I arrived on Saturday a few hours after Steve and Mimi and the kids left for the weekend. It’s kind of become an annual event – I come into town Memorial Day weekend and they go away. Luckily, a mutual friend of ours, Dennis, was going to take his sailboat out for a spin on San Francisco Bay and invited me along. The first day the wind was quite light in the morning and we weren’t making a lot of headway until we decided to take the reef out of the main sail. (Sorry for all the sailing lingo, but suffice it to say that we were hoping to get more speed because of the light wind.) As you would expect, the wind picked up considerably within minutes so we had to re-reef the main. It turned out to be a good sail after all and lunch in the cockpit back at the marina was just as good. Not only can Dennis sail, he can cook too. I brought Abbey to the marina in the RV so Dennis and I took her for a walk along the bay where she managed to find a few dead fish. After feeding Abbey Dennis and I headed into San Francisco to a blues club. We got the last seats in the place, but unfortunately they were right under the speakers. It was so loud that the sound vibrations blew out our candle twice. The band put on a great show, though. They were really smokin’.
On Monday we headed out again, this time, Tim, a friend of Dennis who works with him, and an old friend of Tim’s came along. Tim grew up sailing so he was having a ball trimming the sails trying to catch more wind and improve our speed. The wind was pretty constant and pretty much ideal all day. It was another great day and another great lunch back at the dock.
Steve, Mimi, Katie and Sean came home on Tuesday, but the kids had school so things were pretty mild ‘til the weekend. Friday night we hit a Greek Festival and the partying continued on Saturday at one of their neighbors who was turning 50. They had the perfect party backyard.- a kidney-shaped pool with fountains, a bar with a built-in grill, 2 refrigerators and a keg tap, an outdoor fireplace, a smoker and the piece de resistance – a wood-fired pizza oven that they had just installed that week. The food was unbelievable and they had Rolling Rock on top. I’m sure my friends from the University of Delaware have fond memories of drinking some Rocks back in their college days. Steve and I certainly had our share, but the only problem was we were supposed to make scalloped potatoes that night for a cookout the next day. Mimi was too nervous watching us using a razor-sharp mandolin to slice the potatoes that she went to bed. It actually didn’t turn out too bad, which is more than I can say for Steve. We were supposed to go sailing with Dennis again early Sunday morning, but someone (I won’t mention who) was a bit under the weather. He claims it must’ve been the food.
I haven’t been out sailing in a long time so going for the 3rd time in a week was a real treat. And the last day was definitely the best. Mary, Dennis’ partner in the boat, Dennis’ brother, Dave, and I picked the perfect day for a sail on the bay. We made such good time that we made it almost all the way to San Francisco. It was too bad that I didn’t bring my camera along that day. We got some great views of the city. To make things more exciting the wind picked up right at the end and we hit a new speed record for the boat at a whopping 5.38 knots. I know that doesn’t sound real impressive, but it sure felt like we were flying. After sailing I met Mimi and the recovered Steve and the kids at yet another cookout with some more great food and drinks. After this weekend I felt like I needed a rest. Tomorrow we’re saying goodbye to the Kupecs and heading for Yosemite for 3 nights. It’s always a great time when I visit here, and if you know the Kupecs you know there’s always plenty of good food around. They are like family to me. As Sean said, it’s like a pitstop for Abbey and me. Abbey didn’t get a lot of exercise this week but she did get a lot of attention and she had lots of great grass to roll in.
The Skipper 
The Crack Crew
The Kupecs (I finally remembered)