San Francisco Bay

It’s been a long time since we’ve been back to the Bay Area but John’s niece Lindsay’s daughter, Grace, had her 4th birthday party today and we couldn’t miss that. We were also very happy that we went with Jim and Dana and Jim drove.

Lindsay lived with us the year she was a senior at Mills College in Oakland, her mother's alma mater. I remember when Sharon , John's sister called me from Duke University hospital in North Carolina where she had just been diagnosed with stage 4 ovarian cancer. I happened to be in the bathtub and we talked until the bath was cold. I remember promising her, among other things, that we would always be there for Lindsay, something which I think gave us all some comfort.

Lindsay married Adisa soon after she graduated and they moved back to Durham, NC not too long after that. She told me yesterday that although it was very expensive, they decided to move back to Oakland after Grace was born and Trump was elected. I wasn't surprised that that was the reason since Adisa is African American and North Carolina 'was not the state I grew up in or wanted to raise a child in.'

We spent almost the whole time we were there reacquainting ourselves with people we met at Lindsay and Adisa’s wedding, a baby shower for Lindsay and a few other events. Quite a mixed crowd of Lindsay's friends from Mills, Adisa's family and a lot of people who , like Lindsay and Adisa, return to Burning Man every year. ‘You come for the parties ‘ said Adisa’s father. He and I spent quite awhile discussing solar panels and batteries. Some things just seem to be universal.

Grace was the oldest child there and there were lots of kids, the youngest being just five weeks old. When we left, the infant’s father was handing him off to Grace who was sitting on the floor.  Lindsay was trying not to watch, but the baby’s father and Grace had everything under control.

The weather continues sunny and warm (except when the wind was blowing up to 80mph gusts). The bay was muddy and covered in whitecaps. I’ve only seen it that rough a couple of times and tried for a picture, but various fences and barriers precluded a good shot.That's Mt. Tamalpias in the background.

I would have loved to get a picture of the birthday girl but her parents have requested that we not publish pictures and I didn’t see any phones, or cameras for that matter (how refreshing) so I left mine in my bag.

Edit: I've added a bit of family history to this entry today (2/10) as It helped explain yesterday's effort, hastily written in the car.