Cal Poly Graduation 2012

Last weekend we went down to San Luis Obispo (SLO) for my younger brother's graduation.  It is always such a joy to go back to our alma mater! The school, the town, the ocean - everything is so lovely there. But with only one day to play nostalgic-tourist (mostly in the Pismo area), it was hard to squeeze in all our favorites. We tried though!

The P!

We ate heavenly Firestone's tri-tip sandwiches and tromped around downtown SLO..

Braved down the creaky boards at Pismo pier...

A wild otter appeared!

Ate a ridiculously mouthwatering Old West Cinnamon Roll..

Looked for the sinkhole at Dinosaur Caves Park. But couldn't find it! Sob sob...maybe it eroded away?!

And finally ended the day with a "love boat" and sushi at Yanagi's.

The next day was the graduation! It was a great thing to watch Penga-bro walk.  The whole family is extremely proud of him.  It's been five years since Sak and I walked onto the same graduation field, so I felt extra emotional thinking about our own Cal Poly family from way-back-when.

Soooo many people.

After the main ceremony, I got to give him my washer lei! I can't say that the extra five pounds of weight was really appreciated, but that's not the point. Huhuhu.

And there's my perpetual derp-face. >.>"

Actually my mom and I ended up making so many leis that he was able to sell some prior to the graduation to raise money for his SF summer mission trip (in the tenderloin - please pray for him!).  Of course we still saved some leis just for him though.  I think he had over twenty at the end from friends and family. Not bad for a mainland grad.

There was a smaller ceremony just for mechanical engineers where all the grad's names were called.  Except the microphone broke and no one could hear anything.  You'd think that at a well-known engineering school, someone would at least try to fix the problem? Nope! No sound the whole time!

 Anyway, I'd say even more fun than the leis were these silly face fans I made to hand out. They were just slightly too small, but still a big hit!

Which is the real one?! Gah!

They were also useful for keeping cool, as it was a pretty warm weekend!

As sad as I'm sure Penga-Bro is to leave campus (and if he's not sad now he'll miss it later, I promise), he's got a great future lined up.  He'll be working in the Bay Area too, and it's always (or maybe I should say usually? Ha!) nice to have the family not too far away.

Classic, everyone-look-at-a-different-camera-now shot

Penga-Bro's duct-tape decorated hat. "He" being God. It's a clothing company in Hawaii. 

How was your graduation season? I always find them to be such joyous occasions!

(credit: some photos (mostly the good looking ones) taken by family members)