A Long Day

It is the very, very late end of a long day.

I got up early to make coffee cake for breakfast, and then Phil went off to do some banking and Jeri and I went to pick my mother up for the Brain Gymnasium. As usual, she didn't want to go. 

It was good for Jeri to be there today.  She got to see my mother at her best...or, more appropriately, at her worst.  She threatened to walk out if Michael didn't stop asking her questions.  The exercise we were doing at the time was to think of something that you can't do now because the means to do it no longer exist.  Things like crank telephones, ice boxes, 78 records, and things like that.   It should have been a piece o'cake for my mother.  She's the oldest one in the class and has seen a lot of things come and go in her lifetime, but she couldn't think of a thing and it made her so angry that Michael would even ask her...because she's 94, you know, and her brain doesn't work like that (this is a recording)

But Michael jollied her through it and by the end of the session, as always, she was feeling OK and even figuring some things out on her own.  The thing that makes me so frustrated is that in her anger at feeing "stupid" and not wanting people to see that she is "stupid" she doesn't even notice that every single person in the class makes mistakes.  Heck, even Jeri and I made mistakes today.  But all she can see is that she makes mistakes and that embarrasses her.

We then went to lunch and sat with my friend Peggy, who is such a delightful woman and looks forward to spending time with my mother while I'm away because I will send her photos that she can share with my mother on Peggy's computer.  I decided not to mention that I will be keeping this diary daily...that seems too much to ask her to bring my mother to her apartment every day, so I will just send off maybe the Photo of the Day each day, or a few times a week.

For dessert my mother ordered an ice cream cone.  So did Jeri.   Peggy and I each got the smaller frozen drumsticks.  My mother sat through her whole cone talking about how big it was, how she could never finish it, why do they make servings so big, etc...but she has that cone every. single. day. for lunch!  It was like she had never seen it before.  The only difference between that cone and the cone she usually has is she usually asks them to pour a little chocolate on it.   And she finished it all with no problem at all.

After that morning, I left the others at home and drove to San Francisco to meet my friend Lynn for dinner.  Well, not exactly.  I planned to drive to Walnut Creek and take BART to the city, since parking at the Hyatt Hotel, where Lynn was staying, would cost me $62 so I decided to take BART in...not realizing that the BART stop is almost directly in front of the hotel so it's almost more convenient in addition to being significantly cheaper.

I have an unerring sense of direction.  No matter where I am going, I always take the wrong turn.  and so it was that I didn't find the Walnut Creek BART station and in trying to get to it, stumbled across the Concord BART station, so I gook BART from there.

I got to the hotel about an hour before Lynn's meetings were finished and I sat and read.  Ironically, there is a display in the lobby of the Hyatt about Alcatraz prison and I am currently reading "Orange is the New Black" about a woman's year in a prison, so it all felt too chillingly familiar!

Lynn finally arrived and we went to her room on the 15th floor to look at the view, which is spectacular.

We then walked two blocks up California to Tadich Grill, the oldest restaurant in California and a place Forbes named one of the World's 10 Great Classic Restaurants.  

Which may explain why the bar was jam packed at 6 p.m. and why they told us it would probably be 45 minutes before we could get a table.

But we were in no hurry, so ordered wine..

.

...and sat at the bar chatting with the bartender...

...and getting caught up on all the news in our lives.  Lynn has just bought a house and is all excited about things surrounding that, I got great feedback (and moral support) about my mother, we both shared the most beautiful, intelligent grandchildren in the world.  In short, girl talk, the thing I miss most in my life these days. The time passed so quickly we didn't even notice that our wait was an hour and 10 minutes.

But the meal was worth it.  Tadich specializes in seafood, so naturally I ordered crab, this time sauteed in a wine sauce with mushrooms that was worth the mortage I've put on the house...

The original plan had been for me to spend the night in Lynn's room (they even have a comfy chair with a foot stool, which would have been perfect), but with Jeri and Phil leaving in the morning, I wanted to be home to tell them goodbye.

