Autumnal Equinox

Hello everyone and Happy New Year (if you're in to that sort of thing). Here in NorCal, we're celebrating the end of Summer by eating old fashioned tomatoes and avoiding spinach. We've had a good month of honest work and short weekend road trips. Here in Berkeley, the sweetgums are more red than last month and the star jasmine flowers and their beautiful smell are gone. It's warmer now than last month thanks to the helpful Pacific currents which cool down in the light months and warm up in the dark months. Here's Daphne.



Just last weekend we made a trip up to Sonoma with work friends. The harvest season is very exciting in wine country; everyone seems to be in a good mood--as in the late hours of a fun party. Maybe this was how it was in the old days too. On Daphne's first wine tasting trip, she was affable and patient. Here's a family shot in Chateau St. Jean.

Here are some Parnassus people in the reserve room at St. Francis, where we had food paired with four kinds of wine.

I snuck a quick grape from this bunch of syrah. All around us we saw trucks bringing harvested grapes in for processing. It's fun to think that these grapes one day will be in a bottle of 2006 St. Francis Syrah.

Family and Ferries

During Cortney's pregnancy my cousin Samara was in town studying at the university here in town (known to its friends as Cal). This summer she returned to New Mexico and had some interesting adventures (blog link to the right and up...). Back for Year 2, here is Samara with cousin Daphne and her mom, my aunt, Chris. We had the New Mexico Allens/Knights over for a staple of NorCalAllen home cooking: beans, spinach, mushrooms, sweet peppers, cheese, onions, garlic, avocado, tomato, lemon juice, cilantro, cumin, olive oil and ground chili powder on soft corn tortillas.

This month the NorCalAllens travelled to San Francisco to celebrate Daphne's grandfather Dan's birthday. The Bay Bridge isn't very good so they are rebuilding part of it. That means it's sometimes tough to get to the City and back on the weekends. We decided to drive to Oakland and hop on a boat. It was fun to be on the water. Here's Daphne looking cool in a ferry chair.

Here we are embarking in the City, in the shadow of the Ferry Building. Daphne made her first crossing with a smile on her face.

We made a trip up to the mountains this month for a wedding of some friends, Matt and Regina. We were a good 40 miles north of Lake Tahoe and Truckee in a land of Chevy trucks, trees and cows. Here's Rob hanging out with Daphne. There was smoke in the air from a forest fire nearby. Check out the golden field in the background. You wouldn't want to drop hot coals in there unless you LOVE FIRE.

New Jersey

Last time we posted we were just about out the door to catch a flight to JFK on Cortney's birthday. Well, here we all are later on that day in New York City. Upon arrival we still had a very long drive all the way to the bottom of New Jersey. We decided it was best to have limo take us down there. Here we all are in front of our ride.

Emma felt like a rock star in the limo. Here's Rob taking a camera phone picture of her drinking some sparkling wine.

Not to be outdone, here is Daphne and with the icy cold bottle of Andrè.

And here's what Cape May is all about, folks, Victorian houses.

Jersey Pics

Here's Ben and Daphne. That's Denny in the background. This was taken between innings of one of our many wiffle ball games.

This next shot should allay anyone's fear that vegetarian fed babies risk undernourishment...

The McConnell clan of New Jersey. Notice how the men are totally outnumbered in this family--in fact it's a shutout (five to zero) in the latest generation!

You want more Jersey pics?

Well, here you go. This is aunt Kelly with Daphne and cousin Emma in the background.

Here's the Blando family (minus Grace and plus Kathie) building a castle.

Daphne likes cold beer bottles because it makes her gums feel better, which is funny because I like cold beer bottles and it has nothing to do with my gums. Weird...

Enough with the Jersey Pics Already...

How about some NYC pics! The NorCalAllens decided to return to old Manhattan for one night before flying home to NorCal. We saw some friends in the morning before we left. Here's Kate and a smiling baby.



"Hey you, baartender. Yeah you..I'd like another bee...hic...eer. Hic." ~ Daphne



This was Daphne's first time meeting her uncle David, who now lives in London but frequents the Big Apple. They had a great time playing together!

Aunt Judy couldn't make it but her sister and aunt Sonya was there to meet Daphne.

One more picture post...

OK, this is it, I promise. Here are some more pics from NYC. This picture is of Liz, Ed and Sadie (she's the short one...). You can see Liz's arm on the left and Ed getting some coffee in the background.

Here's Alex with Daphne. We learned this day that Alex and Martha are going to get married. Way to go! Good luck with that.

Daphne really liked Tyra. Here's Daphne giving one of her patented open mouth kisses.

That's all for now folks. Tune in next month for more exciting captions and pictures featuring the NorCalAllens!