Saturday With Summer

So, due to Epic Weeks and Summer's own crazy schedule (she presented a cool music paper at a conference--her first--and I'm so proud of her!), it had been a bit longer than usual since I'd seen her. On Saturday, I drove to Oakland for the afternoon, so we could hang out, and then meet some other people for Summer's birthday dinner. It's always good to spend time with Summer--we've been friends through a heap of events in each others' lives, and she means a lot to me.

Anyway, we ended up in Alameda at a shopping center that is right next to the bay. After a light lunch, we did some shopping and then spent a few minutes on a lovely nearby beach. We couldn't stay long--the wind was very high, and it was quite chilly, but we got some lovely pictures.

You can just see San Francisco and the Port of Oakland. And lots of kites.

People were kite-surfing, which looks like a lot of fun.

Cool sign.

Broken-down building in Oakland.

LOVED this sign.

Fenton's Creamery (where we had dinner and ice cream) is in the Piedmont
neighborhood of Oakland.

Based in nearby Emeryville, Pixar includes one local institution in each film.
Fenton's was featured in "Up."

This was my dessert--a junior-sized Snickerdoodle sundae
with a cookie, cinnamon ice cream, hot fudge, and real
whipped cream. It was delicious.

The birthday girl!

Summer and her husband Ben.

The couple next to me split this not-so-junior-sized sundae.