The next two days were spent relaxing with family which has always been my favorite Thanksgiving tradition. On Thursday I spent a good chunk of the day helping Judith in the kitchen preparing the Thanksgiving dinner. It was really nice to catch up with Judith and help cook dinner. We really enjoyed spending time with Chad's grandparents - especially considering we hadn't seen them since our wedding! Chad's grandfather has had some health problems over the last two years so we really felt that we needed to get out to Mariposa and see them. I believe that Chad's grandfather, Raymond is 88 and his grandmother, Judith is 86. But you would never guess! They are so spry, especially Judith (you may remember her from our wedding - she was the elderly Latina dancing right along side the 20-somethings!). It was truly wonderful to spend time with them, as well as Chad's parents in such a nice, relaxed atmosphere.
Chad's parents left Mariposa early Saturday morning and we left not long after them. Ross drove us back to his newly purchased home in Petaluma. I have to say that I was very impressed with his home! It was nicely furnished and quite comfortable (I will however refrain from commenting on the cleanliness). Ross was so wonderful during the whole trip. Not only did he pick us up from the airport, drive us 3 hours to Mariposa, spend Thanksgiving with us and drive us the 3 hours back into the Bay Area but he put us up for a night at his home and let us sleep in his bed while he slept on the couch. He was such a wonderful host! It was really nice for me to spend some quality time with Ross and get to know him better since I haven't had a lot of opportunity to do so. He is one of Chad's very best friends so it's important to me that we get along and enjoy each other's company! We also stopped by Ross's parents home and got to spend an hour or so chatting with his parents and sister which was also quite lovely. The entire McCornack family was clearly extremely pleased to see Chad and was very interested in what he has been up to.
Saturday night we went to Lagaunitas, a local brewery, to enjoy some Petaluma local brew. Then we met up with a few of Chad's childhood friends back at Ross's and spent the night chatting, playing games and watching people hurt themselves doing stupid things on YouTube. We left early Sunday and caught a bus into town. We had a hard time finding the bus from downtown to Paige's: we made it intact but minus one coat : ( Lunch was so fantastic. We arrived at Paige's fairly haggard after lugging our luggage around town chasing down buses. We went on a nice relaxing stroll through the Mission neighborhood of San Francisco which has plenty to do and see. And we had the most AMAZING street tacos at a Mexican restaurant nearby. It was like we were in Ensenada - they were that delicious. I'm not going to lie - I have thought about them probably every day since then and still regret only getting two. It was also really nice to catch up with Paige. We haven't gotten to see so much of her lately - we're so spoiled! We also saw got an opportunity to catch up with our friend Kevin Dunham over coffee. Every time we visit with him I am always struck by how wonderfully nice he is.
We concluded our California trip with dinner at In-n-Out (we felt it made an excellent book-end!) and flew back to Boston in time for dinner.
Now we are finding ourselves slightly harried as we try to wrap up school, finals, grants and lab projects before December 14th. It feels so weird to be leaving so soon again after we just got back from a mini-vacation. Oh well - I'm not too bothered about it!
We are most excited to see our dearest friends Heather & Greg Stoutenburg as well as their 6 month old boy Ulysses. We haven't seen them in close to a year and we get to spend four days with them in Iowa City before our trip out to Seattle. I love my family and adore my friends - but this just might be the highlight of the trip! : )
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