The Big 4-0 !

Ron's Big Weekend

The whole extended Suster family descended upon San Francisco recently to help "Uncle Ron" celebrate the big Four-Oh. We wanted it to be a surprise but in typical Ron fashion he started calling everybody a few weeks before looking for inconsistencies in our stories and trying to find somebody who would crack. I'm sure somebody must have but Ron didn't let in that he probably knew what was going on before the weekend.

We started by booking Ron at a hotel for 2 nights in the City. The idea was that Ron would arrive early Friday evening so that he could enjoy a leisurely night out with Wendy and a relaxed breakfast in bed. But ... stupid me. I should have known Ron would leave 4 hours later than the last moment possible. I think he got in around midnight so the hotel only had one room left. No TV. Oh well, my bad for not making up some fake reason that he had to be there by noon on Friday.

The whole family met for lunch on Saturday at the famous vegetarian institution in San Francisco called Greens. Ron & Wendy are vege's so thus must be nirvana. And for Ron's carnivorous siblings it actually was a nice restaurant so we didn't mind no meat. After lunch we dropped off Dad and Mari at the hotel for a break and the rest of us took the boat across the bay\ to Sausalito for a little fresh air and a stroll. It was a perfect opportunity for everybody to just take in the nature surrounding us and chit chat. Nice to have no real distractions but just a great chance to catch up.

We arrived in Sausalito and met up with cousin Dan, the Renaissance Man and his new girlfriend who was really nice and seemed a good match for one of our favorite cousins. You'll see that Dan dressed up for the occasion.

We got back to the City as the sun had just gone down. Met up at one of the nicer Indian restaurants in San Francisco and ate until we had to undue our top buttons. Indian is always a good bet for vege's. I always remember the interesting twist in India where most restaurants assume you are a vege and have a section on the menu for "non veg" meals. Next day we all headed down to Palo Alto (thank you to everybody for making the journey) for bagels and a day with the kiddies. It was a great weekend all around and great to have yet another excuse to bring the family together.