Photo update

It's taken me a while, by I am finally motivated to update pictures from our week with E. It might have something to do with summer vacation starting, and me not having to teach for a couple months, or it might have to do with the wonderful reminder of our time together Stephen and I got in the mail today. 

Here we are in front of our house in Fresno, before leaving for San Francisco

While we were there we wandered around the Warf and Pier 39. The plan was to visit Alcatraz, but by the time we actually found the right pier to buy tickets, we found out that the next available tickets were for the next day. :/

So, we did some other weird touristy things  like...

... The Rocket Boat! 

I think our favorite part was when the giant tidal wave drenched us all. 

...and...

...Ripley's Believe It or Not Museum!

Now this is a place I have walked by before with never so much as a second glance. I only

 considered going because E thought it would be fun. But you know what, it was really fun. I was pleasantly surprised. 

That evening over a ridiculously large Pizzokie (the best dessert known to man), Stephen tried to get some last minute language study out of our friend. The result was riotous laughter from us all. Stephen decided he wanted to fill out the hotel evaluation, in Japanese. 

If I remember correctly, we complained that there was an octopus in the bathtub. 

It was signed by someone who lived on the moon in a tree. 

As for the piece of mail that reminded me to post some photos...

E sent us a package filled with Japanese snack foods. So far my favorite are the green tea chocolate chip cookie. 

I can't wait 'til next year when we get to see E again.