bay area bliss, part 2

shane is a dear friend who moved back to santa rosa after living in nyc for many years. he and i used to work together in a delightful office environment in manhattan. now we hang out in relaxed california. this time, ej, shane, and myself drove to the scharffen berger chocolate factory in berkeley. we sampled various chocolates and got the insider scoop from the friendly employees. unfortunately, i was so overcome by the heavenly aroma of deep, dark chocolate that i forgot to take any photos. you know it's got to be overwhelming for me to forget to take photos.


i call this "oakland: a view from the car". if you click on it, you can see the traffic below and san francisco in the background. very daytime blade runner.


after the chocolate factory, we were starving and settled in at szechwan restaurant in oakland's chinatown. shane does not mess around when it comes to eating food.


this is the main reason why szechwan restaurant is a must-do on our annual holiday visit: the string beans. RIDICULOUSLY tasty. i think it's the salty bits of pork.


during our meal, the owners started giving us mandarin lessons and letting us taste what they were eating. shane was not shy about trying out his new chinese vocabulary. luckily, ej documented some of the phrases on his field recorder because today i couldn't say "this is delicious" in chinese if my life depended upon it.

we had fun that night.


we also tried out the diagonal crosswalks in chinatown. yup, that's exactly the sort of wild kids we are.


the next day, hanna had my good friend karl and his beautiful family over for lunch. i was excited because this was the first time we got to meet baby zoe. here, ej works his magic.


everyone was happy to have the baby around.


zoe and mama michelle

and papa karl


hanna made a delicious lunch of pasta and sausage. i remember it fondly.


karl was my upstairs neighbor many years ago when i was living in oakland. he's been a true friend ever since.

zoe flies before they say goodbye.