Trip to Santa Clara

Laura graduated with TWO master’s degrees; an MBA and a Master’s in business analytics. Rather than walking, she had a backyard barbecue and we all thought that was a great idea!

John and I decided to spend a whole week in California because John’s team is based in the CA Bay Area (even though he is now based in Albuquerque), so he needs to spend regular amounts of time out there. It’s a fairly far commute between Santa Clara and Livermore, so he stayed in a hotel in Livermore during the week while I stayed with Laura. Then he took Friday off and we spent graduation weekend with Laura.

We drove the van out in order to take the dogs and camp along the way. I used google maps to identify a good location to spend the night. It was a great spot, near the freeway but with a ridge between us and the freeway so you’d never even know the freeway was there. It felt like we were totally out in the middle of nowhere, but we even had good cell tower coverage. This is about an hour west of Needles, CA.

Here’s photos from our walk after we got settled that evening. We didn’t go very far because of Kai’s injured knee. But John was happy to find rocks to climb on.

The day we arrived, Alex won his bike race in Sacramento. Congratulations Alex!

Their town has a great program where once a year everyone can set all kinds rubbish out on the curb for the city to pick up. There’s a few restrictions (like no hazardous waste), but it was amazing all the junk people lined up along the curbs.

Then the city came and picked it all up. Luckily they got it picked up before Laura’s party, because all that junk didn’t leave much street parking. Plus it wasn’t the greatest to look at, lol. Interesting, but low on aesthetic value.

One day that week I went out to meet Laura for lunch. She works in downtown Palo Alto, which is super cute. When I lived in Palo Alto 34 years ago it wasn’t at all cute. It was, in fact, quite sketchy. Back then, my aunt called it “the armpit of the Bay Area”. But now it’s very high-end and trendy. We had Burmese food. It’s one of those areas where you can just walk into any restaurant randomly and it’s going to be one of the best meals you’ve ever had (although on the pricey side).

Sorry, the only pictures I thought to take were of the parking garage surroundings (so I could find my car again). But even these parking garage pictures are amazing (for a parking garage). Parking garages in New Mexico don’t look like this.

Here’s a walkway out of the parking garage on the side where my car was located.

Here’s the back side of Laura’s building, next to the parking garage. She usually commutes via train and bike. If she drives, she has to move her car every 3 hours.

This is the actual parking garage.

Here’s the google maps picture of the shop I went to after we had lunch. I ordered my glasses online from this company, and I went to get them adjusted. Yeah, it the whole area looked this cool – or even cooler.

The next day I drove to Livermore to see a friend. We went to lunch in downtown Pleasanton, which is also very cute. A lot of these Bay Area towns have very pretty downtowns with nice shops and restaurants (not the skyscrapers of big city downtowns). Sitting outside at a cafe and talking with a friend is one of my all time favorite things!

On the Friday before Laura’s party, John and I traipsed around half the Bay Area trying to find a simple small patio table, chairs and umbrella for her present, as well as party supplies. I don’t know why errands have to be so hard in the Bay Area!

The Bay Area is beautiful, and high end, and fancy, and the weather is excellent, and the food is excellent, but running errands in Friday afternoon traffic is a torment! And every store we went to were sold out of anything worth buying.

That evening everyone went out for dinner, but I was too tired and stayed home. They kindly brought me back something to eat. My instructions were “Just some fish.” So Laura brought me several very expensive pieces of raw fish. (When in California, eat as the Californians eat.) It was very good.

Then the next day was the barbecue! Laura’s dad shipped lei’s from Hawaii for the occasion.

Here’s some more family pictures from before the guests arrived. When we were at Target for supplies we had bought goofy graduation-themed photo booth signs. We never actually set up a photo booth area, but that’s why John and Darren are holding goofy signs.

I forgot to take any photos after the guests arrived. Laura had thoughtfully prepared an “introverts table” in a corner of the living room and put out games and puzzles. Guess who ended up spending nearly the entire party there? Me, Darren, and David (the kid’s dad). Yep. We were the three self-selected introverts, quietly and contentedly putting together a puzzle while the party went on in the next room and the backyard.

John was out chatting with everyone. He considers himself an introvert too, except at parties he mixes well. He makes the rounds asking everyone questions about themselves. He’s good at bringing out interesting things about people. He knows not to ask uncomfortable questions, so everyone ends up feeling like he’s super friendly and interested in what they have to say. Most people like talking about themselves. As a conversation technique, it works pretty well.

I did make sure I got up from the introvert’s table long enough to snag some of that great food.