Four Very Busy Days near the Bay
Dec. 27th, 2025 10:15 am![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
shannon_aAs I already wrote, Monday was our travel day, and the only thing that I didn't write about was its annoying end. We arrived in San Jose right on time at 9.30,pm but then had to wait almost an hour for our luggage.
I can't blame Alaskan (Hawaiian) too much, because they had a flight from Honolulu that arrived an hour late, just before us, and they probably had minimal ground crew that time of night and they had to prioritize the late flight over us, but it was still annoying.
I later learned that Alaska has a 20-minute luggage guarantee. You can get a small amount of credit or points if you complain about late luggage. But you had to do it in-person that their baggage office within two hours of either your flight's arrival or your luggage actually showing up (I forget which), which is just crap. Almost no one is going to go beg for a few points or credits while they're either waiting for their very late luggage or after they've *finally* gotten it and just want to go home. So, it's entirely performative (a word that I increasingly use to describe the East Bay now that I've been away from it for six years, though Alaska of course has wider scope). They can make extravagant promises (OK, not very extravagant), and never pay out on them.
But because of the luggage hijinks, we got into San Martin about 11pm, which was even later than the very late time we'd reluctantly agreed too. Poor Bob who picked us up and stayed up past his bedtime!
--
Tuesday through mid-Friday were our San Martin days, spent with my mom and Bob and at various times visiting with my brothers (and sister-in-law and niece and nephew).
Oh man, it is so wonderful to just be taken care of for close to four days. Bob and my mom prepared us all our meals and made sure they met our dietary restrictions (which is mainly the annoying no-dairy for me). They also had all the activities planned as usual. So we didn't have to do anything but enjoy company and relax and talk and play games and pet dogs. Nirvana!
Often biking or pickleball or both are scheduled, but Christmas visits tend to be a bit tighter than Thanksgiving visits because of how the days fall, and in addition, it was forecast to rain the entire time we were there. (It did not, though there was some decent downpour one of the nights. Apparently the atmospheric river swung north of us.)
So instead we had visits scheduled. Tuesday my mom scheduled a nice Christmas ham dinner with some friends and my brother J. Wednesday we had our typical shrimp Christmas Eve dinner and my brother R. made it for that. We had our familial Christmas that night, a Christmas Eve tradition for many, but never for us. (But, it fit R's schedule and kept Christmas from being crazy, and meant I got to start reading one of my Christmas books that night!) Then Thursday of course was Christmas, which means we went to Hollister to visit J's family, including niece, nephew, and sister-in-law L.
What that listing of meals and visits doesn't include is the gaming. We played at least a baker's dozen of games from Tuesday through Friday morning, not including kiddie games played with the niblings (and I can remember at least three of those). The Wiedlin family has always been big on gaming. I grew up playing card games like Euchre and Hearts and Golf, but we also had games like Twixt around, and of course I was starting to build up a collection that wasn't _just_ D&D (but was often other games put out by TSR). And so we always bring a couple of favorite games with us when we come. This year it was _Railroad Tiles_, _Cascadia_, and _Between Two Cities_ (the last being one that comes with us pretty much every year because it plays up to seven, but is still pretty small, unlike say my pimped-out Seven Wonders set, which is HEAVY). But my mom has increasingly been playing game with her uke and pickleball groups over the last year! So I think there was even more play than usual, because everyone is in the gaming mindset. Which is great, because in-person gaming has been more sparse since we moved. (Though we're working on that!) And that's how we hit at least 13 games. Everything we brought (with _Railroad Tiles_ being the break-out hit) plus _Harmonies_ (which my mom bought based on my journal entries talking about Kimberly and my's frequent play). We also played a few games that I definitely usually would not: _LCR_ (which probably should be categorized with the kids' games, and which I explained is an "activity", not a "game") and _Rummikub_ (which was simultaneously too random and too thinky for me).
Besides gaming, we also had the pups Joy and Zeke getting lots of attention. And my mom encouraged me to get going on the uke again, as I fell off as the year got hard (c.f. sending Elmer to Boston). My mom found me a few books of fingerstyle (fingerpicking) on the uke, as she knew I'd been enjoying the riffs for _Here Comes the Sun_, and they were terrific. I fooled around with a bunch of classics before finally settling on trying to properly learn _Yesterday_. (Yeah, there's a theme there.) On our last day in San Martin, I was lounging back in my seat, picking at _Yesterday_ again and again while we talked, which was pretty cool. Much more fun than just going off to a private room to practice.
--
Ah yes, and Christmas proper. As I said that was over at my brother J's house. L prepared us an absolute feast of deserts, appetizers, and a main meal (though I was pretty light in what I ate because my guts were pretty upset shortly after our arrival).
