Sitting on the dock of the bay

Pictures from my delightFULL Saturday

I had a FULL Saturday! It began with picking up two large boxes of books one of my teammates had gotten a library to donate to our school! :) Rosa Parks k-8 has a library, but sadly has no librarian. No one can check out books, so we want to start a City Year library, where kids can check out books from our office! After the book pick up, I couldn't resist stopping at the Farmer's Market by my house. And while my friends were jamming out in Austin at ACL (Austin City Limits ) I was having my own jam session at the Farmer's Market, eating my tamales and horchata while watching a really talented guy sing and preform. 

Next, I made my way to Oakland, where my great Aunt Catherine lives. I hadn't seen her in about a year, so I was excited! I met her at her house and then we drove down the hill to a really cute restaurant where we met up with her son ( and my dad's  favorite cousin) Paul, his wife, and their daughter. We had a really nice lunch. It was nice being with family. Once our lunch was over, they went back to their home in San Francisco and I went back to my aunt's house, where we had a really wonderful conversation. The last time I got to see her was at my GrandMary's funeral, so it was nice to see her under different circumstances. And it was nice because in many ways my Aunt Catherine reminds me of my grandmother. She is my grandmother's older sister. They speak similarly; similar voices with similar vocabularies  Though I might describe Aunt Catherine as having a very mild tone and my GrandMary has having a more emotional, feisty tone. You could always tell how she was feeling, by her voice. My GrandMary's laugh was contagious and could make anyone join in, and her sarcasm was always on point. I miss her, so it was comforting to feel connected to her through my aunt. Aunt Catherine also shared with me an old picture GrandMary sent out just after my Uncle Bert was born. 

The left is a picture of GrandMary and Aunt Catherine growing up

and the right is a picture of my grandparents, my dad, and all of his brothers 

After our visit, I planned on stopping somewhere cool to start studying for the GRE before heading back to Sacramento. Her house in Oakland is right on the border of Oakland and Berkley, so I ventured into Berkley. I loved it, but parking anywhere seemed out of the question. This meant studying was out of question. haha In my search for a cool study spot I kept getting glimpses of the bay over the hill. I guess it's the Pisces in me that couldn't keep myself from heading towards the water. I found a perfect spot right on the "dock of the bay". I could see the Golden Gate and Bay bridge from my spot on the rocks. As I called my parents to catch up, my dad starting singing this song to me. It was the perfect song to soundtrack my moment. I was literally wasting time and sitting on the dock of the bay. 

I would say it was the perfect way to end a beautiful day, but my adventures weren't quite over yet. As I've mentioned before, navigating in California has not come naturally for me. It seems I always enter and leave by different routes. This was the case Saturday night and I ended up passing the first Sonic I've found since my move to the Golden State. I've been out of the habit of eating any fast-food, but this was an exception. I had to order the Jay Sheppard special  "medium cherry Dr. Pepper with extra ice". Cheers to you, Mom and to a great day!