Saturday  morning we were up early and back at Tartine shortly after they opened.  No significant line and we were able to find a table inside. 

Sure, Tawn was freezing on the way over but once we arrived and he tried their amazing baked goods, he was in heaven. 

Left, Tawn sampling a variety of Tartine’s goods: brioche bread pudding with cranberries and apples, morning bun, ham and herb quiche, and croissant.

After eating our fill and enjoying some lattes, we walked across 18th street to Dolores Park.  The sun was now out, making the weather much more pleasant, and we climbed up the hill to take in the sweeping view of the city.

San Francisco is a city defined by its views and its food, both of which are impressive.  Here, Tawn and I posed for some portraits with the south of Market Street area in the background.

We visited with Brad and Anne Marie, her parents, and of course their two talented daughters.  Brad grilled some fantastic tuna steaks.  Whoops – we were calling it “chicken” since the girls ostensibly don’t like fish.  Funny how much they enjoyed their grilled “chicken”.

In the afternoon, we headed back over to the Castro district and took a walk around before heading back to Anita’s.  The Harvey Milk biopic, “Milk”, is showing at the Castro Theatre for one final week before the sing-along “Sound of Music” returns. 

We would like to catch the film but I think it will end up showing in Khrungthep, so maybe there isn’t such a rush.  But the opportunity to see this film in the classic Castro Theatre, with its mighty Wurlitzer organ and the ambience of being located in the district where Harvey Milk rose to fame, seems like an opportunity that is a shame to miss.

Late afternoon, Paul drove us down to the South Bay for the holiday get-together of my high school friends.  After a brief stop at Restoration Hardware to look at table lamps, we arrived at Lilian’s mother’s house in Sunnyvale.  I haven’t been there in at least a decade and was impressed that I remembered the way.

Two years ago, Lilian and her mother (below) were in Thailand at the same time my parents were, aunt and uncles were.  The whole group of us – some dozen in all – went down to the school where I was volunteering.  We spent the first half of the day doing activities with the students, then the community made a huge lunch for us and took us on a tour of the province by canal boat.  Full story here.

Lily’s mother has been looking for a way to thank us for that unique experience, so when she heard we were going to be in town, she told Lilian to invite everyone over for dinner.  So Lily’s mother made a HUGE dinner for us.  I only managed to get a few of the pictures, but we had prime rib of beef, noodles with chicken and greens, double-fried green beans, sea bass steamed with soy sauce and green onions, bok choy with oyster sauce, steamed salmon, fried rice, spaghetti with homemade sauce, and pot stickers.  Brad brought a great green salad, Paul made an artichoke dip, and we had some other things, too.  What a meal!

Everyone was there.  For the first time, I was able to meet Samantha and Jimmy’s nephews, Maximo and Joaquin.  I’ve seen their pictures for years but had never actually met them.  So cute!  Plus, Lalima and Aaron were able to join us from LA with their son Devin, and of course Brad and Donna’s children were there, too.

Left to right, standing: Paul, Darren, Lily, her mother, John, and me.  Seated on the sofa: Brad, Donna, Anita, Eric, Jimmy, Samantha, Lalima, Devin, and Aaron.  Seated on the floor: Evan, Cara, Tawn (with Joaquin in his lap), Albert and Maximo.

A few random pics from the party:

Paul and Tawn chat in the living room.

Jimmy manages to make prime rib look very disgusting as Lalima looks on.

The boys work on decorating their Christmas Trees, left.  Right, Devin, Darren, Maximo and Joaquin show off the results of their project.

Uncle Albert shows Maximo how to uncork a bottle of wine.

In one of the smoothest gate to gate experiences I’ve had across the Pacific, thanks to high tail winds we made it from Bangkok to San Francisco in under 15 hours, 13 hours of which was on an airplane.  Considering the number of times it has taken 20 or more hours to make the trip, this was unbelievably smooth.  Kudos again to EVA Air for their smooth service and comfortable Elite Class “premium economy” product.

Oddly, I was able to get about five hours or restful sleep on the flight without the use of any sleeping aids, ear plugs or eye shades.  I must have really been tired, considering that I usually cannot sleep on planes very easily.

We arrived finding a chilly, damp San Francisco.  No surprises there.  After freshening up, we went with Anita (our host and former roommate) to Ti Couz, a Brittany-style creperie on 16th Street at Valencia.  For the sheet geekiness of it, all three of us used Anita’s blackberry to update our Facebook statuses with the same message.

With their hearty buckwheat crepes and a bowl of hard cider, we had full stomachs and some fire in our bellies, enough to ensure a good first night’s rest.

The next four days in the City by the Bay will be full.  As always, there’s a huge push to see as many friends as we can while taking care of some errands and, of course, remembering that we’re actually on holiday and could use some down time of our own.

Updates and pictures as we go…

I want to pack light, really I do.  I swear, I’ve packed light in the past.  When I traveled for business, I used to do an entire week from a 22″ roll-aboard.  When I was growing up, since my father worked for an airline and we always traveled standby, checked luggage was a rarity.  So I do know how to pack light.

But travel across the Pacific, from the home country to the old country, seems so much more complicated.  We have to pack large not so much to carry a lot of things to the US, but so that we have adequate space on the return to bring things that are difficult to find or tremendously expensive here in Thailand.  This means we have to pack with anticipation.

Here’s what is on our shopping list:

Dryer sheets, ravioli cutter, Williams Sonoma Mario Batali dutch oven, small ladles, replacement glass shade for Restoration Hardware sconce, olive oil, balsamic vinegar, dried cranberries, walnuts, pecans, dripless candles, picture rail.

Some of these will not come back.  None are critical and only the replacement sconce has already been purchased.  But if possible, most of these will return with us.  So the roll-aboards are nested in the checked suitcases, giving us several more cubic feet of storage for the return flight.

Meanwhile, we’re bringing the usual assortment of snacks, khanom (sweets), hostess gifts, and even though we’re supposedly doing a gift-free Christmas, some Christmas gifts for the nieces.  Oh, and two Williams Sonoma baking sheets that despite my measurements, are a hair too large to effectively use in my oven.  So my sister will inherit those.  Or my mom.

I will say that I’m doing better about the load of stuff I bring aboard the flight to entertain myself.  As much as I love sudoku, the sudoku book is staying home.  Several documents that I was certain I’d work on while flying are staying home as well, because I recognize that in reality, I’ll never get to them.  The deck of Uno cards is also staying.

The laptop is coming along for the ride, though.  No two ways about it.

We’ll be in San Francisco from the 18th until the 23rd, in Kansas City from the 23rd until the 31st, and in San Francisco again from the 31st until the 2nd.  Lots of people have indicated they’d like to get together while we’re in SF. 

This always creates the embarrassment of an abundance of riches.  We’d like to see everyone and wish we had a lot more time to do it in.  If we don’t have a chance to see you on this trip, our apologies and please do come visit us in Thailand!