Boulder comes to the Bay Area for a Weekend

The weekend following New Years was an odd one. It started off exciting enough when I picked up Cinnamon and Shay at OAK after their flight in from Colorado. From the airport we headed to Kim's in Berkeley. We beat Kim herself there, but we entertained our selves along with Seth (K's roommate) and Kevin (K's boyfriend.) Technically it was around noon when we got there, but it was 5 o'clock somewhere, as they say.

Whatever laid-back vibe the guys had when we got there, it was over when we hit the yard. Apollo fought to set the mood with an intermittent display of his alpha-dog facade, but everybody else remained jovial. The ladies settled in with their stuff while I reigned in Apollo and sat down to try my hand at the puzzle Kevin had going on the floor.

This pictures isn't actually from that day. I am cheating: I took this a couple weekends later, so imagine it with a lot less face, hands and black areas inside the edges, which was basically the only part in place that afternoon. By the time we left, we'd rallied enough effort to complete Audrey's face, arm and cigarette holder. The rest of the puzzle, as these images confess, is next to impossible. All pieces remaining are mono-colored. The puzzler must eye pieces by silhouette alone from here on out. I gave it a shot but resorted to lining the pieces up in rows, facing them all in same direction, and I doubt my effort has any help at all.

After some time the whole gang finally arrived. Kim snuck out of work and came home soon after our grand entrance. And following her, Vyga, another Boulderite, made it down from Portland. Vyga was on a tour of west-coast interviewing, and her stop in the Bay Area was the inspiration for this ladies', etc. weekend. While we still had sunlight, we left the men behind and took off with the pups for a stroll around campus.

Just next to Kim's house this T-Rex came out of nowhere to greet us on the sidewalk. Have no fear, we made it past unscathed.

When we made it to Cal I let Apollo off leash and the dogs took off frolicking together with the frisbee.

We stopped for a photo op near the tower once on the way in...

And again on the way out...

Kim told us that when she was an undergrad she and her friends used to sit under the tower and look up at it, seeing it as a road that is paved to the sky.

We gave it a try. Shay composed this shot. She's got an eye for album covers.

Leo and Apollo spent some time splashing around in a small stream on campus. Like Mr. Hyde, once he was wet, Apollo turned into crazy dog. He did a ton of barking while we sat chatting on the bridge. When we walked out again past this fountain, he jumped in and swam across. Of course I was a moment too slow with the camera, but you get the idea.


At dusk, we took off back to Kim and Seth's for a while. Andy took BART to Berkeley after work and Kevin picked him up and brought him over. While we waited for them, we made made the classic mistake of drinking some more wine before dinner. It turned into an even livelier party until we headed back out to the streets.

It only took me 9 months out here, but I finally made it to Jupiter in Berkeley for the first time that Friday night. We were lucky enough to get a table upstairs to fit all of us. By that time we had accumulated a few more people than when we started the night, and I didn't even have a chance to interact with all of them.

At one point I went off to the lady's room and came back to 4 new people at our table along with a mysterious stash of dry ice. I asked questions but acquired no answers as to what exactly needed chilling at our table that evening. The wait staff probably pondered the same thing once we left.

We all made our way back to Kim and Seth's one more time at which point Andy, Apollo and I continued on home for the night.

The next morning we woke up to rain. I didn't let the weather diminish my weekend hopes for going out to breakfast. We went to Rudy's Can't Fail Cafe, my new favorite breakfast joint of all time. Honestly, it single handedly eases my heavy repugnance for Emeryville to mere aversion. Emeryville is home of Bay Street, one of those Florida-style phony-downtown malls crammed full of high-end retail chains and capped on each end by practically all the large box stores in existence. In this land of unoriginal, unabashed consumption, Rudy's is a beacon of individuality and consciousness.

There is a line waiting for seats every time we go. But they leave out a coffee station for you to pour your own mug full as a pacifier. It works; I never mind waiting for our seats. Not even on a rainy Saturday.

When our turn was up, the free seats were at the counter and we happily took them. Sometimes we're in the mood to chat over our eggs, but this morning the counter was a great place to go with the paper to sit in the midst of the action...

After breakfast we met Apollo back at the car and set off for Cesar Chavez Park. On the way there we stopped on an impulse to check out Discount Fabrics. I was looking for a big button, but I left with some needles, a couple spools of thread and these pictures...

To Apollo's glee, we finally made it to the park. We spent a rainy hour tossing the friz for him...

On the way out of the park we stopped at this roadside market, just to check it out:

The place is pretty small and feels very California with it's store front wide open on a rainy day in the midst of Winter. They sell some fruit inside along with sandwiches and mini-mart fare. They also sell "something" in these bottles...

Do you think they're making a statement about vintage quality here? More likely this display is fit for this clever "blog" instead.

This Saturday was one in a slew of rainy days we've been getting this Winter. Apparently there was a drought last Winter, and this season has made up for that and then some. We've been getting dumped on with rain since November. It will make Spring and Summer feel all the sweeter, I'm sure. But in the midst of it, things can seem pretty gloomy. Here is some more evidence of what I'm talking about from just our Saturday outing:

Eventually we went home to dry off and rest up for the evening. Our plan was to wait until we heard from the Berkeley crew and meet up with them for dinner. We played a few rounds of Set while we waited.

But we never ended up going in Berkeley that night. Liz called and told us her apartment had been broken into twice in 24 hours and she and her roommate wanted out. We took off for west Oakland and helped her and her friends haul their stuff out and into a UHaul. It was the least we could do for that crew, they were exhausted and violated. A bright update to that story is that Liz and Meghann are now living in a cute apartment in SF close to Golden Gate Park.



On Sunday the Berkeley women came over for brunch around 1pm. We were also joined by Ian, a new work buddy of Andy's who lives in Chicago. Ian was in town for company training and came out to Oakland from his hotel in SF to join us for food and football. Here's a picture of Andy and Ian from earlier in the night. I took this one especially for Andy's dad. He, and anyone who's visited Washington Ave in Endicott, will know why...

I regret forgetting to take pictures of the food at brunch that afternoon because it was damn good. We had mimosas and peach lambic to drink. Andy grilled up some fresh home fries and I made fruit salad out of kiwi, bananas, blueberries and pineapple. Then we cooked some corn fritters on the griddle. That would have been delicious as it was, but Andy came up with the brilliant idea of putting the fruit on top of the fritters with a little maple syrup. It was, quite frankly, to die for. It wasn't just Andy's stove-master magic, the weather made the food taste better, too. That Sunday was about the best day all winter at that point. It was warm enough to open the windows and eat on the balcony. And after all the rain we'd had, it was a beautiful relief.

While they were both wonderful, the food and the weather were not what made Sunday a great party. Our guests were responsible for that. Everyone had a sunny, laid back attitude that capped off a great weekend perfectly. Andy and I feel very special to have Cinnamon in our lives. We share her great taste in friends. Hopefully the Bay Area will attract more of this crowd out here permanently in the future.

When the women left for the airport I was in no mood to clean up right away, so I sat down with some incense and ear buds and took to work writing.

The men stayed in the living room and watched football. When the sun went down they went out back and took some pictures. The sun was being tricky that day, but I promise you the top floors of this high rise were only engulfed in a fiery optical illusion...

As always, more photos of the weekend can be found here and here.