We flew to Oakland on Thanksgiving morning, arriving at noon, when Roxanne picked us up at the Oakland airport, and drove us to Charlotte and Cindy’s home. Our ride to the Ontario airport was stressful with a blowout at 85 in the fast lane, and Brad changing a tire on the freeway!

Dinner was wonderful, everyone ate too much, and went to bed full!

Friday was what I most looked forward to…SHOPPING! Brad and I were on an 8 a.m. BART train to Market Street in San Francisco. We started at Bloomie’s, met Joy at 10:00 at Nordstrom, took a coffee break, shopped some more, and met Kim and her family at Kuletto’s at 1:30. We had lunch, and wine before resuming our shopping mission.

Roxanne joined us, and we stopped at Crate and Barrel, Gumps, and finally joined everyone at 6:00 for a cocktail at the St. Francis. I saw the big tree lighting in Union Square, and we took off to North Beach in three taxies for dinner at “Firenze by Night”. Brad had fabulous escargot, I shared sausage -stuffed mushrooms with Joy, and had veal in a pesto-cream sauce.

Saturday, we shopped at the Ferry Building Markets, buying cheese, breads, cold cuts, and hloiday gift items. We relaxed at Charlotte’s and had an enjoyable drink with my old boss, Steve. Then we returned to S.F. with Charlotte and Cindy for a fabulous dinner at “Boulevard”. After a lemon drop, I started with foie gras, then veal with hen-of the-woods mushrooms, fried mozarella with prosciutto, and zucchini. For dessert, I had an apple torte with apple fritter gelato. YUM!

Sunday was a lazy, rainy day. We relaxed all day, ate yesterday’s food purchases and Cajun Bread Pudding with ice cream. We had an easy flight and drive home to nice, dry, desert weather. We agreed it was a lovely weekend, with our perfect hostesses, and we may need to make it an annual event. Great friends, great food, great shopping!