The immediate problem was finding my way out of Concord.  At least I knew where the car was parked but, especially in the dark, I didn't have a clue where the freeway home was.  Nigel to the rescue.  I hauled out the trusty GPS and set it up for about 10 minutes, which was all it took for Nigel to direct me to the right freeway.  Then it was clear sailing home.  

Nobody was here when I arrived, as everyone had gone out with Ned and Marta on Ned's friend Greg's boat for a sunset dinner cruise, and then back to Greg and his wife's house for chit chat until about midnight.  Now all have gone to bed and I will soon follow them!

Jeri and Phil are going to have one last visit with Grandma in the morning, but it's my day to work at Logos and I think I'll take a day off from Atria.   My days off are becoming precious to me and what allow me to be patient with her the rest of the time.

Monterey

So here we are in Monterey, Lynn and I.  I can't remember the last time I was here, but it is beautiful as ever. Remembering the last time I saw Lynn is easier.  I visited her a month after she moved to San Diego and she was only there for 3 months, so I last saw her in July of 2012.

We decided to meet in the middle.  She now works in Santa Barbara and it's about a 4-5 hour drive (according to Yahoo) from there and it's about a 3-4 hour drive from Davis.  And we knew this would be a fun town to explore.

I got here shortly after noon and sent her a text saying I couldn't get in the hotel parking lot until she got here and that I was going in search of a bathroom.  By the time I had returned from McDonalds (after nearly killing myself trying to go the wrong way down a street), parked at a beach parking lot next to the hotel, and taken a picture of where we will be for the next two nights, she had already checked in. (She obviously drives faster than I do.)

 Our hotel

We settled into our room and took pictures of the photo shoot that was going on in the hotel pool.  I don't know what this is for, but I did manage to get a picture of the bride and groom as they leaped into the pool! (The guy IN the pool has an underwater camera.)

 We had checked the internet and found a restaurant we wanted to try on Fisherman's Wharf, Old Fisherman's Grotto...I found the Monterey Fisherman's Wharf not all that different from San Francisco's, but fewer junky gift shops.

 

The restaurant was lovely.  The only thing that was a disappointment was that there were no free window seats, but we settled ourselves in with some nice local wine and, of course...

..

This was garlic roasted crab and it was wonderful, as was the couscous that it rested on.

The two of us polished off a whole bottle of Pinot Grigio and a fabulous--one of the best I've tasted--creme brulee.

Then we went walking along the wharf and checked out junky souvenir stand before heading back to the hotel.  I discovered that Tom and Laurel have done exactly what Walt and I did.  They have one child (Brianna) whose name is very easy to find on stuff, and one (Lacie) whose name is impossible to find.  I figure I have about one more year of getting Brianna stuff before I have to stop because Lacie will feel left out!

We are both so stuffed from the huge lunch that we are probably just going to order some hors d'oeuvres from the hotel restaurant, sit by the windows in the lobby and watch the ocean.

 

It's so great to see Lynn again!

Sweltering?

If there had been something soft next to me, I would have tossed it at the television tonight. Lynn and I had spent the day on Coronado Island and had come home and were relaxing before she took me to the airport. The news was on and the weatherman was giving a weather report. "We're going to have to put up with these sticky, sweltering temperatures for 3 more days," he said.

Do you know what the high in San Diego today was? 78! He's complaining that he has to "put up with" 78 degree weather and I'm flying home to 100 degree weather! We don't even have a low of 78 these days! Those folks in San Diego don't know what a good thing they have!

It was actually a gorgeous day. It was clear and sunny, warm, but with a constant breeze to cool you off. Just the perfect day for the beach. We weren't going to be beach per se, but we were going to Coronado Island, just over the bridge from San Diego.

(This is actually returning to San Diego, but I didn't
take pictures going--it looks the same in either direction!)

The main reason I was interested in going to Coronado was to see the 123 year old Del Coronado Hotel. If you've seen Some Like it Hot or Somewhere inTime, that delightful time travel romance starring Christopher Reeve and Jane Seymour, you have seen this beautiful old hotel.

