After almost two years of Covid and moving to Vallejo, we finally made it back to see our friends with the East Bay Bears, who we try to Zoom with every week. It was so great to be back (and not be required to wear a mask). We always get a room to ourselves and it’s rich food and fine people that I missed indulging with.
Yearly we travel to Guerneville to take part in Lazybear Week. The Russian River area is an amazing part of California that we just adore.
Our neighbors Shelee and Kathi have an awesome house with great views from unincorporated Vallejo. They hosted the potluck on May 14. I went back for John Fox’s re-election campaign kickoff a few weeks later on June 4 and remembered to take pictures of their fabulous back garden as well.
I regret that we did not take pictures of more attendees, but the house was pretty packed! We had a lot of folks stream through and made a lot of great connections!
Most of these are on a Saturday, but we would not have wanted it to be on the twentieth anniversary of 9-11, so we opted for Sunday, September 12.
When the organizer of the Vallejo Gay Network asked to pick a theme, we thought of DIVAS, of course! Every corner of the house I try to keep as an homage to Barbra Streisand, naturally.
We weren’t able to do our vows at City Hall, so we did them two days later at our reception.
Fun fact: Twenty years to the month before Joe and Shando got married, we attended Jennifer Holliday’s 1997 New Year’s Eve performance at Splash Bar. We were oblivious to each other’s presence until a few years ago. Then, on the drive to the wedding, Joe mentioned this to Brian, Shando’s best man, who Joe had never met before, and he mentioned he was also at the event (with Shando)! To think, we all could have been next to each other without knowing what was to come!
Our friend Gary has an amazing garden and a golden heart, having a canned food drive regularly for those in need. We were very happy to be able to participate and enjoy the extraordinary surroundings.
