Live from Birmingham!

Well, it's about time! After realizing that I have difficulty remembering what happened on which trip I've decided I can't put this off any longer. I've got to write it down. My mammory is reflecting my age...I mean MEMORY! Well, my mammories are showing my age, also, but that's a personal problem.

Richard and I spent the weekend of October 6, 2007, in San Francisco in order to attend our friend's wedding. That would be Barrett Lyon and his now betrothed Rachelle Sterling. Whereas the number of invitees were quaint and low, the event was quite a high.

They chose a Saturday that would provide their guests with quite a show in the sky. First, while mingling on the 6th floor roof of the Vitale hotel overlooking the bay, before the ceremony, we were all treated to the Blue Angels air show. I had never seen them flying before and it was fantastic. The precision with which they flew together was awesome. And when one plane flew straight up only to shut off his engines and fall straight down (of course he came out of it okay), it took my breath away. It made me realize how boring it must be for regular commercial pilots, always flying in the same path at the same speed...no adrenaline rush there. But that's okay. I fly a lot and don't need any extra adrenaline rushing.

After a very untraditional ceremony (Barrett's father is a lawyer and performed the nuptials) that brought tears to my eyes we all headed to Pier 40 to board the Merlot. While cruising around the bay we had a very tasty dinner. Music was being played on the top level and a few of us danced a bit.

Then at about 9pm we had another show in the sky - wonderful fireworks! It seemed as though they were performing just for Barrett and Rachelle. How romantic!

We did manage to see Richard's son, Nathan, this time. Nathan is attending Stanford for his doctorate. It's nice that Richard's job is so close; he works in Sunnyvale and Nathan is in Palo Alto only 10 minutes away on a good Hwy101 day.

The three of us had a very good meal at Il Fornaio in downtown Palo Alto and then we moved to a more 'campus' atmosphere, a bar called the Blue Chalk Cafe. They have a shuffle board table there and we managed to stick around long enough to secure the table. Nathan ended up the winner and it was his first time playing!

I'm headed to San Fran again in a week to meet my friend Lori out there. I'll post again and let you know about all the fun!