Guess where my mom and I were a few weeks ago? 

It turns out that a cousin of my dad's and his family live in the Bay Area (G, MG, and their daughter F). My mom had wanted to check out San Francisco for a while, so we hopped a Southwest flight out of Burbank, and off we went. We stayed in Fremont, which nowadays is smack dab in the middle of Silicon Valley (it wasn't when they moved there). G and MG are both retired now, and very sweetly gave us a lovely tour. We checked out Stanford (fancy!), drove over the Bay Bridge, the Golden Gate, checked out Sausalito, Ocean Beach, drove through Half Moon Bay and all the way back around to Fremont, and also got to visit the San Jose Mission. 

We walked through Stanford on Friday evening, in the golden light near sunset. The students were not back yet, so it was somewhat quiet. It is beautiful and perfectly manicured. When you get there one of the first things to greet you is the Rodin Sculpture Garden.

There was a lot of chatting and laughter. I took pictures with my camera, and MG took pictures with her iPad. MG is a very talented artist, and as such also takes lovely photographs. She's a painter and a sculptor, and also works with glass and colored pencils. 

There was much discussion of history, literature, philosophy, and art. Stanford was the perfect place for it.

We had breakfast at a popular place for families, the Black Bear Diner, and there was a balloon lady who was making animals and flowers for the kids. 

After breakfast we drove across the Bay Bridge (the new bit) and pulled off the road to enjoy the view before crossing the rest of the Bay Bridge (the old bit) into San Francisco.

Then we made a beeline for the Golden Gate Bridge, because we're tourists.

Then we went to Sausalito and my mom got to hold a parrot. Or cockatoo. Or something.

We stopped off at Cliff House, overlooking Ocean Beach on one side, and the ruins of the former Sutro Baths on the other. Here's a tidbit: "A classic Greek portal opened to a massive glass enclosure containing seven swimming pools at various temperatures. There were slides, trapezes, springboards and a high dive. The power of the Pacific Ocean during high tide could fill the 1.7 million gallons of water required for all the pools in just one hour. The Baths could accommodate 10,000 people at one time and offered 20,000 bathing suits and 40,000 towels for rent." There's more info about these here, including a lot of really amazing photos. It seems like the attraction wasn't just going to the baths to take a dip, but also going to the baths to watch the folks taking a dip. Very bizarre, but what an interesting peek into life over a century ago. If you listen to the video, you will learn that everyone had to wear the same outfits, and the plan was to make access to the baths affordable for all. On weekends they would host boxing matches, trapeze artists, whatever. All entertainment, all the time. 

The baths were a popular attraction until 1966, when a fire destroyed them. This is all that is left now, and it helps to place it in space if you check out this interactive map.

And this was the view of Ocean Beach.

It wouldn't be an Elena trip without pulling off the road at least once to take a picture of some lovely flowers. I believe these are called Naked Ladies, and they are only around for a short period in the late summer. But aren't you glad I did?

On Sunday morning we took a swing through the San Jose Mission. The Mission is at once minimalist and gaudy. Everything is fairly simple and clean and then you get to the main church and boom! bleeding Christs and other accoutrements of creepy religiosity. Still, kinda cool from a historical perspective.

Before leaving we had lunch at a great Indian restaurant that MG has helped decorate over the years with her art. My new cousin F and I got our picture taken in front of this painted peacock, the national bird of India. MG painted it. Nice, huh?

And here's just the peacock just because it's beautiful.

Cousin F is really amazing: she's about 10 years younger than I am, and she's getting a Ph.D. *and* she's an entrepreneur. Talk about unstoppable! She even made us a lovely dinner, including a delicious flourless chocolate cake, which I of course thoroughly enjoyed.

It was a great visit, hopefully the first. More pics here.