Bleary eyed from a whirlwind weekend in San Francisco, we arrived at Doyle first thing Monday morning.

First though, we have to thank our hosts, Michael’s brother Greg and his girlfriend Danielle for a fantastic weekend on the town. We had such a great time driving around in the Mini through the Marin hills, slurping noodles on Haight street (complete with power-outage!), sipping martinis in Larkspur and stuffing ourselves with a real Italian Easter dinner (complete with Grappa) that when I got home I couldn’t believe that the best photo I had taken was of cows:

Well, here’s a good one too of Greg and Danielle getting busy in the kitchen with their raviolis:

By the way, if you know anyone planning a wedding in California, Greg is an outstanding photographer specializing in weddings and you can view his work at www.gregpiche.com. And, if you are looking for classy cards and invitations for your wedding, check out Danielle’s own line of cards Tallu-lah.

As if the weekend wasn’t jam-packed enough with coolness, guess who happened to be in town gathering goods for their new eco-tourism spot in Tonga? Ben from Waking Dream! Tanned and freshly tatooed from the South Pacific, Ben met up with us for breakfast in Alameda Monday morning. We hadn’t seen him since saying goodbye to him and his wife Lisa in Tenacatita, Mexico as we headed north and they sailed west. It was wonderful to have a way-too-short catch up of the previous two years. One thing is for sure, after yet another round of stories from down under, the South Pacific is calling louder and louder….

Here’s a typical shot of Ben, taken in Bahia Santa Maria:

So finally, back at the Doyle loft in Alameda our three new sails were ready and waiting for us for the long trip back home to the rain. We had a quick tour of Bill’s loft–what a cool place! I could have hung out all day watching the guys sew in the floor with the huge machines. Our 130% genoa was still covering the floor of the left as they finished up one of the corners– this sail is so large I don’t think it could even be spread out all the way inside the loft. We should not have any light air issues with this sail!

We packed our precious cargo in their new sail bags, rolled up our full battens and were happy that they all fit nicely in the back of our Subaru. Then it was on the road for the long drive back to Seattle, dreaming of sailing the whole way.