fall, and people we love

san francisco was so much fun. for one thing, the leaves were changing colors!


but the leaves were not the best part of san francisco. we got to see lots of people.


first, we got to spend a truly lovely afternoon and evening with page and her fiance, kevin. they let us hang out in their beautiful apartment all day talking, listening to music, eating really good food, watching cute cooking shows, and painting their kitchen green.


kevin also made us tasty ginger drinks with limes. i wish i had a taken a picture of one of those. and a picture of kevin, who had cute bits of paint in his hair. anyway, it was a great day and we were so happy to get to spend time with an old friend, and a new one.

another night, we drove to san rafael to see our friend adam. we drank wine at a fancy wine place and ate delicious puerto rican food in a restaurant painted bright green. we had a lot of fun talking about teaching, students, books, and music. here's a self-timed picture taken in adam's apartment. sam and i are hidden in the enormous, comfortable couch.


we were also lucky enough to be able to spend an afternoon with sarah's aunt carolyn.


a few years ago, carolyn let me live with her for two or three weeks while i was looking for an apartment in san francisco. i love her house.


she made a beautiful lunch,


which we ate outside in her garden.


after lunch, we went for a walk through her neighborhood. this involved lots of stairs, a panoramic view of the city, a canyon,


and some blackberry thickets.


sometimes you really had to get in there.


but this was the reward!


and this.


after eating lots of blackberries, we left glen park for russian hill, where we got to see my cousins josh and andrew.


they took us to a great sushi restaurant where we drank sapporo and sake and talked about all kinds of things. it was great to see them.


this bay area adventure was made possible by my generous and trusting aunt linda and uncle mike, who let us stay in their beautiful, comfortable house while they were out of town. it wasn't as great as it would have been if they were there, but it was pretty great. i don't know if they even know about the blog, but if you're reading this,


and thank you page, kevin, josh, andrew, adam, and carolyn, for making time to see us and for making our time in san francisco so much fun.