Everyone else had exchanged presents previously, but the rest of us swapped with J. and family (and mostly with the kids, who absolutely tore through their presents, not even pausing to see what one was before they went on to the next). My niece L. is still as sweet as ever, frequently throwing herself at people for hugs, even K. and me, who she just barely knows since we're a once-a-year sighting. My nephew J. is more obviously quite smart the older he gets, mainly in the way he talks, but also in working on a spatial puzzle-game (_Little Red Riding Hood_) that my mom had got. The two of them were both pretty wild when they were at my mom's house with J. on Tuesday, but they were on their best behavior on Christmas, though as noted the present opening was very frenetic.
--
Friday was our last day in San Martin. We had bacon and eggs in the morning (mmmmmmmmm!), then played some games (I think I might have won those two, after my mom being the main winner over most of the holiday). At 1 o'clock we headed northward.
We made in a stop in San Jose to visit with my sister M. and brother-in-law J. and other niece A. They were just returning home from their own Christmas visits and got back about half-an-hour before we came by. Usually we miss them because they're still away, so this was a bit of a surprise. We might have spent more time if we'd known! (But I don't know, as I said, figuring out the logistics of Christmas is always a little tough.)
Then at about 3.30 we landed at our AirB&B in Rockridge.
--
We actually had additional plans for the day! A play in San Francisco at 8pm! (I had wrangled us an early check-in to our Air B&B so that we weren't pressed for time, and that worked out great.)
The play was at the San Francisco Playhouse, which neither K. nor I remember at all from when we lived out here. I thought it must have been new, but no it's been around since 2009 or something. I eventually decided that we must have noticed it and decided we didn't need another musical theatre because we were already seeing four musicals a year at the Berkeley Playhouse.
Anyways, it's a neat venue because it's in the Kensington Park Hotel. You go up a flight of stairs to their mezzanine and then up one or two additional flights or stairs and around some corners to get to the theatre. And if you have tickets for the mezzanine of the theatre, that's ANOTHER flight of stairs. It was delightfully maze like (but also a bit much for K's knee).
I wondered what the weird multi-level room where the theatre now is had originally been, with my guess being a ballroom. (I've been in a similar upper story, multi-level ballroom in one of the older hotels in downtown Berkeley, though I can no longer remember which.) It turned out that the Kensington Park Hotel was originally built as an Elk's Lodge! The room we were in had originally been the Elk's meeting hall, but after the Elks started renting out space in their lodge in 1981, it was converted to a 750-seat theatre. It had been cut in half twice since, and now is a 199-seat theatre for the San Francisco Playhouse, which means that original room must have been huge. Besides being neat, it was a nice venue. We had seats in the front row of the mezzanine, and they were great seats (and cheaper than the orchestra would have been).
Oh, the play? That was _Into the Woods_, the first of two Sondheim plays that we expect to see while we're out here (the other being _Sundays in the Park with George_), and the first of three we hope to see in the next few months (as the Kauai Community Players seem fond of Sondheim and are doing _Assassins_ in April).
I've seen the movie and I love the movie, and I loved the play. The interweaving songs are so clever, and even more clever on stage, with interesting staged nuances like days being broken up by people reporting on their lesson learned, which I'm pretty sure wasn't in the movie. The interweaving faerie tales are of course terrific too. All around it's an amazing creative design, and so I'm thrilled to see the original on stage. And there was a reprise of _Agony_ that wasn't in the movie!
--
Sitting next to me was a young woman who had clearly never been to a musical before. When she talked to her date at intermission, she said things like "It's hard to understand what they're singing, it's ... lyric" and "You have to know what they're singing to understand the plot" and "The songs are all dialogue heavy." She also didn't like the fact that the play was "too happy."
Well, she got to act II and I heard two "Oh my God!" exclamations at some shocking moments and after that two "What the Fuck!"s after additional shocks (that were not quite as traumatic as the first two: one was when a character thought dead returned and the other was at an inappropriate kiss).
I hope the second act helped her gain an enjoyment/understanding for musicals, but we later saw them go by on the street, and her date was still trying to explain things to her.
(Well, I guess _Into the Woods_ is a slightly twisty, complex, deconstructionist type of play, so it might not be the best first musical. But maybe it is, because it's awesome.)
--
The person sitting next to K. was also interesting, but apparently less enjoyable. He apparently elbowed her, kicked her, and constantly burped. And that then there the Tik Tok women he constantly watched before the show and during intermission, dancing in tight, tight clothes.
--
In any case, we had a great time, with the only issue being that it was tough to get out of that maze with 197 other people also fighting their way free. But we eventually made it to the street, and we'd already negotiated that we were going to call a ride-share so that we'd get home at 11.30, not midnight.
So we did.
And we did.
