I really enjoyed my time in Alexandria, Virginia watching one of my best friends get married to a really great woman. The wedding itself was held at St. Paul’s Episcopal Church in Old Town Alexandria. That place itself is full of great American history. It was a beautiful ceremony and the reception just a couple blocks away at the Columbia Firehouse was really well done. A number of Brendan & Randan’s family and friends gave speeches & toasts to the bride & groom. I recounted the time Brendan and I first communicated in 2004 when he was marketing his book about college campuses and when we met in 2005. I also recounted the first time he told me about Randan. I had a feeling…
The rest of my weekend in the area I spent my time catching up with other friends. I really enjoyed hanging out with my buddy Jeff Frazee and I’m grateful he and his wife Amanda were such gracious hosts for me. We even got some time to go to a driving range and hit some golf balls on a 90-degree day. Yes, I was not in Florida.
On the Friday night (night before the wedding) I met up with some friends at a few posts in Clarendon and also in D.C. It was great to see my friends Kristen, James, Maureen, Ilya, Kayla, Lee and Abigail. Always great to catch up with good people who I don’t see often enough!
On Sunday morning I boarded a flight from Dulles aiport to San Francisco. On this particular voyage, I got to go on Virgin America airlines. I think they’ve become my favorite airline. They don’t have too many destination points, but if you are able to take one (mostly they just go cross country) it is a great experience. Every seat has a television with individual TV & movie options. And the seats are pretty comfortable, not to mention the hip, soothing, purple lighting in the cabin. While most of us on the plane closed all the windows for most of the flight, I did have a window seat and a few times I peaked out and got to see some amazing sights, including flying over the Colorado Rockies.
5 hours later, I landed in San Francisco, where my brother Tony picked me up and we headed a little bit south of the airport to Palo Alto. This city is the home of Stanford University and many social media/technology companies. Stanford also is a beautiful campus. Much of the architecture reminds me of parts of southern Spain. One notable feature that stands out is the Herbert Hoover Tower, which we were able to go inside and go up to the observation deck and get a nice view of the entire area. We ate lunch at a place on campus called “Ike’s Place.” Tony tells me their first location is in San Francisco and then they opened one here. The sandwiches were huge and delicious! (I had the “Al Bundy” – which included avocado, cheddar, french dressing, ham, and salami, with lettuce & tomato, on french bread).
We then drove around the Stanford campus, saw the football stadium and the tennis courts (former home of John McEnroe and many other greats) and then headed back to San Francisco.
We rested up, Skyped with my parents, then got a small bite to eat at a “Taco Bar” down the street before attending a 9:00 PM mass at my brother’s church, St. Dominic’s. It’s a beautiful cathedral-like building built in the 1870s. The 9:00 PM mass is the “candelight mass” – looks beautiful in there. And it was hard not to think that being that we were on Pacific Time, most of the country was already asleep as we attended mass. Needless to say it as a long day for me and I went right to bed when we got back to my brother’s place. The last night sleeping in the United States of America before departing for China today.