Shivering the timbers

"Would you like to come to a pirate festival?" asked the e-mail from Dan and Fiona. There's really only one answer to that question. Soon we were in their car heading up to Vallejo to see what was going on.

Who knew so many Californians favoured the buccaneer lifestyle? Hundreds of eye-patched, cutlass-carrying people milled about, "arrrrrr"ing at each other and purchasing all manner of pirate gear. A pirate band (a Celtic band moonlighting, we thought) entertained the crowd with such sea-going classics as Whisky in the Jar. I have seldom seen so many strange people all in one place.

Yep, this is it!

Bring your own parrot.

Normal people be warned too.

Family fun!

The band.

Pirates come in all shapes and sizes.

Pirate dinner re-enactment. Not that exciting.

There are a lot of pirates in NorCal.

Finally, some civilisation in all this chaos!

Y'all come back now, y'arrrrrrr.

The creature from the brown lagoon

One of my main aims of walking daily to the beach is to see a shark. It hasn't happened yet, but I remain optimistic. Today, however, I almost saw a shark. Or saw an almost shark, depending on how you look at it. Splashing about in the shallows of the little lagoon area was a monster. Evidence below.

What lies beneath?

Do you see the beast?

Yes! A huge stingray was sweeping about, having (I guess) managed to swim in at high tide. Let's hope he makes it back to the open ocean later - he's certainly a big fish in a small pond.

New (secondhand) hoover

Life doesn't get much more exciting.

Sucker.

Four's company

Students may be working on their internships and close friends may be in other cities, but those of us left must struggle on. To prove it we held the first Partners' Lunch of the summer holidays at that old favourite, Jimmy Beans. Fini was there sporting an injury picked up at Yosemite, not when running from a bear (which she did do at one point) but from getting out of her tent too fast. Together with Elliot and Moran the conversation ranged from celebrity marriages to tango dancing. As usual.

Cheese!

(If I'm looking a bit annoyed, it's because the person who offered to take the photo didn't know how to use my camera and kept pressing the wrong buttons. Some things are important!)

Root and branch

Somebody somewhere decided that University Village needed another tree. But this is America, and you don't want the inconvenience of actually having to wait for stuff to grow.

I didn't ask for it there!

Who needs time, patience, and the hand of mother nature when you have a big truck and a digger?

Want a tree? These are your people.

First day at work

Hannah's internship at Chevron started today. By all accounts it went very well! She's working at the company's world headquarters in San Ramon (all fountains and manicured lawns) and got a full introduction to the workings of the place. More importantly she got lunch out with her new team on the company credit card, and even more importantly she got her first freebie...

What is that, a toy car?

No! It's a vacuum-packed t-shirt in the shape of a toy car!! Woo hoo!

SEA-SFO

And so my grand trip to deliver Dana and a car to Washington state has come to an end. The last time Hannah and I were in Seattle the weather wasn't the best. Today I couldn't believe the difference! The sun shone down on leafy streets, people sat out in sidewalk cafes, and it was too hot to wear a sweater. Dana and I wandered along the waterfront, then took a trip up the Space Needle for some panoramic views.

Then it was time for me to catch my flight home. Regular readers will know that Dana has been my partner in crime on most of the crazy fun things us married-to-a-Haas-student types get up to while our better halves are studying/working. I have no idea what I'm going to do all day with her gone, and have a horrible feeling I might have to be productive. But judging by my one day of Seattle in the summer she and Amir are going to have a great time. Rest assured they'll be back in the kibbutz known as University Village soon.

A beach almost as nice as our one in Albany.

Haven't I seen that on Frasier?

Looking down at a Frank Gehry.

Reflections on architecture.

Downtown, where Dana and Amir's luxury apartment is!