A Weekend of Everything

It really was. This memorial day weekend I think I lived through an entire separate life in four days. It all started Thursday night, when Shawn Solaas flew in from Boston, MA. I drove down to the Oakland airport and waited for him in terminal 1 until he came walking through the security point. Greeting him hello after all these years... was very whelming, and wonderful. We drove back to my house and chatted until we were too tired to catch up anymore.

Friday morning we met up with Jaime, Emily, Trisha, Amanda and Debbie at the Sonoma State grill for lunch. It was such a nice day out; and it was nice introducing Shawn to my co-workers and friends. I got a chance to show Shawn my office and some of the campus before we headed off to San Francisco so Shawn could show me some of his world. On the way to the city we stopped off and took some pictures above the Golden Gate bridge. I'm so glad we did, because it's rarely so clear over San Francisco.

We went to the mall at Union Square and bee lined it for the J. Crew store. Since Shawn is a personal shopper at J. Crew he knew his way around their collection. In no time he was putting together outfits "with color". I tried on several, and much to my surprise almost everything was a size or two smaller than I would've chosen. Apparently I buy baggier style and need more form fitting clothes. haha! We picked out two outfits and then had to hit the road to make it down to Santa Clara's Great America theme park for the Gay Days event. We checked into the Hyatt just up the street and luck was with us; we had a room on the top floor- it had a nice view. Then we stopped off at the bar for a drink before hitting up the event.

What an absolute blast! Neither of us had ever been to one of the Gay Day events that are held at theme parks throughout the year. The event started at 6pm and went until 2am, with drinks and rides flowing until midnight. There were three stages with performers ranging from scandalously clad dancers, performers and even impersonators. We enjoyed the "Boomerang" drinks which were vodka and lemonade, quite a few of them actually! The roller coasters were a blast, it wasn't until the Flight Deck ride around 11 or so that night that I kinda had a wave of head spins- I'm surprised it took that long! Below is a picture of the drop zone ride; I was kinda scarred for it, but I made Shawn hold my hand so that helped. ^_^ I ran into several friends while down there; John Davis, Jeremy Bruce and Patrick Knight.

Saturday morning there was no sleeping in, Shawn was up and at-em bright and early...well like 9am. Which seemed early to me! We headed back to San Francisco to get some more shopping in. I picked up some shoes that I'd wanted from the day before at J. Crew and then some Aldo's. Then I grabbed some Ghirardelli caramel chocolates and we were good to head back to Sonoma County. We got a chance to relax some Saturday afternoon; and Shawn made us a delicious dinner! He's very good in the kitchen, I was continually impressed this weekend. We had chicken glazed in a balsamic vinegar topped with tomatoes and mozzarella cheese. Sides were potatoes and a strawberry spinach salad paired with whatever bottle of wine we happened to be on at that point!

That evening we got ready and headed out to San Francisco to hit up the clubs. We started out at Midnight Sun, the best place to start in my opinion. No cover charge, a free bathroom and hilarious video's played up on the big screen. From there it was just a step over to badlands where we decided it was too crowded and landed at my favorite place, the Cafe. We had a lot of fun checking out the people there and dancing. Before I knew it the club was closing and out we went, back home.

Sunday morning came too quickly; seeing as how I went to sleep sometime around 3am. Amanda came over at 7am and we jogged 9 miles. I'm not sure how coherent I was, I think I was running on auto-pilot! When I got home Shawn got up and made us breakfast. The avocado on the eggs was a nice touch I plan to do more often! I was glad to contribute some also; I added some apricots and mango to the strawberries. Mmm!

We caught up on some Avatar Sunday before getting ready to head over to Amanda's house in the city of Sonoma for dinner with Rich and Savannah. Amanda made an amazing spicy hummus that I just couldn't stop eating. Then we had some home-made garden burgers and sweet potatoes. The garden burgers had an avocado dressing to put on them that made the burger- delish! It was nice having an evening with the McGowans! After dinner, we headed to Cotati to meet Jason and Kevin for some drinks at Brixx. Unfortunately they were already closed, so we went to Friar Tucks instead. Not the fanciest place, but the drinks were cold so it worked just fine. We had a good time chatting with them and catching up.

Before I knew it memorial day was upon me and Shawn's last day in California. Shawn made breakfast again - so good. Then he showed me how to make quiche. We'd been shopping earlier on and bought all the various ingredients he picked out for my tailor-made vegeterian style quiche. There was spinach, mushrooms, onions and swiss cheese. MMMM! He baked and saved them for me so that I could enjoy them later in the week after he was gone, so very thoughtful!

That afternoon I kidnapped Shawn and took him on my motorcycle headed towards Sonoma. I only got as far as Glen Ellen before he tapped on me and asked if there was a destination in mind- ok, ok, I got the hint! We stopped there for a break and then rode the bike back home. That afternoon we watched the rest of Avatar while Shawn finished up packing. Chuck and Emily had arrived via car from Idaho earlier in the day so they stopped over for a bit. Emma had just returned from her trip to San Diego so we all got to catch up. Once we'd watched the last episode of Avatar, Season 3, it was time to take Shawn back to Oakland for his flight out. It was really hard on me, seeing him leave after such a great time together. But I'm set to ensure we see each other soon, and so is he. I'm looking forward to it.

Thanks to Shawn (and my friends, too!), I think I ate better this weekend than I have in a long time, and of course the company was absolutely the very BEST!