot, ate a *lot* of food, and got to see a lot of parts of my sister's day to day life. Mostly I took pictures of us eating, as it turns out. Oh well. Spending a weekend eating in the Bay area is pretty nice, actually. Friday we spent the day doing some errands with my sister and got to see the Ohlone Center where she works a bit and takes classes about herbs and pulse reading. That night we got to go to dinner at a German restaurant in San Francisco. I've never been to a real restaurant and gotten VIP treatment before, but this was the night. Laura's boyfriend has a great relationship with the chef and we ate lots of good food and enjoyed extra great service.
The highlight was the sausage made from snow goose that Joe had shot the weekend before and that the chef processed. It was really good.
Saturday we went up the coast to Bolinas, land of hippies, to the Regenerative Design Institute for an all-day class on permaculture that my sister is taking. It is a year-long course and they were kind enough to allow us to attend for the day. A nice counterbalance to a big German dinner is a potluck lunch with contributions from northern Californians taking a permaculture class. Lots of great vegan food from their own gardens and neighborhoods! The farm was beautiful and smelled like growing things. It was a quintessential California experience, really: some good ideas and genuine hope for a better future mixed with a bit of arrogance and apparent lack of understanding that the entire world is not California and experiences things like seasons and humidity or snow.
Then, time for more food on the way home. You can tell this place is hopping; the line wrapped around the block. It was Cuban food. I got some shrimp over mashed plantains.
I flew home (very!) early the next morning, and my sister and mom went to the Ai Weiwei exhibit on Alcatraz with people my sister works with. Anyway, it was a really nice few days. Being with family feels good.
1 comment:
I've been to that Cuban restaurant (I think--it looks like the place my friend took us last time we were in the Bay Area, and the food was so good!). Trips like these make me feel like I really missed out by not having a sister :) Looks like a fun weekend.
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