And that's been our first four days in the Bay Area, with us just settling into our first night in Berkeley (Oakland, really, we're a few blocks over the border) as this entry ends.
I can't blame Alaskan (Hawaiian) too much, because they had a flight from Honolulu that arrived an hour late, just before us, and they probably had minimal ground crew that time of night and they had to prioritize the late flight over us, but it was still annoying.
I later learned that Alaska has a 20-minute luggage guarantee. You can get a small amount of credit or points if you complain about late luggage. But you had to do it in-person that their baggage office within two hours of either your flight's arrival or your luggage actually showing up (I forget which), which is just crap. Almost no one is going to go beg for a few points or credits while they're either waiting for their very late luggage or after they've *finally* gotten it and just want to go home. So, it's entirely performative (a word that I increasingly use to describe the East Bay now that I've been away from it for six years, though Alaska of course has wider scope). They can make extravagant promises (OK, not very extravagant), and never pay out on them.
But because of the luggage hijinks, we got into San Martin about 11pm, which was even later than the very late time we'd reluctantly agreed too. Poor Bob who picked us up and stayed up past his bedtime!
--
Tuesday through mid-Friday were our San Martin days, spent with my mom and Bob and at various times visiting with my brothers (and sister-in-law and niece and nephew).
Oh man, it is so wonderful to just be taken care of for close to four days. Bob and my mom prepared us all our meals and made sure they met our dietary restrictions (which is mainly the annoying no-dairy for me). They also had all the activities planned as usual. So we didn't have to do anything but enjoy company and relax and talk and play games and pet dogs. Nirvana!
Often biking or pickleball or both are scheduled, but Christmas visits tend to be a bit tighter than Thanksgiving visits because of how the days fall, and in addition, it was forecast to rain the entire time we were there. (It did not, though there was some decent downpour one of the nights. Apparently the atmospheric river swung north of us.)
So instead we had visits scheduled. Tuesday my mom scheduled a nice Christmas ham dinner with some friends and my brother J. Wednesday we had our typical shrimp Christmas Eve dinner and my brother R. made it for that. We had our familial Christmas that night, a Christmas Eve tradition for many, but never for us. (But, it fit R's schedule and kept Christmas from being crazy, and meant I got to start reading one of my Christmas books that night!) Then Thursday of course was Christmas, which means we went to Hollister to visit J's family, including niece, nephew, and sister-in-law L.
What that listing of meals and visits doesn't include is the gaming. We played at least a baker's dozen of games from Tuesday through Friday morning, not including kiddie games played with the niblings (and I can remember at least three of those). The Wiedlin family has always been big on gaming. I grew up playing card games like Euchre and Hearts and Golf, but we also had games like Twixt around, and of course I was starting to build up a collection that wasn't _just_ D&D (but was often other games put out by TSR). And so we always bring a couple of favorite games with us when we come. This year it was _Railroad Tiles_, _Cascadia_, and _Between Two Cities_ (the last being one that comes with us pretty much every year because it plays up to seven, but is still pretty small, unlike say my pimped-out Seven Wonders set, which is HEAVY). But my mom has increasingly been playing game with her uke and pickleball groups over the last year! So I think there was even more play than usual, because everyone is in the gaming mindset. Which is great, because in-person gaming has been more sparse since we moved. (Though we're working on that!) And that's how we hit at least 13 games. Everything we brought (with _Railroad Tiles_ being the break-out hit) plus _Harmonies_ (which my mom bought based on my journal entries talking about Kimberly and my's frequent play). We also played a few games that I definitely usually would not: _LCR_ (which probably should be categorized with the kids' games, and which I explained is an "activity", not a "game") and _Rummikub_ (which was simultaneously too random and too thinky for me).
Besides gaming, we also had the pups Joy and Zeke getting lots of attention. And my mom encouraged me to get going on the uke again, as I fell off as the year got hard (c.f. sending Elmer to Boston). My mom found me a few books of fingerstyle (fingerpicking) on the uke, as she knew I'd been enjoying the riffs for _Here Comes the Sun_, and they were terrific. I fooled around with a bunch of classics before finally settling on trying to properly learn _Yesterday_. (Yeah, there's a theme there.) On our last day in San Martin, I was lounging back in my seat, picking at _Yesterday_ again and again while we talked, which was pretty cool. Much more fun than just going off to a private room to practice.
--
Ah yes, and Christmas proper. As I said that was over at my brother J's house. L prepared us an absolute feast of deserts, appetizers, and a main meal (though I was pretty light in what I ate because my guts were pretty upset shortly after our arrival).
