While in San Diego, we had the chance to hook up with our nephew, Mark (top-left), and his girlfriend, Jenna (top-center). After a wonderful salmon dinner prepared by Jenna, Mark took us into his man cave, filled with music equipment, monitors, and gaming devices. During the pandemic, Mark had gotten quite good with his guitars, practicing long hours until his fingers bled. He played some impressive riffs for us and showed us some of the software used to create backing tracks. He bought a set of 3D goggles and software for himself for Christmas, and suggested I give it a try (top-right) on an advanced level game. Wow, was that disorienting! At first, my attempt to swat away the zombies seemed a bit dangerous, so Mark cleared the room so I wouldn’t injure Evelyn and Jenna. I kept generating extra guns and dropping my weapons, instead of killing the zombies. After only 15 minutes inside that environment, I was wobbling down the hallway to get readjusted to the “real world”! I had forgotten the difference between virtual and reality for a moment.

Mark and Jenna also introduced us to their favorite Mexican restaurant in Chula Vista. Tacos El Gordo (bottom-left and bottom-center) had an astounding variety of meats from pork, chicken, beef tongue, tripe, and cabeza, which we had never had before and were delicious. Our new favorite was the mula style, which was layered with 3 tortillas. We were absolutely stuffed.

Evelyn has picked up disc golf in Cuenca, so we made a stop at an official disc golf course at Balboa Park in San Diego, where she had her first chance of shooting at a real basket (bottom-right). In Cuenca, the targets are garbage cans, telephone poles, boulders and trees instead of baskets, so this was enlightening.

Later, we had a chance to meet with our niece, Kerry, at her Berkeley home and lab. The view of the San Francisco Bay and the Campanile from her lab is one that is mesmerizing (upper-left). She is a PhD candidate in organic chemistry at UC Berkeley, where she gave us a tour of her research lab (right). A poster in the hallways showed a project she was co-author on (left-middle two images). A nostalgic moment for us — Kerry teaches at the same chemistry lecture hall (Pimentel) where Evelyn and I first met in 1969. Kerry wanted to get a photo of us in that original hall (lower-left). The only change in the classroom since we were there is that the overhead projector of 1969 has been replaced with a computer. We laughed about the original “black boards” and colored chalks that had not changed since we attended school. And, of course, when we were in class, we never sat in the front row! ☺

We are really proud to see how our nephew and niece have grown up and just starting their careers.

For the short time we were in the SF Bay Area, we enjoyed dim sum with Evelyn’s family and oysters with Tim and Roselle.

While we were in California, we also got to listen to Evelyn’s brother play masterful pieces on piano. While working full time, Ed spends a lot of time learning new sheet music plus saving time for lawn bowling and pickle ball. The pandemic has really changed how people balance work and play, and it seems no one is enthusiastic about going back into the office full time.