It’s been really great to be back in the Bay Area. My wife and I lived here from 2000 to 2003 – back when (in retrospect, although it didn’t seem so at the time) it was affordable to do so – and being back here is in many ways like coming home. Old friends have gone to great pains to make us feel welcome: it was fantastic to stay briefly up in Novato – taking advantage of the weather in Marin County – and our time in San Francisco itself has been excellent, if a little on the cool side.
We arrived in the city on Thursday night: most of Friday ended up being spent emptying the rental car of the bits and pieces accrued over the prior 3 weeks, followed by a valiant attempt at not overwhelming our host’s apartment with said bits and pieces. It was also an opportunity to catch up on the writing of blog posts (both mine and my family’s), as well as a bit of schoolwork for the kids.
On Friday evening we headed up to Napa, where Jim and Mary Quanci hosted us for the weekend. Jim, Mary and Elise (our host in SF) organised a fantastic BBQ that a whole load of old friends managed to attend.
On the way back down to the city, on Sunday, we stopped by Richmond to help with some repairs on (and then to enjoy) Jim’s boat. To be clear: I am pretty much the least capable sailor on the planet, but I was able to help “grind” Jim up to the top of the mast so that he could take care of business.
Since Sunday evening we’ve been hanging out properly in SF: my wife and kids have been visiting the city while I caught up with colleagues in our 1 Market Street office. A highlight from Wednesday was a tour of the Autodesk Gallery, where my kids could see firsthand some of the amazing things our customers create. A huge thanks to JJ Stott for taking the time to show us all around!
It was especially cool to see the BioLite display there. :-)
All things must come to an end, however, and so it was that on Thursday morning we departed from SFO with a heavy heart. It’s long been a dream of ours to visit South America, though, so we’re all excited to see what’s next!