Michael's Visit

          My cousin Michael made a stop in San Francisco this week. He's an admissions counselor for Bethel and was swinging through the West Coast, stopping in Fresno for the Bethel Banquet, and then up to SF to try and convert the kids in the church. So that meant that he was in my neck of the woods for a few days! On Monday he had to go to Sacramento to meet a recruit or something, but then he was back on Tuesday. So I went across the Bay to see him. Except that I took my bike, thinking it would be faster. Well, it was. Until I got to the BART station and realized that the “no bikes during commute hours” was in effect. So I had to go downstairs, lock up my bike, and pray that I would see it again. Bike theft is a big thing, and I live in Fruitvale, so I was pretty sure that I would come back to a seatless bike or a bike with bullet holes in it or both.

         We started the day off right with Dynamo Donuts. I hopped off BART and tried calling him and Alyssa to see where they were, but they didn't answer. So I was walking and texting at the same time (bad idea, always) and all of a sudden heard a “HEY YOU!” from across the street, and there they were, exactly in step with me! We walked the rest of the way to Dynamo together. Michael has super long legs and doesn't seem to realize how fast he walks, so I was chugging along as fast as my short little legs could go! So I had worked up a pretty good appetite by the time we got there. We decided to each pick three donuts and then swap them around so we could try most of the ones on the menu. Afterwards, Alyssa had to go to a meeting, so Michael and I took the BART across the Bay and walked back to the house. My bike was still completely intact, btw.   

l-r maple bacon, vanilla bean, passionfruit chocolate

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           We swiped the van and took it to Lake Merritt, the largest inland saltwater lake in the country. We took a walk around part of the perimeter, Michael identified all the birds, except for this one that we knew we'd seen before, but couldn't place.   

Mom.  WHAT IS THIS BIRD?!

          Then we went to the Lake Merritt park, where we stopped to watch some guys play bocce ball, a game that we had always heard about, but had never seen played on an actual field before. As we were watching, a guy came up to us and asked in broken English if we played. We said no, but he told us that we should come play. When he figured out I spoke Spanish, he switched over to that. Then he asked if we were dating. I said “No, we're cousins.” But then he asked again, like “Well why aren't you dating?” Because we're cousins? Then he turned to Michael and was like “Well you two should date, look how pretty she is!” I was having a real hard time keeping it together. Maribel said that it's a pretty common thing to do in El Salvador, dating your cousin. Helps keep the money in the family, I guess. Given our already-convoluted family tree (and my boyfriend), I think it would be wise of us not to attempt it.

          After that, we headed over to the Oakland Cathedral, where a priest asked us if we were dating.  

Oakland Cathedral

I also performed the WORST parallel parking job to date. We tried to park on a side street so we wouldn't have to pay a meter. I ended up see-sawing back and forth for probably like 10 minutes while Michael stuck his head out the door and told me which way to go. It's embarrassing to have an audience to parallel park, but it's even worse when the audience is in the van with you. He said it happened to him sometimes too, but only when he is with Grandpa Unruh!

        Later, we went back to the Catholic Worker, threw down some leftover spaghetti, and went to the Alameda beach. There were a bunch of little water birds there all skittering around. They were adorable, and did EVERYTHING as a unit. 

       The last thing we did was head up into the hills for a panoramic view of the city from Merritt College, and then he had to go meet a kid to talk about Bethel. So it was really good to have him around, even though I just saw him like a month ago when I was home for Christmas. And now that I've given my first official tour of Oakland, all of you other people can come see me, and I'll have the BEST TOUR EVER lined up for you!