evan

My brother Nate and his girlfriend Kristen live in the Laurel Heights area of San Francisco, just north of Presidio Heights, across the street from Laurel Village on California Street. They invited us up for dinner at their house last night, and since my Mom and Dad hadn't seen their apartment yet, they decided to join us, too.

Maj, Amita June and I went up early yesterday afternoon, right after naptime. (That's our main measure of time -- before naptime, after naptime, before bedtime, after the baby goes to sleep.) We initially planned to go downtown and do some post-Christmas shopping, but we hit gruesome traffic getting off North 280 into China Basin. Friday afternoon traffic in San Francisco is pretty crappy any day of the month, but yesterday was Critical Mass, which really tangles things up downtown.

So we juked west and headed out to Ocean Beach instead. I parked at the end of Golden Gate Park by the giant windmills. We all walked out onto the beach -- Amita at 0.5 mph, of course, and rarely in the correct direction -- just at sunset, which was great. It was our second beach day in a row, but it was great being out there. The baby chased dogs and waves, and we got to watch the sun go down. There were kites everywhere -- I explained to Amita how people had to hold their strings so that they could keep flying. It's so counterintuitive.

We dropped into the Beach Chalet on the Great Highway for a late afternoon snack. Amita June had her trademark grilled cheese sandwich, Maj and I split a plate of calamari. The chalet does its own beers, so Maj had a Christmas ale and I tried the more than decent stout.

We got to Nate's place just after 6, and they ordered Indian food from Rotee in the Lower Haight. It was excellent -- we got some tandoori fish and about 12 different curries. Maj's brother Brian came too, and we stayed up pretty late talking.

Maj and I stayed over at Nate and Kristen's last night, then shared coffees this morning from Peet's. There's a really nice Cuban place, Café Lo Cubano right up the street, but we wanted bagels from Noah's, so it's just natural to get Peet's, too. We had a long ride home, though -- Maj and I are both feeling sick, and the baby's not too happy about long car rides anymore. But we got home for a good nap and a radio interview.