After the Boys of Summer Have Gone

This summer was marked by lots of travel for the boys and a lot of R&R with us when they were back home. We really maximized the value of our new home this summer by taking advantage of all it has to offer. This included lots of surfing at our local beach, Montara Beach, becoming regulars at our local New Zealand pie shop, Isaac skating the neighbor's half pipe, dining al fresco in our lovely backyard, bike rides on the coastal trail, and frequent hikes up Montara mountain with friends to whale watch.

The summer kicked off with the boys traveling to Hungary and Transylvania with their grandparents and venturing off the beaten tourist path to explore the Hungarian part of Romania in the Carpathian mountains where our family heritage traces back to. Although the journey back was fraught with flight cancellations, delays and challenges, including an unexpected overnight in London, the boys had a fantastic time. Once the boys were back from their travels, we also had our fair share of local excursions, including the Legion of Honor with Walter in San Francisco (followed by burritos at Gordo’s, of course), The Santa Cruz Beach Boardwalk with Liam at the wheel (followed by watching Lost Boys after), and the Art of Noise exhibit with Sarah, Mickey and our friends Pete, Jen, Charlie and Laura at SF MOMA. 

Liam has his learner’s permit and had many hours of driving to log, so I set out to help make him feel like a confident driver by enlisting the help of our friends Martin, who taught him to drive a manual transmission in a military jeep on his property in Woodside, and Bill, who set up cones in a parking lot to teach him emergency braking and lane changes. I did most of the routine stuff with him, including his fair share of driving on San Francisco’s city streets, the twisty roads in La Honda and Woodside, and freeways as well. My Volvo that Liam rode in as a 5 year old in his booster seat proudly served its last hurrah with him learning to drive with it, before being sold this summer to its new owner in the East Bay. 

Isaac became an entrepreneur this summer, launching his mocktail business (Mockingbird Mocktails) at the Pacifica Dog Surfing competition and selling out in under an hour; the crowds were three rows deep for his debut. Leading up to it, we all benefited from his friends and family happy hours to help him refine his recipes and I really enjoyed working with him on his very thorough and thoughtful business plan. On his own initiative, he got his California food handlers certification and is planning now to scale his business to include hosting tastings at local establishments, while continuing to add new recipes and build his brand. He also began a Youtube channel which will feature his skateboarding - stay tuned for more on that as he populates it with GoPro footage that he filmed himself.

Ren and I used the summer for some welcome R&R in this beautiful place we call home. We worked a lot on the garden; Ren did some major hardscaping building out pathways and a lavender hill, transforming our backyard into a lovely place to spend time with a glass of rosé during the frequent warm summer nights. Together we made our house more surfer friendly by hardscaping the side of our house and designing + installing our custom surf rack and wetsuit drying station, all in preparation for our outdoor surf shower. Ren has been busy with her new role, building a global team and investing a lot of hours getting it off the ground. I published an eBook, Retrospective Design Thinking, sharing my experiences and insights on the role of nostalgia in product design on my new website, davidvespremi.com, with the contributions of family and friends--shout outs to Sarah, Ren, Rachael and Alisha who helped with everything from graphic design, to editing, along with putting together the website to host it. From there, I finally got active again on social media with an instagram page (DVespremi) and also started work on my own YouTube channel on a similar theme to those explored in the eBook (launching soon). 

Check out our 2024 summer video to enjoy a taste of our summer!

The boys are now both back in school, but we look forward to having them back home with us this coming Labor Day weekend for Vespremi Ballfest 2024, our annual meatball making contest and szilvas gomboc eating extravaganza. Here’s to another great summer and many more to come….