The Magic of Ice Cream

There is an old fashioned restaurant in Oakland that we occasionally took the kids to when we were living there.  It's called Fenton's Creamery.  It was the kind of place where you could get a real malted milk shake, sinful ice cream desserts heaped high with real whipping cream and the maraschino cherry on top.  

We didn't go there often, but did  go there on occasion, usually some special occasion.  

Fenton's was founded in Oakland in 1894 and has served generations of happy customers.  It was/is located right across the street from the Kaiser hospital where all of our children were born.

In 2007, it opened a location at the Nut Tree in Fairfield.  The Nut Tree used to be this amazing site that had a great restaurant, playground, train, toy shop, airport, and airplane museum.   It was state-wide famous and rich people could get in their private planes in Los Angeles and fly up to the Nut Tree airport for lunch and be back home again in time for dinner. It had started as a roadside fruit stand in 1921 and just grew like Topsy.

In the years when the kids were little, we used to alternate months and take one child out to dinner in a "sit down restaurant" which they got to choose.  In a year, each child had dinner twice, once with Walt and once with me.   The Nut Tree was a favorite spot because it felt fancy, it had a great aviary with interesting birds flying around you while you ate, and they served us individual hot loaves of bread (also a salad of fresh pineapple with a delicious marshmallow dressing).   It was a great experience.  We always shopped for oddball kitchen stuff, jewelry, t-shirts, and books.

But over the years, the folks who owned the Nut Tree died and nobody ran it like they did and it shut down in 1996.  The famous building was torn down and sat unused for a few years.  Now it is a strip mall, called "Nut Tree Plaza," with hints of the old Nut Tree, like a fun playground with the old Nut Tree merry-go-round.  The airport remains, but there is no restaurant like the old Nut Tree. Instead there are places like Michael's, BestBuy, Chipotle, See's Candy, and a host of other small stores.

But there is Fentons, bigger and brighter than the old Oakland location.

When Jeri was here last month and we had such a good time with the Blackfords, I decided that I have all these women that I regularly have lunch with, but it takes getting Jeri here (or a cruise) to get together with Char, my best friend.  We live an hour or so from each other, and we both have lots of free time, but we never seem to get together.  I decided we could meet somewhere in the middle, and suggested that we get together for lunch this month.

Today was the day we chose and Char decided she would drive farther than half way and suggested we have lunch at Fenton's.

I got there first and stopped at the Jelly Belly store next door.   

I have worn Jelly Belly socks for some time and I really like them so I thought I could get another pair.  They didn't have the kind I like but they had some new fuzzy socks that I like better, so I was happy.  There was a woman shopping in the store who was so tickled to be there and was taking a video to post on Instagram.   She positively beamed to have found the Jelly Belly store!

Char showed up and we went to sit down in Fentons.  I had checked their on-line menu last night and knew that their specialty was crab salad sandwich, and it was indeed delicious.  I had a whole one.  Char had half of one with a bowl of soup.

And then, because it was, you know, Fenton's, we had to have a sundae.

(This is their small hot fudge sundae, so full of ice cream, that the fudge overflows onto the plate.)

Between the crab and the hot fudge, we discussed anything and everything.  Books, politics, our kids, the Pinata group.  While I very much enjoy getting together with the women I see here in Davis, nothing beats conversation with lifelong friends with whom you never have to explain anything--because they know it all.

We just missed the other 3 (surviving) women in the Pinata group and so we have chosen a date for our next lunch in February and invited the others to join us.   I live for stuff like this.