Pops!

My dad came to visit! (And I had him pose for this picture.)
We went up to Tilden one morning, and tried in vain to ride the train (in the rain), but it never came. So we went to the botanical garden.

And the sun came out!

The manzanita trees were particularly interesting (and oily-looking).

We also checked out the Oakland Museum of California.

Where I got this new, fab senior pic taken (by Tak).

We visited the exhibit on California's history,

which was psychedelic for a while.

We checked out the sculpture garden.

Yay, peace

The Pixar exhibit was the highlight of the museum trip (but no photos allowed inside). It made me want to work for Pixar, or at least re-watch all the movies. Very cool.

The boys were color coordinated for our tour of Cal (led by Tak).

The rain finally stopped, so we ventured into the city to check out the Japanese Tea Garden.

We climbed across this funky bridge.

And saw the miniature temple.

And took artsy, reflective pictures.

And said hello to Buddha.

And sipped some tea with mochi.

Then we visited the de Young tower for a view of the city.

Ooh, ahh. Hey, look, it's the GGB!

Our next stop was Ocean Beach.

Surf city

Then we crossed the GGB and stopped by the Heath Ceramics factory in Sausalito for a tour.

Pretty tiles

It was a weekend of many adventures and much sushi (Dad's vegetarianism makes an exception for sushi on the coasts) . Fine holiday fun!