Sunday, June 20, 2004
Breakfast at home with Patrick: bagels. Met Travis and friends at Pier 41 for a hike at Angel Island State Park. Attending: Travis, me, Patrick, Hao, Allex, Timmy, Alan (Allen?), Tony, Dale, Dennis, Remi, Stephen W, Scott and Andy, Wei, Bryan, Charles, Galen, Rich. I know I've forgotten a few people, too. Angel Island is a mountainous island in San Francisco Bay. The ferry ride over was reminscent of Marseilles and Chateau d'If and Ratonneau because we passed right by Alcatraz Island on the way over. We hiked 750 feet to the top of Mount Livermore. We were treated to panoramic views all around the bay. Weather was very good—warm in the sun but cool in the shade. Everyone brought lunch along, which we ate at the top. Patrick and I had campagnelle pasta salad with red onion, parsley, olive oil, mushrooms, red bell pepper. We also brought fresh bananas and oranges to eat. We shared Mother's pink and white circus animal cookies with everyone. On the downhill hike we stopped at the Angel Island Immigration Center which houses old photographs and other exhibits of the Asians who were detained here and the Caucasians who worked as immigration authorities. Detainees had carved Chinese poems into the walls bemoaning the fates of the anonymous authors, and all of this is described in the book I've been reading lately: The Chinese in America by Iris Chang. After the hike, everyone went home to shower, then most of us met again at Bryan's place for a barbecue. We learned later that Bryan has a barbecue every Sunday—we were astonished at that. And that he shares his place with Adam and Eric. We met a bunch more people here who didn't go on the hike: Hugh, Kong, Anson, Joe and John, Winnie, Ted and Emery, Matt, Steve L, Eric, and more. Anson and Kong recruited Travis for a softball league. I introduced a bunch of people to alllooksame.com. Rich showed his photos on the big-screen television. People watched Queer As Folk and Queer Eye for the Straight Guy. (I forget who) played Speed with playing cards. For dinner we had barbecued cow, potato salad, tortilla chips, Pepsi.