There was a historical display in the basement that was really kind of interesting to read through.

I loved that the 1915 "bridal suite" came with twin beds!

There was also a sweet story about one of the hotel's waitresses, who would take menus home for her kids to cut up and use as paper doll clothes.

And as for the choice of this hotel as a setting for Some Like it Hot, the hotel was in financial decline during the 1950s and when director Billy Wilder was looking for a location, he found out it would rent cheap! There was also a menu from 1963 with nothing on the menu (including crab) more than $2.50 and one of the dessert choices was "cling peaches in syrup."

Lynn had dressed in clothes a bit too warm for the day, so we stopped in one of the hotel's shops so she could try to find something more comfortable, including new shoes.

What the fat lady does when her tiny friend
shops in a skinny lady's store!

She bought a blouse and cooler pants, but still hadn't found shoes, but then we found the perfect stop for the two of us.

She bought shoes and I bought a card with a photo that I absolutely loved on it.

When we later stopped at a pizza restaurant for lunch, Lynn went to the ladies' room and came back transformed and cool in her new duds.

We walked back to the car and then drove around looking at houses on Coronado for awhile. All gorgeous, or course. Probably a little shack would run you >$1 mil. But nice to look.

We came back home to rest up and listen to the weather persons tell us how hot it was (I was sitting in the middle of the most lovely breeze at the time!). Then we finished our leftover meals from the last couple of days and finally packed me up in her car for the ride to the airport.

The flight home was uneventful and, though it was a completely full flight, I had a low number on Southwest, so I had no trouble getting a prime seat. Dogs were very happy to see me home again.

It was definitely a quick weekend, but so nice to have some time to spend with Lynn.

Cultural Desert

On hearing how much I was enjoying San Diego, someone on Facebook joked that it was a "cultural desert." Guess this must have been someone who has never been to Balboa Park, our destination for today.

In the morning, after breakfast, Lynn set out to examine the possibilities for a day in the park, with the help of her two canine assistants.

(It's easy to see in what high esteem the furry people here are held.)

After some disagreements with "Matilda," the GPS voice in Lynn's car, we got to Balboa park and were presented with such a plethora of cultural diversities that they didn't all fit on the map I was trying to decipher. I don't know how many museums there are in the park, but everything from the tiny camera club museum to the large natural history museum, and just about everything in between, including the zoo, which I recognized from my trip here with Peggy in 2000.

There were any number of street entertainers.

The froufrou on the buildings was definitely over the top.

We were looking through the many museums for the Museum of Photographic Arts, which we eventually found sandwiched in the same building as the Museum of San Diego History, across from the Museum of Natural History and the Museum of Science.

It was a fabulous museum, tracing the history of photography. I was struck over and over again the power of photographs to capture an emotion that you can't capture in quite the same way with a painting. A photo captures that one split second in time when the subject may have been caught off guard and when the real essence of that person leaps off the print.

I was sorry photos weren't allowed, but certainly understand why they weren't, though there were many photos I wished I could copy just to be able to show what I meant.

A photo of Groucho Marx, for example. Totally candid and I almost didn't recognize him. Or a picture of a woman in a camp in Tanzania in the early 1900s, holding her baby. The picture on her face showed the total depression she was feeling and I found myself wondering what ever became of her. There was a picture of two very posh ladies draped in furs, wearing tiaras, alighting from a limo, with what had to have been an onlooker, the expression of disgust on his face evident.

And there was a sad quartet of photos of Marilyn Monroe, 3 taken for a Life magazine spread at the start of her career and a candid taken a short time before death, the ravages of fame so clear on her face.

I was very sorry to have to pass up a photo of a snowflake, taken very early in the history of photography, by a man who snapped individual snowflakes on black velvet...and had to take the pictures within 15 seconds before the flakes melted, to prove that no two snowflakes are alike.

I'm not sure what our own little quartet of pictures taken in a photo booth in the gift shop says about us, but we had to step into the booth and give it a try. (I suspect it says that we were having a good time!)

