Wow, I hardly know where to begin. I was in California last week (where I swear I hardly saw any gay people at all!) for my cousin Jason's wedding. Charlotte and I flew in together, got a rental car at the Oakland airport.
We got to the hotel very late Friday as we hit major rush hour traffic driving from Oakland to SR at 5 PM on a Friday.. So we had to decide whether to go out to dinner or just go to the cocktail party sponsored by Mary and Harry(groom's parents). We checked into our hotel, the Santa Rosa Comfort Inn and decided, since it was almost 8 PM, to go to the party. The invitation said "desserts", and they had a table set up for making S'mores (Amelia must have a sweet tooth- you'll see more of it later). it took awhile, but finally everyone (the young'uns, anyway, started toasting marshmallows on the fire. There were tons of young people there - all thin and beautiful - as Charlotte kept saying. I guess almost everyone was from back east. Most of Jason and Amelia's friends were from Colby College. We were outside, by the pool, on a lovely patio -- The Lodge at Sonoma where my cousins were staying is $242 a night!. Even Aunt Bess made the trip (although at age 90 her dr. told her to fly first class). Everyone took good care of Bess.
She was like the grand matriarch. She sat and people came over to her to ask if she needed anything.
After the party, my cousin was hungry, so we ended up at about 11 PM at Denny's near the hotel, which looked exactly as you'd expect a Denny's to look at about midnight in suburban nowhere. Saturday the wedding was at 4 so to kill some time we went to downtown Santa Rosa, which was having a street fair with artists displaying work and such. Poked around in some boutiques and went on a tour of one of the victorian hotels. The Charles Schultz museum is in SR, which I would have liked to visit if we'd had more time, but I had my picture taken with a number of Charlie Brown statues, then we had lunch at a casual mexican place, and had just enough time to get ready for the wedding. ..
We were supposed to take a shuttle to the wedding but my cousin told us to drive there and park. It was all gravel and dirt - whiich didn't work with everyone's fancy shoes. We even had to use portable toilets. The wedding was entirely outside. Although I'd heard all about the dress and jewelry etc, the dress was nice but plain, the bridesmaids dresses were short, and laced up the back - a pretty rose color, with taupe sandals. The meal was a choice of mushroom risotto or duck - not exactly what I'd been hoping for - but they made up for it by having a sundae bar and candy table for dessert. My cousin Harry had a steak (special order) and his wife Mary (the groom, Jason is their son) couldn't eat the duck because her niece started quacking. They sat with us - - the head table was all the wedding party and all the friends. There was a band and dancing (no jewish music since the bride isn't), and I kept wanting to dance but had no one to dance with. I almost asked my 21 year old cousin Nate (Best Man) who is absolutely stunning, but never quite got up the nerve. There were lots of young men there --- all 20 something and attractive. My cousin Mary's friends from Winchester all came - they have kind of a Ya Ya Sisterhood thing.. (except they met as adults, not kids)....we all kept discussing how handsome Nate is. He made a really funny speech during dinner - he was really a natural. So since I was with the "older crowd" - Charlotte was giving my cousins from Milwaukee a ride back to their B&B, (they walked to the wedding because it was Shabbat), we left early. I actually thought it was 10 but it was only 9 PM. I think the party was just getting started. There was a Navy guy in his whites who they said was going to sing.
Sunday morning we went to a house the bride's mother had rented in Glen Ellen - beautiful outdoor patio and huge kitchen, and had a scrumptious brunch. Still ogling my cousin Nate. (I'm such a lech). We were trying to hook up with a possible cousin, Andi Werlin, in San Fran, but even as I had my cell on me almost every minute, I missed her call and her message had said she was driving back to San Fran. Well it turned out she was in Glen Ellen same time as we were.
On the way down to San Francisco, we decided as we drove along 101 to stop at a couple of wineries that looked interesting. There was one - St Francisco, I think, that was very Spanish looking, and another one - The Ledsford, which was a mansion and had beautifully manicured grounds in addition to the vines being right out front. I was not aware until Steve and Judy mentioned it, that we should stop at the John Muir Woods to see the big, ancient redwood forest. It was a really cool place and I'm glad we stopped but it put us on the GG bridge at about 6 PM. (it was pretty fogged in at that point). I couldn't believe the drive to get into that forest, the turns and the views were amazing. There are paths that you can walk along that are not as long as the hiking paths, and they take you past some of the oldest trees. We even saw deer that were grazing right on the path. Charlotte was unfazed at driving the hairpins where you were right on the edge of a cliff. So my possible cousin and I finally spoke by phone and she said she couldn't get over to meet us after all. I was kind of dispointed at that - she was IN SF after all, but was packing to leave for a trip early Monday. Ah well, que sera sera.
Sunday night we walked from our hotel to a restaurant called Max's which was like the Carnegie Deli or something - very New Yorkish - huge portions and a very extensive menu. While waiting we walked around the area looking at galleries and jewelry windows. We had decided to do a bus tour so Monday morning we had breakfast in the hotel and walked around Union Sq then back for our 1 PM pick up.The bus let us out in a couple of spots but no big deal.. I didn't care for the tour guide very much but it was a good way to see the city.The bus let us out at Fisherman's wharf at the end, where we walked around pier 39 - my cousin says she likes to shop but she seemed impatient with me every time I went into a store - kind of like Eric. But nothing great. We decided not to eat there but to go to Chinatown instead. So we got a recommendation from cabbie and went to a chinese restaurant - mostly tourists in there anyway.Tuesday we walked all over union square - my cousin loves looking at jewelry since she is gem certified or something and used to work for a jeweler and design and create jewelry herself. We went to Chinatown after that, where I looked in vain for the "perfect" ring, to buy myself. Didn't find anything but closer idea of what I might want. She knows gems so can tell what is good and what isn't. We stopped for a bite in Chinatown at a small chinese bakery where everyone but us was Asian!
I ordered basically by pointing. The counter girl didn't speak english, and my iced tea had these wiered jelly balls in it. I guess that's the thing there. I thought it would be tapioca pearls but they were quite large and dark colored. The straw they serve it with is big enough to fit the jelly balls - it's very wierd. I also had a sweet bean pastry that I saved for the plane.
So I'm eating it and in the middle, I hit something big and black - I have no idea what it was - maybe a fig, maybe fish??? I pulled it out and STILL didn't know what it was!! I tossed it immediately. We had dinner in the hotel Tuesday night ( filet mignon for me) and at 10 AM on Wed a shuttle picked me up.And that's it!
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