San Francisco - Part 3

This is my third post about San Francisco, and my fourth about my long business trip to California.  You can see my previous post here.

On Sunday, we traveled across the San Francisco Bay to Castro Valley.  This is the town where I actually grew up - from 2nd grade through high school.  We decide to attend Church at my old Ward building:

Not my picture...I forgot to take one ; )

It was fun to visit with families that still lived there - despite the fact that I haven't lived in the town for over twenty-five years!  My folks lived there after I left, so there were some people that still remembered them fondly.

My best friend and his family still live there.  He's a member of the Stake Presidency and his wife is the Young Women's President.  My wife was asked to perform for the young women in her ward.  My wife has created a special program dedicated to helping young women find their worth.  Bias aside, it's a great presentation.

After Church, we spent the afternoon with my friends.  They have three amazing daughters and we all enjoy hanging out.

Three special young ladies

 One of the greatest guys I've ever known...

Needless to say, we had a blast.  We can't wait to see them again.  After leaving their home, we decided to stop by the Oakland LDS Temple, on a whim.  Boy, am ever glad we did.

The sun was setting and the grounds of the temple were EXTRAORDINARY.  Luckily, my wife had her camera, and caught a great picture of us in front of the temple:

I wish I could thank the groundskeepers...the flowers were stunning...

Not exactly the most reverent of pictures...but he was having fun, walking around the top of the temple

Seriously...how cute is this?!?

The next day, I had to attend another conference - this one dedicated to "developer relations".  They had leaders from IBM, Intel, Google and Adobe.  I found the whole thing to be a waste of my time, so I left early and caught up with my family.  While I was there, my wife and kids spent the day in Golden Gate Park.  They decided to check out the Academy of Sciences.  It houses both the Steinhart Aquarium and Morrison Planetarium.  The kids played at the aquarium...having a great time...without me!

We joined up and jumped in the car for a two-hour drive towards Sacramento.  We took the opportunity to meet up with my brother and his family.  They're a great clan and we wanted to make sure we saw them while in California.

G-Man and his cousin D...they became fast friends

Despite the absence of smiles, the girls had fun.  They are the youngest cousins in the family

They're a great family, and I'm really glad we drove the distance to spend time with them.  I love these kids and wished we lived closer to each other.  I can't wait for our next reunion, so I can spend more time with each of them.

One thing I forgot to mention...while in San Francisco, I took the family to a unique burger restaurant.  It's chef Hubert Keller's Burger Bar.  I'm a huge fan of Hubert Keller.  If you've watched any of the Top Chef shows, you'll see a real master in the kitchen.  I was really excited to eat here, especially because Keller was actually in the restaurant that eventing.  The food was amazing.  This is a snapshot of the unique creations there:

I ordered the Hubert Keller Burger:  buffalo meat, caramelized onions, baby spinach, blue cheese on a ciabatta bun. All with a red wine shallot reduction.  I added some fried zuchini for something different:

That's it from California!  I won't bore you with the horrendous story of my flight home to Austin ; )  We'll see how long it takes me to leave town again..