We finally left Balboa Park without having visited the Art Institute or the Air and Space Museum, or Museum of Man or the Timken Museum of art, or the Japanese Museum, or the Centro Cultural de la Raza, or the botanical garden or any one of a host of other museums just in Balboa Park alone. We didn't see the Youth Symphony Conservatory, Junior Theatre, Civic Youth Ballet, or Civic Dance Arts.

Definitely not a cultural wasteland!

We came home to feed and walk the dogs and then off to Old Town for dinner. Fortunately we had reservations at Cafe Coyote, one of the best Mexican restaurants in town, because the line to get in was very long.

But we were showed to our seat immediately and we contemplated our dinner choices over a nice big Cadillac Marguerita.

Dinner was fabulous, but too big, and we both brought home doggie bags.

We came home and collapsed in front of the TV. The last thing I remember was starting to watch The Medium and waking up at 9:30 to a completely dark house, with Lynn and the dogs already in bed.

It's been a full, but such a fun day. Sad to realize that I will be writing my next entry from home, as I leave in about 24 hours to fly back to Sacramento.

San Diego

It is a little after midnight and the house is quiet. Lynn and the three little dogs (2 pomeranians and a poodle) have gone upstairs to bed. I'm sitting here surrounded by fans blowing cool air on me. The temperature here tonight was in the mid-70s. I could learn to love San Diego!

I had a late afternoon flight, since Lynn had to work. Walt took me to the airport around 3p.m. and we remarked on how strange it was for him to be dropping me off at the airport, since it's usually the other way.

It wasn't all that long a wait before the plan (which had landed early) began boarding passengers. I was able to get the window seat in the third row, which pleased me very much.

The flight seemed to...well...fly by. Before I knew it, the coast off San Diego was coming into view.

(please note those white things are CLOUDS, which means CLOUD COVER which means COOL TEMPERATURES!! As it is predicted to be 100 in Davis today, even the TSA woman in Sacramento told me she was jealous of my being able to fly to San Diego!)

Lynn met me as I came through the screening area and we loaded my stuff in the car and headed for Seaport Village, where we had reservations for dinner. We were early, so we wandered around the gift shops. Lynn bought some ceramic mushrooms for her yard, I took pictures of a delightful carousel, which originally dated from 1895

The animals were all beautifully restored and it made me want to be a kid again!

The Village was really fun to walk around. Most of the street vendors and performers had left, but I loved this woman interacting with a little girl. So sweet!

And this guy was there with several birds.

We ate at the Harbor House, right near the bay.

We ate upstairs and had a wonderful view of the water, while we enjoyed our crab cakes, mojito, and Australian lamb chops. All were amazing, as was the view.

We stopped at a gourmet cupcake shop to pick up a couple of cupcakes for dessert, then came home to walk the dogs, have another glass of wine, eat our cupcakes and chat.

I could get used to this!

"The Best Party Ever"

Lynn just came to say goodnight, on her way to bed. She was still floating on a cloud and said that her birthday party had been "the best day ever."

The house was a beehive of activity. all so organized by Kathy that I felt like a bump on a log, so just stayed out of the way, watching the slide show that Lynn's brother-in-law had put together.

Lynn has two sons, the older, Andy, lives in Texas and had flown out here with Lynn for the party. Matt lives in Amsterdam with his wife and 9 month old son. Lynn had been to The Netherlands this year to see the family, but was still sad that Matt wouldn't be able to be here for the party. So it was a total shock when she walked into the living room and saw him there (you might be able to see the video here but it might not be visible until I get home to work on it).

Andy, Lynn, Matt

NOBODY except Andy knew Matt was coming, so every time someone new saw him, it was shock all over again.

The third sister and her husband arrived and we decided to take pictures before everyone got too harried.

Fran, Lynn, and Kathy (the hostess)

Gifts were opened. One gift, a beautiful ring, was a gift from all the family so they took a group photo, into which young Luke decided to insert himself.

