Hour Baur

I have talked before about Hour Baur.  Walt's mother's maiden name was Baur and we have joked forever that the Baurs can't ever say goodbye in less than half an hour.  I remember a time when we had dinner in a restaurant with Walt's mother, his sister, and his brother and Norm's wife.  When we finished dinner they stood at the table saying goodbye until I finally told them they were blocking traffic, whereupon they moved to the front door inside the restaurant and continued the goodbyes, I finally got them moved outside and, getting tired of the game, I went to the car to wait for Walt...and then discovered that his brother was parked nearly next to us so they Hour Baur'ed on the way to the cars and then continued until they finally got into the cars.

Hour Baurs are the bane of in-laws' existence!

But yesterday morning there was no time to Hour Baur.  We had not been able to see our friends Dick and Gerry this trip, especially since they were evacuated too (nice Motel 6 upped their rates to >$200 for the fire!).  But they decided we could meet for breakfast, and we did at a place called the Cajun Kitchen, which was wonderful.  I had eggs benedict.

I was torn between that and biscuits and gravy, which I have only had once (when I was visiting Peach in Iowa) and loved.  I thought this might be the perfect place for that, but I couldn't resist the lure of the benedict.

Dick and Gerry shared some sort of omelette with lots of goodies on top.  It came with cornbread and when I saw how good the cornbread looked, I decided I had made the wrong decision.  I should have gone with the biscuits and gravy.

We left directly from the restaurant to head home and were abut 2-1/2 hours up the road when we got a call from Alice Nan, who said Walt had left a "blue bag" behind.

This is the bag that has everything he needs from his pills to his billing information.  There was no way around it.  We had to go back.  Alice Nan offered to meet us in Solvang...still not sure why, except that at the time Norm and Olivia, who were also on the road, had texted that they were just leavig Solvang.  It took an hour off of our turn-around time, but it was still a long schlep to get down to Solvang and get the bag.

When Alice Nan pulled up with bag in hand I said "Boy, you guys will do ANYTHING for an Hour Baur, won't you!!"

 Walt bought Cheetos that we snacked on for "dinner"

 

We got home around 9, I guess, and Polly was very happy to see us, having had an adventure of her own, at Ashley's house.

I couldn't believe this photo....I thought Polly hated kids

Hour Baur-ing

When I saw Brianna up in a tree at the park this afternoon, and looked around at all the people in the picnic area, I started thinking about our family tree and how it has changed over the years.
 

Alice Nan and Joe have been together for many years and when they married, Joe brought with him his version of a family tree every bit as rich (and complicated) as ours.

Joe was married before to a woman who had two children, whom he adopted.  They had one child together.  Joe himself is from a large family with lots of siblings, all of whom have children and those children now have children.  Sometimes it's difficult to remember who is who, since we don't see Joe's family all that often, though they are all lovely people with whom we have a good time whenever we see them.

Tom rented a room from Joe for over a year when he first moved to Santa Barbara and became like an older brother to Joe's daughter Jocelyn, who is now married to David, living in Boston, with two small children, Charlee (same age as Lacie) and James (6 mos). Alice Nan had scheduled her retirement to coincide with Jocelyn's annual trip home to visit family, so the weekend has included a lot of Joe's family as well.

Before we met up with some of Joe's family today, though, we first went out for breakfast at iHOP, across the street from the motel, with Walt's brother Norm and wife Olivia; Cousin Ernie Baur (he's famous, you know), and wife Lucille; Ernie's brother Gerald and wife Melissa.  And we were joined by Alice Nan's good friend Gingie, with whom she worked for many years.  She may not be a blood (or married) relation, but she has been around so long and participated in so many family activities that she certainly qualifies as "extended family."

Breakfast was great and I was glad they had seated us in the farthest corner of the restaurant, because this family has never been noted for its quiet voices.

After breakfast, we were saying goodbye to Gerald and Melissa, who were driving back home.  We stood by the hotel pool saying goodbye, and I finally left to go to our room.  I turned and looked back and decided that "Hour Baur" has become a verb. The group was "Hour Baur-ing," taking their sweet time saying goodbye.  Again.

The rest of us went to our respective rooms, waiting for word for Tom as to what we were going to do.  When the word came, we were to meet at a local park, where we would have a picnic.  We each picked up food for ourselves and headed to the park.

When Tom came he said the girls were really tired because they had already been running at the dog beach with Ned and Marta and then had gone swimming.  Lacie was exhausted and uncharacteristically quiet.

We sat around chatting and eating and were eventually joined by Alice Nan, Joe, two of Joe's daughters, his ex-wife, and assorted grandchildren.  Young Michelle became the self-appointed babysitter, carrying 6 month old James around, and helping to keep 2 yr old Charlee entertained, showing her how to take photos using Charlee's mom's (Jocelyn) camera.

