Weekend Re-Cap: Beth & Tony/Wakeboarding

September 17, 2006

FRIDAY

Fridays are pretty predictable these days, as after work, I went down to SJ again for baby duty. Here's the mandatory picture of cute babies:

SATURDAY

On Saturday morning, I headed back to the city pretty early (11 am-ish). Will and I headed down to Haight street for brunch at Magnolia Brew Pub. It was a nice and refreshing change from the typical heavy brunch that I usually partake in (a la Pork Store).

I had the orange cream soda (brewed in-house) and the HOUSEMADE SALMON GRAVLAX with cucumber, pickled onions, herbed (dill) sourcream, and rye toast. It was phenomenal. I love gravlax and there was a generous portion for $9. Will had the KING SALMON BENEDICT wild king salmon fish cakes with poached eggs and hollandaise served with homefries. Also quite yummy.

After brunch, Will headed home and I was joined by Wendy for an afternoon of shopping on Haight street. We hit Shoebiz, Ambiance and Villains, and it was a successful trip, particularly for Wendy.

On Saturday night, Will and I gussied ourselves up for Beth and Tony's wedding reception party at their newly-renovated warehouse space in SOMA/Inner Mission. About a year ago, Beth and Tony delved into a massive renovation project with their newly acquired 3-level building. The first floor is a dedicated workshop for Beth's art work. The second level, still "under construction" was a make-shift dance floor. And the top level has been renovated beautifully. I love it!

Beth and Tony planned an impromptu wedding ceremony with their friends and family in the SFMOMA earlier in the day, with a choose-your-own-adventure style ceremony in front of a painting in the permanent collection. It's a hilarious and creative way to include your close buds/family in an important day.

Recchiuti Chocolates with Beth's art designs

Will and I pulled the chute pretty early on this one (11 pm), as I was still exhausted from the 3 hours of sleep on Friday night with the babes and we had practice on Sunday morning...

SUNDAY

Sunday was a super-fun day, one of the best in a long while. We had a 4-hour practice in the morning from 10 am to 2 pm (not the best part of the day) in stinking-hot Castro Valley. From there, Will, Wendy, Anna and I headed to San Mateo to meet up with Abe at his aunt and uncle's house for an afternoon of wakeboarding. Abe's familia, Nancy and Mike, have a beautiful house on the water (lagoon in San Mateo), that's about 5-feet deep and warm enough to jump in with only a rash guard and board shorts. We relaxed in their open air covered patio (see pic below) and ate a late lunch and enjoyed the warm weather.





Abe's aunt was nice enough to go and borrow another boat from some friends in the neighborhood, as she and Mike went and got it, and then they went to go pick up some gasoline. During which, the rest of us made ourselves at home on the beautiful open patio and relaxed in the heat and sun. When Abe and Nancy got back with the gas, the situation at hand could be summed up by Abe's observation "Hey Nan, is the boat supposed to be half full of water?".

In an unfortunate turn of events, the borrowed boat was missing the essential plug, which the neighbor friends had taken out to drain the boat and had not remembered to tell the borrowees that it was out. So, some panicky bailing with tupperware ensued and we managed to get the boat on the boat lift. In due time, the boat was able to drain, and the neighbors dropped off the critical plug.

Draining water out of the borrowed boat...

Instruments of bailing...

Boat #1 was driven by Nancy, with Abe, Wendy, Anna and Toby.

Boat #2 (the newly drained and plugged borrowed boat) was driven by Abe's cousin, Darren, with me, Will, Frodo, and Darren's buddy Andy.

It was fantastic being out on the water. Everyone attemped to wakeboard and everyone got up on the board within a few tries...success!

After the wakeboarding fun, we rounded up some BBQ fixin's (chicken, 4 kinds of sausages, corn, macaroni salad, potato salad) and took advantage of the calm and beautiful night.

Thanks so much to Abe's familia for hosting a wonderful afternoon! I am not excited to see how sore I'm going to be...