We hit the road, Part 3

It's been a while since we were on the road, and I've been dawdling with this (final!) installment in the "We hit the road" trilogy. But here it is, folks! Enjoy.

After the bone-chilling wind of Kansas and the snow of Colorado and Utah, the balmy weather of San Rafael felt like a dream. Ryan's friends and family were warm and welcoming, and we had an idyllic visit.

Some highlights:

-We played a whole bunch of Rummikub.
-We had some delicious Mexican food.
-We saw a play/performance featuring some incredible piano playing to accompany a compelling story.
-We spent New Year's Eve in Oakland with a few friends. The evening climaxed with a drunken reenactment of The Princess Bride, rotating the role of storyteller scene by scene. My proudest moment was narrating the iocane powder scene while playing the role of Vizzini, complete with full wine glasses and a "vial" of iocane powder. (It was actually the cage from a champagne cork, but we made do with what we had.)
-We met up with a few of Ryan's friends from high school, who enjoyed a return to their high school antics. This resulted in wandering San Francisco late at night, tossing an LED frisbee to each other across the streets.
-We took a bunch of hikes. The weather was, as previously mentioned, shockingly wonderful.
-We left! This was IT, folks! The final leg of our journey!

We stopped in Eugene, OR to stay the night with Ryan's aunt and uncle. (It's a long way from San Rafael to Olympia.) In the morning, we petted their two golden retrievers and headed over to Corvallis to have lunch with two of my good friends. During lunch, Ryan bumped into a fellow he'd met at a bike frame welding workshop (I'm really in the Pacific NW now), and discovered that the fellow had just helped start a meadery. We stopped by there on our way out of town-- if you happen to be in the area, I think their hibiscus mead is delicious.

And, finally, on the evening of Monday, January 6th, we arrived home.

I live here now.