It’s been really great to be back in the Bay Area. My wife and I lived here from 2000 to 2003 – back when (in retrospect, although it didn’t seem so at the time) it was affordable to do so – and being back here is in many ways like coming home. Old friends have gone to great pains to make us feel welcome: it was fantastic to stay briefly up in Novato – taking advantage of the weather in Marin County – and our time in San Francisco itself has been excellent, if a little on the cool side.
We arrived in the city on Thursday night: most of Friday ended up being spent emptying the rental car of the bits and pieces accrued over the prior 3 weeks, followed by a valiant attempt at not overwhelming our host’s apartment with said bits and pieces. It was also an opportunity to catch up on the writing of blog posts (both mine and my family’s), as well as a bit of schoolwork for the kids.
On Friday evening we headed up to Napa, where Jim and Mary Quanci hosted us for the…