"A Little West Coast Swing" Part II: The Visit

I had originally planned to post part II the day after part I but one thing led to another and, well, here we are on Sunday evening and I am just getting to it. Suffice it to say it was a really fun visit, and an ambitious one in the that I was combining a visit to my sister in Silicon Valley with a side trip to the wedding of a family friend in Squaw Valley/Lake Tahoe, some 230 miles drive from San Francisco. And all of this in 5 days.

The first couple of days were spent with my sister and the nieces, the oldest two of which took to calling me Uncle G during the visit, which I kind of liked. Even the baby, Erica, who just turned 2 in April was calling me Uncle Gant (the left out "r" is not a typo) not long after I arrived. Very cool. It was Caroline's (age 8) last day of school so I went over there with my sister and met her 2nd grade teacher from this past year, as well as some of her friends as they were all taking Chinese lessons after school. I munched on some etamame and watched one of the teachers give a Tai chi demonstration, which elicited howls of laughter from the less than impressed group of youngsters while I tried my adult best to make them pay attention.

I should probably mention that it was hot, really hot, for the first few days of my visit, with unseasonably warm temperatures in the low 90's. So basically there were few moments spent outside during the day when I wasn't either at, or on my way to the pool. This included a trip to Ladera Oaks, a private country club down the street from my sister's house where Meredith (age 5) takes swim lessons. I was told that I might have to scram after dropping Meredith off, since the family is not a member of the club. However, I was able to chill poolside with all the moms while Erica splashed around in the kiddie pool for 45 minutes. Fortunately for Uncle Gant, the swim diaper held up quite well.

On Friday morning it was off to Tahoe for the wedding. I mentioned that it was for a family friend. Specifically, the groom, Rob, is the younger son of my former next door neighbors Ginna and Sheldon in West Hartford, Connecticut, my hometown. I babysat for him and his older brother, Ashton, in the mid 1980's and they were kind of like the younger brothers I never had. These two were 8 and 5 years old, respectively, when I first knew them and now I was seeing the younger one of the two get married. You want to talk about an "I feel reeeeeally old" moment. In any case, I stayed at a posh hotel in Squaw Valley right on the base of an 8,600 foot snow-covered (though not very much) mountain, complete with a cable car to the top that we took on Saturday, where there is a pool, the ice rink that was used for the VII Winter Olympics in 1960, and views of Lake Tahoe that would blow your mind. The ceremony was in a garden just steps from Lake Tahoe in Carnelian Bay, and the reception poolside at the hotel. Just spectacular scenery all around and it was great to catch up with friends and family alike. Good times.

Barely 24 hours later, it was back in the car for the 230 mile return trip to Silicon Valley. This brings us to the crown jewel event of the weekend, the Menlo Park Academy of Dance presents "Movies in Motion" at Woodside High School on Sunday, aka Father's Day. I had known about this bi-annual event when my sister mentioned it at Christmas time and, as far as Caroline and Meredith were concerned, this was the reason that I came out to visit. My brother-in-law Ken's aunt, Judy, came into town from L.A. while I was in Tahoe so we all piled in the SUV and made our way to the show.

Highlights of the event, other than my two nieces, of course, included a routine to the theme from "Ghostbusters" and countless routines featuring little kids looking all cute in their costumes who stared off to the side of the stage to get their moves from the instructor. This resulted in high comedy such as one routine when the entire line of dancers did the tilt of the head on the pressed hands to pretend they were sleeping while one child jumped up and down with her hands waving, completely oblivious to the rest of the group. You know what they say about never sharing the stage with children and animals? This event was certainly proof of the former.