Julie's Cousins in California

Two of Phil's good friends are getting married Labor Day weekend. There are a number of events going on during the week, so we came out to California for the entire week. Phil is working from the EMC office in Santa Clara, and Julie is telecommuting from our hotel room. We have the weekends and evenings scheduled full of visits with family and friends.

On Saturday evening, we met up with Julie's cousin Sandi Steich and Julie's mom's cousin Susan Walton.

Sue & Sandi

Sue moved to San Francisco in the 1970s and does a lot of music education programming for children.

Sandi, David, Heather, Nathan, Josh, and Jake have lived in California for the last 16 years. David's the other person with a Ph.D. (electrical engineering) in Julie's family and works at the Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory.

Susan showed us around the Bay View Boat Club where she is the grounds keeper. Then we got a driving tour of the Mission District, where there are lots of murals on the building walls.

Mural

After dinner, Sue took us on more of a driving tour up and down the hilly streets of the city, including a trip down the windiest street. We also drove to the top of Twin Peaks to get a great (but cool and windy) view of the city.

Twin Peaks

View of San Francisco from the top of Twin Peaks

Sue, Julie, & Sandi

Then we drove to Sandi's house to spend the night. We visited with David and Jake for a while in the evening. Since David and Phil do work in similar areas, they get the chance to talk about what they're working on to someone who understands.

On Sunday, we visited more with Sandi, David, Jake, and Josh, and briefly saw Nathan and met his girlfriend. Nathan's turning 21 tomorrow! Phil and Jake had a good time playing video games, especially Lego Star Wars. Although Jake crushed Julie at most games, she managed to beat him at Wii bowling.

Then David, Sandi, and the two of us went to brunch at Wente's, where Heather works. She waited on us and treated us to a fantastic multi-course brunch. The food was excellent! Thanks Heather, David, and Sandi!!

David, Heather, & Sandi

Julie, Phil, David, & Sandi