Temporary Digs in the Mission

Since our move back to the Bay Area, Onions and I have been housing nomads as we wait to move back into my house.  We started for 8 days in Oakland, then three weeks cat and housesitting down in San Bruno and now, as we wait for the call from my agent telling us the tenants at our place have moved out, we are here in the VERY hipster and gentrified Mission, on 22nd Street at Valencia.

How trendy?  We are staying in an apartment above an art gallery!

Tonight, there is an show opening and so we were hanging out downstairs, looking at the art.  One of the installations (yeah, can you imagine me using that word?) was one of Russian nested dolls.

The opening party spilled out into the backyard.

The gallery has a "parklet" space that was constructed this week.  Think beanbags!

Here's the living room of our very nice apartment.  It's expensive, but after living with cats (and their massive amounts of fur EVERYWHERE) for three weeks, it's nice to be in a clean and tidy place.

Modern Kitchen.

The bedroom....with a back sunroom! 

The peaceful and light filled sunroom (more beanbags) looks into the trees of the backyard.  Happy digs for the next few weeks, but looking forward to stop being nomads.

Lick-Wilmerding

For the many years I lived in SF, I often drove by Lick-Wilmerding when driving down to go shopping in Daly City.  Never did I ever think that I would actually be teaching there.

The Upper Hallway of the Main Academic Classroom Building. 

Three of my four classes are taught in the first classroom....Room 1.

Downstairs, tucked away in a back corner, down a small hallway....The Math Department Office!

The view from the Math Office.

All eight of us full time Math teachers have our desks in the Math Office.  It's fun to be in a big office again with my colleagues.

My desk!  Yes, you see two laptops.  One of them is my personal laptop, the other, the one given to me by the school.  I keep a "separation of work and school" policy with my computers.

The classroom building opens up into the more modern portion of campus.  Here's the dining hall, or in Lick speak, "The Caf"

Usually filled with tables for the students, this was taken on Back to School Night.

Full Sandwich bar.

The salad bar in the foreground, and the hot lunch line in the background.  Free lunch!

The library on the top level, and photo labs, classrooms a drafting studio on the bottom level.

Lick was started as the California School of Mechanical Arts by James Lick.  Students still must take shop, electrical, metal and computer arts as a graduation requirement.  Head, Hearts and Hands.

Down on the lower level of campus are the studios.

The Design Studio Building, which also houses the Theater Tech

I wish I could take these classes with the students...but it's not allowed.  Boo.

The view from campus with Bernal Heights hill in the distance.  It's a 5 minute drive, 15 minutes by bike and about the same by trolley.

Maybe it's time for a Selfie-Stick

So getting settled back in the Bay Area has been getting started at school, but it's also meant showing Onions around the site of the Bay as well as meeting friend.  We started for 8 days in Oakland.  Here we are at Sather Gate of the UC Berkeley campus.

Sunset in the Berkeley hills overlooking Oakland and the Bay.

Lunch with our friend Mary!

The view from Telegraph Hill!

Recreating the famous Christmas Card Photo I sent out after my accident a decade ago!

Pier 7

Castro

Dolores Park

Chocolate Croissant at Tartine.

Getting the car registered and my drivers license at the DMV.  I had to retake the written test.  Didn't know I had to, so it was truly a pop quiz.....I passed.  Phew.

Hiking in Joaquin Miller Park in the Oakland Hills.

Hanging out with Lynn, Justin and their girls.

Hiking with Hans and his brother Franz.

Guess who's now a faculty spouse?

On August 18th we moved to a cat/house sitting gig in San Bruno near the SFO airport.  Here we are watching the planes land.  The big planes (747's, A380's, etc fly RIGHT over our house) We can see the tail fins and make out the airlines.  I can tell the different planes by the sound of their engines.  Alas, I have to say that the Airbus engines are quieter.

The observation deck of the deYoung Museum in Golden Gate Park.

A quiet moment in Golden Gate Park.

WORD!

Baker Beach....and the dolphins were out swimming.  It was an awesome sight!

Onions first experience at an authentic American diner here in Millbrae.

Onions first omlette.

A friend of mine Robin from China happens to be working at Stanford this year and lives right down the road in South San Francisco.  We spent a day driving down the coast!

Beach time!

We made it down to Santa Cruz and Onions had his first roller coaster ride on the famed Giant Dipper. And his first roller coaster was a classic wooden one!

Picking out a new comforter cover at IKEA!

IKEA meatballs.....an imperative.

We've checked out many of the parks on the Peninsula and one favorite is the San Andreas/Crystal Springs trail.  We like going there around sunset when the wind is blowing a bit and the temperatures are a bit lower.  Plus it's after work for me.

You should be able to make out a deer behind us!

Speaking of wind.....I'm pulling and Oliver hair day.  The trail we walk is RIGHT along the San Andreas fault.  Here we are looking south along the fault.

And north along the fault is one of the reservoirs that serves San Mateo County.

We also made a trip to the northwest corner of San Francisco to see the remains of the Sutro Baths.  It's fun to come to these places I've not visited for a long long time.

Hiking along the train from the Cliff House to Land's End.

The Palace of Legion of Honor....we were kind of crashing a wedding.

We started with Berkeley and end with Stanford!

The scorecard?  Stanford is prettier and feels more like a resort.  But the Campanile at Berkeley is prettier.