Lodi Italian Fest

The Kelly's were back down this weekend and invited us out to the Lodi Italian Festival!  We've now mastered the drive and can get out there in about an hour and a half.

Calamari, Gnocchi al pesto and a Tiramisu Smoothie!

Wine! Bouncy Houses for the kids! Cooking Demonstrations!  Music and Entertainment! Salami Toss?

....and Bingo!  We sat down, I bought a couple cards and we were playing.

After a tense 10 minutes, I24 was called, Onions completed the "Z" and yelled (after some coaxing from the caller) "BINGO"

$10 turned into $57.  Onions flashing the Jacksons!

After a couple hours at the fest (and a game of bocce) we drove back to the Kelly's.  This was our first time to meet Alex who had a great time with the astroblaster and squirt guns.

Cherry Season!  Unfortunately the sorters weren't in use that day...but we got to take home some free cherries!

Graduation Day -- MEDA

Back in January, Onions began classes at City College. One day, the Mission Economic Development Agency came by to recruit for a Bilingual Bank Teller Program.  Yesterday, was graduation day.

Onions had been raving about the teacher, Olivia, and she helped the students get online resumes and to practice their interview skills.  In addition, she has made contacts with banks and each of the graduates has a few interviews lined up.

Each student came up and gave a short speech in appreciation of the program and to give thanks.

Diploma time!

Surprise!  They were called up again.

Turns out that one of the parts of the program that funders provide is a stipend ($500) to help graduates purchase business attire.

Onions was the only graduate to speak Chinese (turns out he'd be even MORE desirable if he spoke Cantonese, but Mandarin is a selling point),  four are Spanish speakers and one is from Syria and speaks Arabic

Olivia, Onions, Edwin from El Salvador and Angelina

Turns out Onions invited a friend from one of his City College classes, Wilson, also from El Salvador.  Who would ever have guessed a year ago, Onions would have TWO friends from El Salvador?  The program is great and fingers crossed for his interviews in the upcoming weeks.

Obscura Day -- A Walk About Trash

I'm a huge fan of the website Atlas Obscura and every year they have a day where they host these events (Obscura Days) to expose people to the interesting things in their own neighborhoods.  This year, being in San Francicso, I decided to check out one.  Well, the only interesting one (Seattle had many cool ones...bummer for me) was one of the self-guided walks through a neighborhood I never go to (Bayview-Hunters Point) about San Francisco's self-imposed challenge to go trash free by 2020.

So I dragged Onions out to Bayview (ooohh, he was not happy or interested) and we took a walking tour.

The tour started INSIDE the Walgreen's there.  It had us contemplate how much trash there is in the world and then showed us the CRV redemption for the plastic bottles and cans.  It talked about how California is taking the lead on charging for plastic bags.

Turns out the most interesting part of the walk was simply exploring a neighborhood I (and probably many San Franciscans) deem as "unsafe" and a "no go zone."  Neighborhood parks were the interesting part of the walk, the discussion of SF's, green, blue and black trash cans...not so interesting.

I did learn that there is a brewery out in this neck of the woods (hipsters drinking beer, playing bean bag toss) but we did learn that since businesses were being charged by weight to haul away their trash and organics, this brewery gives away it's post beer grains to farmers who come and haul it away.

Here's the remnants of the huge power plant that was once here in Hunter's Point.  It's still being remediated.

Development is happening as well.

But this shoreline has historically been a dumping ground.  Some of it has been reclaimed and turned into Heron's Head Park, but here's where all the things we throw into the blue (recycling) bin end up.  This is Recology's processing plant.

The old Hunter's Point Naval Shipyard.

From the end of Heron's Head Point.

The city's goats, who help clear brush.

Old dirt and gravel that will end up being recycled and used elsewhere......it ends up here in this neighborhood.

An old trainyard.....

Yosemite -- Hetch Hetchy

On our last day, driving out through the NW part of Yosemite, we drove to see the Hetch Hetchy Valley, a parallel valley to Yosemite.

After the 1906 San Francisco Earthquake, the city managed to get the US Government to allow the valley to be dammed to provide water and electricity for the city.

The resulting reservoir is eight miles long.

Yosemite -- Vernal Falls

Day after Yosemite Falls....my legs sore....we climbed up to see Vernal Falls.

The final part of the climb...are a brutal set of steps.

Climbing through the mist!

I stayed at Vernal Falls....Onions went up to the top of Nevada Falls.

Yosemite -- Upper Yosemite Falls

Upper and Lower Yosemite Falls.  We climbed to the top of falls!

Turns out, Onions hikes like a mountain goat. He is nice enough to slow down so I don't feel bad about being slow.

And he is the kind of hiker that goes back to put stones in a water crossing to help the next hikers.

Halfway up.....still sunny.  Still have that wall of rock to climb.

At the top......we walked up that!

And then the clouds rolled in. 

Looking over the top of the Upper Yosemite Falls.