Charlee even took some selfies.

In the meantime Charlee's grandma was teaching Charlee's brother James to say "la-la-la."

Tom and Bri went off for a hike in the hills

Bri also did some bonding with Ernie, whom she has decided is silly (she doesn't realize he is famous)

And while it was all going on, Walt did what he does best.

We decided that the girls were too tired (as were Tom and Laurel) for us to get together for dinner, so we decided to have dinner at Alice Nan and Joe's house.  In the meantime there was another Hour Baur to happen, saying goodbye to Ernie and Lucille, who were driving back Long Beach, so they could catch their flight back to Maryland in the morning.

Ned and Marta came to Alice Nan & Joe's with The Bouncer

Eventually we were all stretched out across the living room chatting and munching on See's candy, which Alice had received as a gift.

It's been a very big "family" weekend but such fun.  I love all these guys.  I love the Baurs, I love the Sykeses, I love Joe's family, especially Jocelyn and her kids (since I know them best of all the family).  I loved having the chance to wallow in "family" all weekend.  (Except for the Hour Baurs, of course.)

PHOTO OF THE DAY

 

Left to right: Lucille, Norm, me, Walt, Melissa, Olivia, Gerald and Ernie
taken at the lagoon at the Ramada in (of course there are so many of us
that you can't see the lagoon at all!)

I'm Crabby

Nobody would ever say I didn't get enough crab today. The morning started off with another breakfast at the Madeleine, where we ate yesterday, and then a leisurely stroll up about 6-8 blocks to Steamers, where the party was to be held.

We weren't exactly sure where we were going and the one who knew (Walt) had gone off to find an ATM machine. After listening to grumbling and speculation about how much farther it was, I reminded Norm and Olivia that they had iPhones.

We found out we were only 3 blocks away, after we turned down a side street.

At first it was just us and the teams of Norm-Jeri and Walt-Phil had a good game of pool.

The first guests to arrive were actually my friends, Mary and her husband Joe.

As Mary explains our friendship, "I have followed Bev since I started journaling back in 2002; she had already been doing daily entries for several years. But we started conversing through guestbooks and comments and realized that we were kindred spirits. We finally met in person in 2005 and it was like we'd already known each other for years." It was so delightful to see them again. She's right...we are kindred spirits and Joe is a real sweetheart. I was thrilled they could come!

The two of them stayed for most of the afternoon, at least until the end of the winning Redskins game, not until the end of the winning Giants game and they certainly were not there when the 49er game started.

Eventually others arrived and soon the party was in full swing.

A great time was had by all and there was great food--an fabulous crab dip and crab quesadillas among them.

At one point, Mary ordered a huge soft pretzel with some amazing crab sauce on it and shared it with me.

In about Hour 6 or 7, when the Baur spouses (Melissa, Olivia and I) were sitting off marveling at the how much our spouses can find to talk about, we saw Vanessa, who is young Ernest's girlfriend.

We asked her if she was familiar with the Hour Baur phenomenon and she rolled her eyes. We introduced ourselves as the Hour Baur widows and told her she was welcome to sit with us whenever she felt the need!

After the Redskins won their game, Phil and Olivia sat down to watch Game 3 in the National League playoffs

And then there was the unfortunate "chair incident"

Eventually things began winding down and I looked around and realized that for the last half hour, the only people there was us!

I thought we were going to go home...but no. After much hemming and hawing (because this group never does "a bit" of hemming and hawing), it was decided that it was so late, we might as well have dinner in the place too. So we moved out of the TV/poker/pool and onto the outdoor porch.

(all the people in the white boundary are ours)

Walt and I each had a crab soup and then an appetizer portion size of Snow Crab legs. I think I finally got my fill of crab for the day! I am definitely "crabby."

Finally Hour Baur started in earnest

A couple of people actually DID leave.....and the rest of them sat down again!!!!!

By this time we had been at Steamers for TEN HOURS. Melissa had actually almost made her escape, deciding to go back to the hotel alone, but, like the Corlione family, just when you think you're out, they pull you back in again. I was ready to order breakfast, figuring we were going to be spending the night. (I do like crab eggs Benedict!) But no, it appeared that this time we might actually leave the restaurant.

So after all this good bye-ing at Steamers, we finally were on the street and what do we do? We walk together back to the hotel.

I went right upstairs. The others stayed in the lobby for awhile, and then moved to Norm & Olivia's room to watch the end of the 49er game. Tomorrow, because we haven't had enough of each other, we are moving to the home of the bride's parents, where we will have dinner, spend the night and start saying goodbye before the flight the next day. Walt and I have a 7 p.m. flight and we might possibly be finished saying goodbye by then.

Incidentally, I may not publish an entry tomorrow night, so be advised that if you don't see one, it means there will be two the next night.