Dad Again

I don't often backdate entries anymore, but after the last week and a half I have some catching up to do, and breaking it up makes more sense. So, here we go.

My Dad came to visit for a week, arriving last Thursday. It was also a much-needed vacation for me! I took a full week off to travel hang out with him, and as we did last time he was here we drove around a lot to see the sites. I like the format I used last time, so here's a summary of where we went:

• The vistas at Skyline Ridge, then down Alpine Drive past Heritage Grove, and down to Pescadero State Beach. (Thursday)
• A drive through the grounds of Stanford University, then up to Berkeley for a little shopping and a walk around the university. (Friday)
• The Santa Cruz Mystery Spot. (Saturday)
• Napa Valley wine country. (Sunday)
• The San Francisco Zoo. (Monday)
• The Cartoon Art Museum, the Asian Art Museum, and the Exploratorium. (Tuesday)

Visits with Dad are always a big food-fest, and I don't think it matters whether he comes here or I go there. We hit many of my favorite restaurants in the area during the week, which was a lot of fun, but very filling!

We hooked up with Debbi on both Saturday and Sunday. Saturday we hit the Mystery Spot, which we thought was pretty neat though we were naturally dubious of its quasi-mystical nature, and rightfully so, as it turns out. Though the admission fee is modest, the drive to the spot is quite scenic, and illusions like that aren't necessarily any less fun for knowing how they work.

Saturday evening Dad and I drove to the home of an old friend and former boss of his, whom I guess he hadn't seen since before I was born (!). I think Dad was concerned I'd be a bit bored, but he and his wife were both quite nice and he has a lot of interesting stories about my own industry (the software biz) from the 60s through the 80s. Plus they served a tasty dinner. Not a bad evening by any means!

Sunday we drove up to Napa to hit the wineries, which was one of the main things Dad had wanted to do last time which we never got to. Debbi and I picked up some wine, but Dad was mainly there for the experience, which is fair. If I recall correctly, we hit five wineries: Beringer Brothers, the Prager Port Works, Sutter Home, V. Sattui, and Grgich Hills. Beringer is nice for their excellent wine cellar tour, though we prefer Sutter and V. Sattui for the wine (Sattui also has a deli with some excellent food and is a good spot for a picnic). Prager and Grgich were new to us; we liked Prager quite a bit and bought some wine from them (though their prices are steep), but Grgich didn't bowl us over.

Debbi drove in her spiffy new car, which performed like a champ. It was a pretty long day, though!

Monday... well, Monday we learned that museums tend to be closed on Mondays. Who knew? Not us, clearly! So we aborted after two stops at closed museums and went to the zoo instead. A lot of the animals were asleep, and we couldn't see my favorite animal - the cassowary - at all - but the elephants, tigers and hippos were out and active, along with a few others, so it was a good visit.

The bright side to our museum problems on Monday is that when we went back on Tuesday we found that the first Tuesday of the month is "pay whatever you want day" at the Cartoon Art Museum (we paid the full fee anyway). Moreover, the Asian Art Museum was having free admission thanks to a Target sponsorship. The Cartoon Art Museum was featuring a lot of rare, early Dr. Seuss art. The Asian Art Museum is "good if you like that sort of thing", which mostly means you have to really appreciate pottery and stone carvings. I do... up to a point. Though admittedly my feet got really tired halfway through. The Chinese jade room and Japanese paintings were quite nice, though.

The Exploratorium was the same as always, and for the first time I didn't come away with a splitting headache! (I think the optical illusions do it to me, which is a bummer since they're my favorite part!)

The week just flew by, and suddenly it was Wednesday and time to take him to the airport. But it was a great visit, though perhaps a bit more hectic (in terms of driving all over creation) than we'd originally expected. But still a lot of fun. There were a few places we didn't manage to hit, such as Big Sur and the Computer History Museum. Well, he'll just have to come back again!

I took the rest of Wednesday off and did some shopping and a bunch of work at home, particularly to prepare for the impending fantasy baseball draft. And then it's back to work...

(By the way, today's title was inspired by my former roommate John asking, after seeing the title of my last entry whether the one the night before my Dad left would be entitled "Night of the Leaving Dad".)