The original reason for planning this trip to the United States was to celebrate my mother's 80th birthday, which she decided to do in beautiful Santa Cruz, California. We rented a great house there with a view of the ocean from the living room/balcony. Shana and I picked up our nephews, Jeremy and Ethan in Berkeley, and drove with them to Santa Cruz, where we discovered this view only a block from the house.
The weather was beautiful the entire weekend, and we visited a nearby butterfly sanctuary. We were a bit too early in the year to see the Monarch butterflies, but did have a great walk among the trees where they will soon return.
But, what we did most of all was play a new game called The Gang, which is a cooperative Texas Hold-'em game. If that sounds contradictary, I can assure you that that it was quickly addictive and we played many, many rounds trying to master the subleties.
On Mom's actual birthday, we had a lovely dinner at Shadow-Brook in nearby Capitola. The food and wine were fantastic, and we had a really good waiter, who made the whole experience exceptional.
After our Santa Cruz adventure, we spent a night at Karyn and Jim's place so we could see their totally new kitchen (sorry, no photo), enjoy more good wine and get even better at The Gang.
Returning to Walnut Creek, we spent an evening with our friends Peter and Jill where we drank even more good wine (sensing a theme here), and laughed late into the night. It is always good to spend time with them.
On our final day in the Bay Area, after hanging out with our friend Sacha, I went to play bridge with Mom at a weekly pairs event in the community where they live. Each team pays $2 (we paid $3 because I am an outsider) to enter and plays four hands against each of five different teams. We played very well, and finished in 4th place winning $7! A fantastic result considering that we have rarely played togerher.
That evening, Mom dropped us at the BART where we began our long journey to our last stop, the Galapagos Islands. More on that soon.
Hasta pronto,
Jeff and Shana
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