Beauty by the Bay

Well, that was fun.

Had a great trip to the Bay Area, visiting Lafayette, Berkeley, SF, Petaluma, Redwood City and Menlo Park.  San Francisco was showing off with clear skies and perfect weather. I walked around like a tourist, taking pictures from every hill. Well, actually I WAS a tourist. It's been 20 years since I've lived there. SO HARD TO BELIEVE. I am in denial about the passing of time. An example of this is: when crossing the Bay Bridge, I picked through my purse for a dollar to pay the toll, completely forgetting that it was a dollar 20 years ago. It is 5 dollars now. Ooops.

It was great to see so many old friends, and new ones, too.

Twenty years ago I lived in this apartment (pic to the right) ------->
My unit was toward the back of the building, so I didn't have the Bay Windows, and also the building was grey and maroon when I lived there...

City Light Bookstore. It was so much fun browsing (and buying) in an actual bookstore. I'm so used to clicking on Amazon to purchase books, and even more frequently clicking on my Kindle to download books. Visiting City Lights and Green Apple, as well as some others, made me realize how much I miss the real bookstore community - the smell of books, the helpful advice of people... Above, my friend Amelyn poses for my pic by reading a book upside down. Book humor.

Beautiful Coit Tower.

Surprise visit with an old friend (Daniela) who happens to live in Redwood City...

Lisa's puppy: "GG". OMGG, I love this doggie. Such a cuddler. Those ears, that personality. 

Happy in the Bay Area.

Before and After

Wow! College was so long ago. Who are those babies in these pictures? This photo might have been within days of meeting each other for the first time on the 5th floor of our dorm in Boston. John is already doing toothpaste shots and I'm grabbing Mark with OJ's glove.

And here, John's tongue is out, as it usually was, and Katie's got that signature smile on her face. I believe we are at Noelle's house in Cohassat, MA, where we used to escape sometimes on weekends. Shout out to Catherine Pouch in the background.

Well, we're all grown up now (I guess that's debatable, but certainly we're all aged up now) and here we are at the Hollywood Bowl 25 years later (for 80's night, no less - Berlin, The Fixx, the B52's and Human League - how perfect is that?). The last time Diane, Mark, Katie, Noelle, John and I were all together was perhaps 1987.

Although college was a blast, specific memories are vague at best. I mean, do you remember details about what you were doing 25 years ago?

There were a lot of parties - too many of us stuffed in dorm rooms, drinking and dancing. I remember typing many papers on my giant-sized Brother typewriter, which seemed so modern at the time. I remember being sick a lot - this California girl not quite sure how to dress for the snow. (The storms were so thrilling, though - sleet, hail, snow!)

A bunch of us reunited over this past Labor Day weekend. We sifted through photo albums, jogged each other's memories, spent hours on my couch gabbing, gabbing, gabbing. We ate, we drank, we even sang...

RW really feels it when he's behind the mic...

Overall, it was a spectacular weekend. Time really does have wings and I'm glad we were able to capture these moments before the next 25 evaporate before our eyes.