Cindy and I arrived at San Francisco International Airport at 6:30 AM on Saturday, October 4th. It took about an hour for her to clear immigration, during which time I retrieved our luggage. We took the Marin Airporter to Novato where Mom & Dad greeted us with a sign welcoming Cindy to America. We spent the rest of the day relaxing at the house and working a bit in the garden.
Sunday
we drove into San Francisco
where we spent the day sightseeing.
We drove down Lombard
Street, parked at
Fisherman’s Wharf and walked around the city. At
Pier 39 we watched the sea lions sunbathing on the docks. We took a
cable car over to
Market Street and then walked to the
Ferry Building.
Also
during our first week in the San Francisco area, we visited
Muir Woods, and climbed up Mt. Tam. We went to the Apple Store in Corte
Madera on Tuesday and bought Cindy a new laptop to replace the one she gave
her mom before leaving China. Her mom has now learned to use Skype and
calls both daughters at least twice each day. Mom took Cindy to her Women’s
Club luncheon on Thursday where she met several dozen women from Bel Marin
Keys. On Friday we drove to Sacramento and met Carolyn and Ayden. Cindy and I took Ayden to Old Sacramento while Carolyn attended a class. Although the special Halloween Train was not scheduled to start operating until Saturday, we got an invitation to ride on the “press run” with the media, much to Ayden’s delight. We continued on to the Train Museum and then met Carolyn for lunch before driving back up to Colfax. BJ and Halley joined us for dinner Friday night. Saturday morning we drove to Lauraine’s house in Alta, and then went to a pancake breakfast at the Methodist Episcopal Church in Dutch Flat. Lauraine had suggested we consider this church as a possible venue for our wedding, but during the breakfast we met another couple that recommended another church in Gold Run where they had been married five years ago. So after breakfast we drove over to The Pioneer Union Church in Gold Run which we both agreed would be an ideal setting.
Saturday afternoon we returned to Lauraine’s house where we worked on
various projects and then took Ayden down to the railroad tracks where we
colleted old artifacts. For dinner we all went to
The Monte Vista Inn where a friend of Lauraine’s was playing the guitar
and we had a great meal. We went back to The Pioneer Union Church Sunday morning to meet the Pastor, Randy Cox, and try to confirm arrangements for our wedding. He will let us know within a week if he is available to conduct the ceremony. We returned to Carolyn’s house and watched a couple movies in the afternoon and continued to play with Ayden, who has taken a great liking to Cindy. Monday, Cindy and I drove East on Route 80 to Truckee where we visited the Donner Museum and then continued south to Lake Tahoe. It was a beautiful day and we drove around the lake, stopping at Harrah’s in South Lake Tahoe, before continuing up to have lunch on the North Shore. We stopped in Historic Colfax on the way home, but most of the shops were closed.
Wednesday afternoon we took the Larkspur Ferry to San Francisco. We picked up some gifts in Chinatown, and then walked over to Fisherman’s Wharf where we visited Ghiradelli Chocolates. For dinner we met Geri, a friend of Cindy’s who lives in the South Bay. Cindy had accompanied Geri on a one-month tour of The Great Wall four years ago and this was the first time they had seen each other since. We ate at The Slanted Door in The Ferry Building, which is a popular Vietnamese restaurant. Paul and Carolyn came for dinner Thursday night and we played mah jong. On Friday Dad and Cindy drove to Corte Madera for their computer training session at Apple. I worked around the house, packed and we left after dinner for our overnight flight to New York City. |
