The last post was extremely Japanese in nature, so this one will provide a good contrast. Tonight for dinner we went down to the Sausalito Yacht Club for dinner. The place sounds decidedly fancier than it is; dinner was a BBQ out on the deck overlooking San Francisco Bay. It was perfect, though, for precisely that reason.

Genbo looking at the ocean

Me hanging dangerously over railing to get shot of Genbo looking at ocean from ocean's perspective

If this is the Yacht Club, are those the yachts?

Wolfing down obligatory hamburgers and hotdogs

Not at all different from the Japan....really

Looking out towards Alcatraz and San Francisco as the ferry comes in

Interesting boat catching nice light

Priceless expression

Well, it’s been another one of those post-less months. Now Christmas is passed, New Year’s is almost upon us, and I still have a bunch of Halloween-related posts I want to make. I’m going to get them all up before New Year’s or it’ll never happen. Here is the first one, a Genbo-centric post, from our Halloween back in the States.

Genbo as an astronaut, his friend Gabe as a pirate
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Even astronauts gotta run for the bathroom
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(OK, maybe that’s not why he’s running, but who cares?)

Some down time
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The obligatory pumpkin shot. I love the lighting and background here.
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Genbo looking outrageously handsome. ‘Course, I’m partial.
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I’m just starting to go over all the photos I took back in the States, but these two grabbed my eye immediately. They were taken at the SF zoo. Both are, in their way, examples of fortuitous timing. In the first, I managed to catch the flamingos at just the moment when the center one was catching some great sunlight while all the others, somehow, were not.

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And here, just the right angle of setting sun manages to make these few leaves and some stray spider silk into (what I think is) a beautiful image. That, and my trusty Nikon 70-200, a huge hunk of glass that photos like this make me glad I persist in carrying around.

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We’re having a very good time of things here in Sausolito/San Francisco/Palo Alto. The first week was the best, when all four of us were here (including for Halloween), but I have managed to keep things from becoming miserable for the remaining three of us after Maki had to go back to Japan for work. Helping me has been many of my extended family, who have flown in from various parts of the US to see my kids (definitely not me!).

Anyway, here are a bunch of pics from the second week of our stay. I unwisely unloaded the first week’s pics onto a friend’s computer, then forgot to get them back before I left their house in Palo Alto. Lucky for me I’m going back there before we leave. These pictures are un-edited in any way. I haven’t even had time to go through and make sure I am selecting the best pic of each series. But, I wanted to get something up here before too much time had passed. Hopefully in a couple days I’ll post some of the best of these individually.

(To view full-screen, first press the Play button in the center, then place the mouse over the slideshow to view the control bar on the bottom, then press the symbol in the lower-right corner.)

This one really does need to be enlarged for the full effect.

I like leaves, OK? Some people take pictures of forests, some people take pictures of trees, I take pictures of single leaves. That’s just the kind of person I am. It’s similar to my observation that interesting conversation peaks with two or three participants, occurs rarely with four, is a miracle with five, and is theoretically possible with six or more only in the same sense that there is a non-zero chance of retrieving the exact same molecules of a glass of water once thrown into the ocean. During a hurricane.

I like the two versions together.

Dinkytown is the part of Minneapolis close to the University, and where I’ve spent a good portion of every visit to my father, since, like all college towns, it’s blessed with coffee shops, book stores, and good people-watching.

Like the colors and textures in this one. Taken in Minneapolis this fall.

Here and here. It seems as though posting embedded video causes some people’s computers to crash, so until I get it straightened out I’ll just post links. I’ve also temporarily taken down the video of the Otsu festival, since that post was the trouble-maker.

This is Genbo’s first Halloween in America, and he had a very good time. He enjoyed it with his step-sister Linnea, who showed him the ropes.

He was Curious George, which strikes me as fitting because he A) loves Curious George, B) was born in the year of the monkey, and C) has always seemed to me to be very monkey-like (in a good way) in his love of and playful manner of cavorting around.

Conquering yet another porch with Linnea

I love his nervous expression here (”Um, dad, you’re suuuure this stuff is all for play, right?”)

No nervous expression here

“Hey Genbo, no eating while still on the porch! It’s declasse.”