nightime visitors and kiteboarding

On Friday night I was awakened by the disquieting sounds of claws or nails scratching against the window next to our heads. It would start for a few seconds, then there would be kind of a shuffling sound, like fur against glass, and would then stop. A few minutes later it would all start again. I was actually too sleepy and scared to look at what was causing all the noise, so I just left it alone and went back to sleep. Last night, however I heard the sounds again, but this time actually decided to wake up (it turns out that Chloe did the exact same thing! We both could have gone back to sleep but decided -- individually -- that it was worth losing a little sleep to find out what was going on). It turned out to be a bat either trying to alight on the window or eat bugs near the window. Either way, it reminded me of when a bat got into our apartment in France

During the cleanup and locking down of the cabin, I came across a GIGANTIC spider which we had to get rid of:


and then went into Dutch Flat for breakfast. When I was a kid, Dutch Flat residents (I'm not sure if they, themselves were "Oddfellows) used to serve large excellent and inexpensive breakfasts at the loacal Oddfellows hall. The only thing I remember is that there were a lot of old people there, and the bacon was really, really good. Unfortunately though, the oddfellows breakfast turned out not to be on, so we went to the Dutch Flat hotel instead


and then drove back to Berkeley, driving over the beautiful new bridge across the Carquinez straits. One span of the old bridge is being disassembled from both sides, so it is hanging rather precariously over the water. I tried to get a picture, but it didn't come out very clearly:


after watching the world cup, and the totally bizarre headbutting incident, followed by the Frances's subsequent predictable loss on penalty kicks, we went kiteboarding for a few hours at Alameda. The wind was good, and chloe had more success re launching her kite this time. I was really happy to see that my parents had come out to watch us and see what kiteboarding is all about, and we watched the other boarders together while we waited for Chloe.

Next stop was a rib restaurant on High street, where we all inhaled dinner. Finally it was time to go back to SF, and by this time the sunday traffic had dissipated. As we were carrying everything back into the apartment, I had the sudden realisation that maybe carrying two 18 inch machetes in one hand and a big lumpy black plastic trash bag (it was filled with our dirty laundry) might look a little ... strange. I didn't hear so much as a peep out of our neighbors all night though!