On day three of the San Francisco dream, we were expecting M's husband and mother-in-law. I'm sure I had been given this important information but I must have denied the impact that a little, old, mobility-impaired, set in her ways (but perfectly charming) Indian woman in full sari would have on our plans. So in the morning I stuck close to home and walked over to the rooftop Salesforce Park. I liked how it made use of a marginal urban space, incorporated the bus station below into design elements (like a fountain that went on any time a bus went by), and stuck to drought-adapted plants. But I was struck by how unfriendly it was to the man-of-the-people element. Ok, it was hella bougie. Ironically, the New Yorker thinks so too.
I spent lunch at a session of the Association for Slavic Eastern European and Eurasian Studies (the conference my sister was organizing) about sacred (tree) groves on the border of Finland and Russia. In the Karelia region, groves of trees were used to mark sacred places, burial grounds, places of worship, and even to mark good hunts. As a forester, I asked "What kind of trees?" and was disappointed to hear that the researchers didn't know.
This marked the end of MY vacation and the beginning of the family vacation where I made suggestions but tried to be as flexible as possible with plans, which you may have guessed is not always my strong suit.
Upon T and Mina's arrival, it began to rain in earnest. Evidently the sunny weather I had been experiencing was the anomaly. Despite weather conditions, we drove over to the Golden Gate Bridge to take typically touristy photos.
Then we continued on to Ghiradelli to have sundaes for dinner. Ghiradelli was an Italian immigrant who came to the United States in 1849. In 1865 one of his employees discovered the Broma technique to purify cocoa butter and this is one of the many reasons I support open and inclusive immigration policies.
We followed up our sundae dinners with an Indian dinner with T's cousin who interestingly had been in-sourced from India to provide IT support for a large retailer over the Black Friday sales.
The next day, we ventured to the Winchester Mystery House in San Jose at the request of T. A sprawling mansion, the house was (mostly) built in 1886 by Sarah Winchester, widow of William Winchester of rifle-making fame. Sarah Winchester was evidently instructed by a psychic to continue construction on her house indefinitely to keep the haunting spirits of people killed by gun violence at bay. Upon Sara's death in 1922, the house had 6 kitchens, 13 bathrooms, 2,000 doors, etc, etc. It is evidently haunted by friendly ghosts and in present time there is a huge gift shop and carnival games on the premises as well. I'm not entirely sure why it is such a popular tourist attraction.
We continued on to The Tech Interactive, a unique hands-on museum with displays on hacking, medical technology, and design. We debated for quite some time whether we wanted to see Frozen 2 in IMAX before or after having dinner with my buddy Lin. Given strict instructions to choose Indian, Chinese, or Thai (maaaaybe Mexican), we hung with Lin over Thai food in Palo Alto (where my super intelligent friend is getting a PhD at Stanford.) Unfortunately, as we ate someone smashed the window of our rental car and grabbed my sister's backpack and my ukulele. Lin was a great sport and hung out with Mina and me for two hours at Starbucks as the rental car was exchanged.
We never did see Frozen 2.
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