Today was actually Andy's birthday (Lynn's is really tomorrow), so he got gifts too, especially these lovely pink underpants which they bought for him at a local massage parlor.

There are few men who could carry off this look, but Andy did it with aplomb.... and a lot of laughs.

When it was time for cake, Lynn led everybody in singing to her.

When everybody had gone home, we sat around rehashing the day--and giving some attention to Shorty.

Kathy, who had done yeomen's duty for the day was definitely ready to call it a night.

So, all things considered, it was a great success and Lynn has been well feted, which should hold her until her 70th, ten years from now!

I'm leaving here at the crack of dawn tomorrow, hoping to get as far as I can before the predicted storm hits.

From the Southland

I have arrived in Ventura. It was a long day and, I have to admit that it was one of the hardest drives I've made in a very long time. I suppose waking up at 4 a.m. was partly to blame, but I was sleepy before I ever got out of the extended Sacramento area and must have stopped 6-8 times on the way down (nearly 400 miles) just to wake up.

Polly must have figured something was afoot and she decided she wanted to go with me, I think.

There was a bit of excitement when I went to load the car because I forgot about Spencer and as soon as he saw an open door he was gone. The other dogs know not to do that. But Spencer, being a whippet, was fast as lightning and racing up and down the block and, more scary, back and forth across the street.

Fortunately as soon as I made it a game for him, he ran toward me and Walt grabbed him and stuck him in the house, so I was finally on my way.

McDonald's was my friend and I stopped at several just to wake myself up. There was, for example, iced mocha at Flag City and lunch at the McDonald's near the Harris Ranch.

I had the Garmin GPS British voiced "Daniel" to guide me and my Harry Bosch audiobook to be read to me, for for once, even Harry Bosch couldn't keep me from getting sleepy.

I pulled off just before the Grapevine, the big hill that goes up to 4,000+ feet and takes you out of the valley, to get gas. There were hundreds of birds flying around and resting on the lawn, seeming unafraid of the cars driving very close to them.

It was also very windy here, and concentrating on that and the big semi trucks on the road definitely woke me up.

I arrived here just about 6 p.m., in time to put my suitcase inside, pee, and get back into Lynn's sister's car so we could go and visit Monica, Lynn's niece. Lynn had been here a day, but had not yet seen Monica's two kids yet.

This is Morgan, who is 3 months younger than Bri and just adorable.

After our pizza, we came home to the family dog, Shorty.

Lynn says he's 97 years old in human years. And he has almost no legs at all, but he's very sweet.

Lynn's brother-in-law is a man after my own heart.

He has his own corner with his recliner, his dog, all the TV remotes, and a computer stand on an adjustable pole, where he can work on the computer using the house wifi while he watches The Food Network. I would have been jealous, except that I have most of that stuff myself--just not quite so organized.

Everyone was in bed by 9 p.m., leaving me time to get this entry written and I might actually catch up on some sleep that I missed out on last night.

Autumn In New York

I sat here in the lobby of the hotel yesterday morning and watched the sun rise on the tree outside the window and thought how lovely that we are experiencing, as my friend Ron put it, "a glorious autumn."

It had not been a good night, bed-wise and I was up with stabbing back pains at 2:30, finally giving up and coming downstairs at 5 to read.

Walt lazed about in bed until a good 7 or so and finally came down and joined me for breakfast here in the hotel, then we started on our day of exploration.

My friend Lynn (Houston) was here for a weekend with a group of friends and we had made plans to meet her and go to lunch, so we took the bus up to Times Square and waited by the George M. Cohan statue. They are preparing for the big Macy*s Thanksgiving parade already and there were bleachers set up and barricades ready to be put into place at the right time.

It was so good to see Lynn.

We went, en masse, to a Mediterranean restaurant called "Dervish." One of her group, a woman named Jo, had traveled to Turkey several times, teaching students about neonatal intensive care, so she loved Mediterranean food and she was invaluable in ordering, as well as communicating with the waiter.

We ordered several appetizers and three entrees and all shared...it was more than enough.

