Following a not-very-satisfactory breakfast which cost way too much, we headed north, back to the Bay Area, to meet up with my longest-standing friend, a woman with whom I attended kindergarten, and her partner for lunch.  Thelma (of Thelma and Louise adventures fame on this blog) chose a nice spot for us to meet: the Richmond (California!) Marina.  We had lunch at a place called Lara's, and it was very nice--big improvement over breakfast. We also go to meet Mary Ann's partner, Fred, which was a real treat.  We had a highly entertaining conversation ranging from train travel to the Drake equation.

After lunch, we took a walk around the marina for a couple of miles, admiring the nice weather and the views along the way.  The Rosie the Riveter WWII Home Front National Historical Park is adjacent to the Marina, and we had a look at the memorial.  Tim and I have been here before, so no need to get a stamp, but I had not remembered the memorial sculpture, which is pretty interesting.  It's a skeleton sculpture suggesting some features of a battleship.   It is as long as a battleship would be, and there are engraved stones in the walkway which, going one direction, highlight major events in WWII and, going in the other direction, recount memories of women who got jobs during WWII.

In the evening, Tim and I went to dinner with another old friend, my old high school newspaper editor, Mark.  I haven't spoken to Mark in 34 years--I talked to him on the phone while I was home in the Bay Area in 1988 the week of my wedding, and the last time I saw him was sometime around 1980-1982.  We recently made contact again (thanks to the wonders of the Internet), and I was quite looking foward to seeing him again.

We met Mark and his wife and son at a very nice restaurant on Lake Merritt in Oakland, the Lake Chalet.  They have a great deck outside that juts out into the lake, and so we ate in a lovely environment with a beautiful view.  At one point, there was even a fireworks show across the lake--put on just for us, I'm sure!

Our excellent dinner was accompanied by a great catching-up conversation as we made up for roughly 40 years.   Mark is an expert in government ethics law and has worked for the city of Oakland, the state of California, and the University of California.  He described his job as "an investigative reporter with subpoena power."  How fun is that?  Mark was the editor of our school newspaper during our senior year and I was an assistant editor.  We ran a story about a girl who had an abortion, which caused a certain kind of parent to go nuts.  That experience in defending the journalist's source, the right to publish, and the right to free speech (fully supported by our sponsor, Mr. Boorda), was the germ of Mark's later career. We talked about some high school friends, ethics in politics, baseball and baseball stadia, public vs. private school, and a whole bunch of other topics. He brought our senior yearbook to show me what I had written: fortunately, it was actually nice and not very embarrassing!  We have vowed to meet again prior to, say, 2056.

This was a very enjoyable and rewarding day.  We don't often get a chance to visit friends on our travels, so this is a nice change.  Tomorrow we'll be seeing a friend from college before going on to the Giants' game.