Kites and Sand

It never fails that when I travel to the San Francisco Bay Area, Boston gets pounded by some bad weather. Mid-March, I came west to interview, and Boston got a coating of snow. Last weekend we travelled west to check out our new house in Berkeley, and Boston got a crazy Nor-easter. Not one to pass-up a chance to enjoy the good weather, we went kite flying with Matthew and Tony:

We told Matthew about our friend Jessie Doktor and her family back in Boston, waiting out the storm in Children's Hospital while she under-went chemo. We visited Jessie before leaving for San Fran, and were told about the Doktor Family's "sand from around the world" collection. So here is Matthew collecting some sand for Jessie:

This is sand from Fort Funston on the Pacific Coast. The dunes over-looking the shore were blanketed in flowering ground-cover of cacti or succulents -- squishy! It was a very windy day, as we were to find out later when we lost a kite (thankfully recovered). We had a great time, and were glad we might be able to share it with the Doktor Familty, too!