Overall, the weekend was really special and Ned would have loved it.
Saturday I got a surprise visit from Alisa Hagerty and her boyfriend Alex. She drove over to Oakland from Livermore to just give a hug on Ned's birthday. She had been planning on going up to Cherry Lake but due to the weather reports had to change her plans. So I got to see her!
Alisa flew with Ned at SkyWest and they were great friends. She has shared a couple of her stories with me and I hope to publish an edited version of them on this blog. It was wonderful to see her and make plans for future gatherings.
That night, two thirds of my daughter's band, Poison Apple Pie, played at the 20th anniversary for the MOCHA Museum of Children's Art in Oakland. Earlier that day, my budding artist son and I went to the open studios for the Pro Arts Gallery and met cool community artists.
On Sunday, the kids and I picked up Mom at Jack London Square train station. She made the ride from San Jose to Oakland. We drove to Elk Grove and at the house on Laguna Oaks, we played in the pool, ate cherries (well some people picked them from the tree behind the pool) and made and watched the movie, "Moments with Ned," and cried. Thais, Ryan, Maya and Zoe came over from two doors down. Mom, Chandra came too.
Mehal fired up the grill and cooked the delicious Tandoori chicken that Vicki and Sweetie prepared along with green salad, corn salad and mashed potatoes and for some of us, Sierra Nevada Pale Ales.
Later on , Shaan blew out the candles on the Superman cake for "Dada" that I made with help from Betty and Duncan (Crocker and Hines that is).
Most of the Cherry Lake crew came back to share some dinner and brew at the house and will have many stories to tell us about their adventure in the wilderness in honor of Ned in what will be an ongoing tradition.
I have been assured that the Ned Snyder Lives Blog has at least a handful of readers and so this blog will continue. (The readers can become writers too. Hint. Hint. Just email me.) Thank you for reading.
We missed you Nancy, Dave, Nicole and Dad and others.
Thank you everyone for all the love.
Ned Lives!
P.S. I am moderating the comments to this blog so if your comment doesn't appear right away, don't worry. I'm weeding out the horribly nasty reactionaries who have attacked my blogs with their vile and hate.