Everyone else had exchanged presents previously, but the rest of us swapped with J. and family (and mostly with the kids, who absolutely tore through their presents, not even pausing to see what one was before they went on to the next). My niece L. is still as sweet as ever, frequently throwing herself at people for hugs, even K. and me, who she just barely knows since we're a once-a-year sighting. My nephew J. is more obviously quite smart the older he gets, mainly in the way he talks, but also in working on a spatial puzzle-game (_Little Red Riding Hood_) that my mom had got. The two of them were both pretty wild when they were at my mom's house with J. on Tuesday, but they were on their best behavior on Christmas, though as noted the present opening was very frenetic.
--
Friday was our last day in San Martin. We had bacon and eggs in the morning (mmmmmmmmm!), then played some games (I think I might have won those two, after my mom being the main winner over most of the holiday). At 1 o'clock we headed northward.
We made in a stop in San Jose to visit with my sister M. and brother-in-law J. and other niece A. They were just returning home from their own Christmas visits and got back about half-an-hour before we came by. Usually we miss them because they're still away, so this was a bit of a surprise. We might have spent more time if we'd known! (But I don't know, as I said, figuring out the logistics of Christmas is always a little tough.)
Then at about 3.30 we landed at our AirB&B in Rockridge.
--
We actually had additional plans for the day! A play in San Francisco at 8pm! (I had wrangled us an early check-in to our Air B&B so that we weren't pressed for time, and that worked out great.)
The play was at the San Francisco Playhouse, which neither K. nor I remember at all from when we lived out here. I thought it must have been new, but no it's been around since 2009 or something. I eventually decided that we must have noticed it and decided we didn't need another musical theatre because we were already seeing four musicals a year at the Berkeley Playhouse.
Anyways, it's a neat venue because it's in the Kensington Park Hotel. You go up a flight of stairs to their mezzanine and then up one or two additional flights or stairs and around some corners to get to the theatre. And if you have tickets for the mezzanine of the theatre, that's ANOTHER flight of stairs. It was delightfully maze like (but also a bit much for K's knee).
I wondered what the weird multi-level room where the theatre now is had originally been, with my guess being a ballroom. (I've been in a similar upper story, multi-level ballroom in one of the older hotels in downtown Berkeley, though I can no longer remember which.) It turned out that the Kensington Park Hotel was originally built as an Elk's Lodge! The room we were in had originally been the Elk's meeting hall, but after the Elks started renting out space in their lodge in 1981, it was converted to a 750-seat theatre. It had been cut in half twice since, and now is a 199-seat theatre for the San Francisco Playhouse, which means that original room must have been huge. Besides being neat, it was a nice venue. We had seats in the front row of the mezzanine, and they were great seats (and cheaper than the orchestra would have been).
Oh, the play? That was _Into the Woods_, the first of two Sondheim plays that we expect to see while we're out here (the other being _Sundays in the Park with George_), and the first of three we hope to see in the next few months (as the Kauai Community Players seem fond of Sondheim and are doing _Assassins_ in April).
I've seen the movie and I love the movie, and I loved the play. The interweaving songs are so clever, and even more clever on stage, with interesting staged nuances like days being broken up by people reporting on their lesson learned, which I'm pretty sure wasn't in the movie. The interweaving faerie tales are of course terrific too. All around it's an amazing creative design, and so I'm thrilled to see the original on stage. And there was a reprise of _Agony_ that wasn't in the movie!
--
Sitting next to me was a young woman who had clearly never been to a musical before. When she talked to her date at intermission, she said things like "It's hard to understand what they're singing, it's ... lyric" and "You have to know what they're singing to understand the plot" and "The songs are all dialogue heavy." She also didn't like the fact that the play was "too happy."
Well, she got to act II and I heard two "Oh my God!" exclamations at some shocking moments and after that two "What the Fuck!"s after additional shocks (that were not quite as traumatic as the first two: one was when a character thought dead returned and the other was at an inappropriate kiss).
I hope the second act helped her gain an enjoyment/understanding for musicals, but we later saw them go by on the street, and her date was still trying to explain things to her.
(Well, I guess _Into the Woods_ is a slightly twisty, complex, deconstructionist type of play, so it might not be the best first musical. But maybe it is, because it's awesome.)
--
The person sitting next to K. was also interesting, but apparently less enjoyable. He apparently elbowed her, kicked her, and constantly burped. And that then there the Tik Tok women he constantly watched before the show and during intermission, dancing in tight, tight clothes.
--
In any case, we had a great time, with the only issue being that it was tough to get out of that maze with 197 other people also fighting their way free. But we eventually made it to the street, and we'd already negotiated that we were going to call a ride-share so that we'd get home at 11.30, not midnight.
So we did.
And we did.
And that's been our first four days in the Bay Area, with us just settling into our first night in Berkeley (Oakland, really, we're a few blocks over the border) as this entry ends.