what happened a week ago today

Dear readers,

I have been home from California for a few days, part of me wants to go back and part of me is glad to be here. A few weeks of Indiana summer life before the next trip, and it is going to be a crazy couple months of travel.

Last time I think I left off after recounting the Saturday in San Francisco adventures? I know I did a very quick job of that, but hopefully it gave you a picture of the full and fun day.

On Sunday we slept in, we had yummy grilled hot dogs and buns and grilled corn and little tabouleh and couscous salads for lunch, then Natalie and I finished our movie (Little Miss Sunshine) while Jon took the dogs to the park for some exercise,which they needed after being shut up all day. Oh yes, Jon and Natalie have 2 dogs and 2 cats. I am amazed at all the animals in their apartment but it is pretty fun.

When Jon got back, he informed us that we could take the next train which by the way was in 10 minutes! That is, if we were ready. Oh my goodness! So we scrambled around, grabbed our stuff including sunscreen, and for the 2nd day in a row took off for the train station.

We took the train into town and then took a cab down the bayside (hmm the driver did not know where the Ferry building was... insane). We walked along the bay for a while, in a mall, (one of the cool urban malls with nifty stores), around town a bit, then I decided I needed to head back and head out to San Jose for work that week.

Somehow I drove to San Jose without having to turn around... more than once, initially I got on the highway headed north instead of south. Figures!! But with a GPS it is easy, and actually I kind of like the freeway ramps in California, it is easy to turn around on them. huge improvement on the East Coast and even the Midwest.

I got to my hotel and was IN AWE at the beauty of it... amazing, when I have a few minutes to collect my pictures I will show you. Got my computer online which is of course the most important part. Took a picture from my balcony. I wish I'd had more time that week to simply hang out in all the different parts of my suite and enjoy it... That is one of the things you have to keep in mind, those of you who have the working world ahead, when you have a job that sends you on cool trips, you are often busy enough that you don't often take the time to properly appreciate it even if you do initially appreciate it very much with your eyes and your gasps of delight. In fact that applies to all of life. Enjoy what you are doing right now and live it to the full. That is a paraphrase of a great quote by Jim Elliott, a missionary who died for Christ in South America.

Then I finally realized my text messaging was failing and I called the person I was meeting for dinner to find that he was already there... so I took off! I had dinner with a new friend I made over the weekend, my cousin's friend who was also there for work. We went to an outdoor mall and I picked out a French restaurant, mmmm yummy. What a fun evening and delicious food. And then it was plenty late and time for both of us to go to our hotels and get some sleep before the work week ahead.

Well I will tell you about the rest of the week in another post because this one got a bit long and I don't want people complaining that they have to read through a book every time.