The dolmas were the best that I'd ever had...I could have made a meal on those alone (and I'm not a big fan of dolmas!).

As we sat and visited, the background noise got louder and louder. When Lynn's friend Kerm complained to the waiter, he was told that there was a very important soccer match going on, so we understood and just put up with the noise (later, as we walked thru the front part of the restaurant, we realized that there were big screen TVs there and lots of Turkish-looking people very involved in the game).

Jo told us a lot about traveling in Turkey, so now I'm all enthused about going and hoping that our proposed trip will actually happen at some point.

After lunch, we said goodbye to Lynn et al. They were off to see a show, and we were off for a tour of Radio City Music Hall. We got tickets for the 2 p.m. tour, which gave us half an hour to kill, so we walked up to Rockefeller Plaza to see the big Christmas tree, which is being decorated for a December lighting. I never knew how they decorated that tree and it was actually quite interesting.

There were men on each of the levels of scaffolding around the tree, shaping it by trimming off extraneous branches and putting on lights. The star on the left there will go on the top of the tree.

We also stopped to watch the ice skaters.

We finally returned to Radio City Music Hall, where we had a fascinating backstage tour (and where I climbed more stairs that I think I did in Europe -- minus those 300 stairs down to Portovenere).

The walls backstage are lined with movie posters.

We watched the finale of the show that we are seeing on Sunday from a viewing booth, watched a film about the building, its history and its technical aspects (most of which I have now forgotten, but it was fascinating), and "Merrell," one of the Rockettes talked about costumes and what it's like to be a Rockette.

When we left there, I was ready to sit down somewhere, so I sat down by a fountain across the street from Radio City while Walt did some walking around. I sat there watching it get darker and getting colder.

We discovered that a cell phone is pretty much useless in this town. There is so much noise that you can't hear it ring. I called Steve, he called me twice, I called Walt, he called me and none of us heard any of the rings, but we got a lot of "missed calls. I still haven't actually spoken with Steve.

We tried to decide whether we were going to hang around downtown or go back to the hotel before our 8 p.m. show, but it was too early and too cold to find a place to stay for 3 hours, so we came back to the hotel. I chose not to climb the 40 stairs to the room, but sat in the lobby and read for awhile until it was time to leave to go back and find some dinner and the theatre.

I have to say that Walt has been just fantastic, parking me someplace and going to find the closest bus stop or a metro station with an elevator. I've given up even feeling guilty about it...I'm just feeling grateful!

We had tickets for Danny and Sylvia, a show about Danny Kaye, starring the amazing Brian Childers as Danny Kaye and Kimberley Faye Greenberg as his wife, Sylvia Fine.

First we stopped off at Famiglia, self-described as "New York's Favorite Pizza." It's a little hole in the wall, and I laughed at the description, but since it was wall to wall people trying to get pizza and since the pizza we had was delicious, the description may just be right!

We got to St. Luke's Theatre (lots of churches seem to double as theatres) for the show. We were about the first to arrive and while we were waiting two different groups came in looking for Zero Hour, to be directed to the St. Clement's Theatre, one block away. In truth, during the evening, I heard several different groups discussing Zero Hour, which I figured was a good sign!

The Danny Kaye show was delightful and Childers nicely captured the Danny Kaye I remember so fondly. We had front row center tickets, which I wondered about when we saw clearly that Childers is a "spitter," but no globules landed on the audience, so we just enjoyed the show.

Then back to the hotel. By the time we got here, I was too tired to climb up to the room, so I sat for about half an hour downstairs and tried to read, but was too sleepy. When I finally dragged myself upstairs I did something I have never done before--at least not in recent memory. I walked in the door, collapsed on the bed and declared I was too tired to write this journal entry. I think I was asleep within 5 minutes.

Of course I was up a couple of times with back pain and got up to come down here to the lobby at 5:30, but all things considered, I feel more rested this morning and not nearly as sore as I was last night.

And tonight we finally attend opening night of Zero Hour.

Oh...and Ashley says Higgins got adopted yesterday!