California May 2024

This is just one big post. I hope you don't mind!

May 3 Friday

We flew here yesterday. Our flight was uneventful, although delayed a bit because of the runway construction in SF. It’s supposed to be finished by July. Thank goodness, because it’s a pain!

I watched a documentary about Shere Hitt on the plane, that I had downloaded from Amazon. The Disappearance of Shere Hitt.  If you are a woman age 65 or above, you know who she is. In the late 70’s she was a researcher working on a PhD in history when she became interested in human sexuality. She decided to do a survey of female sexuality. She sent out 1,000’s of surveys, by mail, and asked women to send them back anonymously. She asked the women about their sexual life, orgasms, masturbation, everything. To say this was revolutionary at the time is an understatement. The book that she wrote about the survey results was a best seller. My friends and I devoured it. Here was confirmation that what we thought and felt and did about sex was normal and not weird or unusual in the slightest.

At first Shere was lauded and her research was acclaimed. But she didn’t stop with women, she did another survey about men, and then the tide turned. Men just didn’t want to hear that other men felt lonely  or misunderstood, that they felt tremendous pressure about sexual performance. Men didn’t want to admit that they too sometimes felt the same way, especially not in public. So she was attacked. She would go on talk shows trying to defend her work and get blind-sided by the men interviewing her. They criticized her research methods, and they criticized her as not credible, because she was stunningly beautiful and had made a living as a model before her books were published. 

The attacks got so bad that she left the US and basically disappeared for most of the rest of her life, living in Germany and Paris with her husband, a concert pianist. She couldn’t find a publisher for her subsequent books. It was very sad. She died in 2020 (after a long illness, so cancer) and if you ask someone under 60 who she is they have no idea. Maybe this documentary will help give her some of the credit that was denied her back in the 70’s and 80’s.

Ok, back to California. Dan picked us up at the airport and we were at their house by 2 pm PT. For some strange reason I had no problem  adjusting. I ate lunch on the plane, had a snack around 3 Pacific time and survived until we ate dinner at around 6. I stayed up until almost 9 and slept til 5! Cant ask for anything better than that!

Emi is amazing. At almost 5 months she’s changed so much! She can roll from back to front and front to back. She can sit up with support. Her little personality is emerging. She smiles, and almost laughs. She’s become very vocal! She has a lot to say! She stares at people in wonder, faces are her favorite thing. She only seems to cry if she’s hungry or tired, so she’s still a very easy baby, especially since she’s over her 4 month regression and is sleeping through the night again.

We are going to watch her some of the time on Friday and Monday, so Daniel showed me how to do her bottles and how to put her down for a nap. Dan and Kelsey use an app called Huckleberry to record her naps and her feedings. This is very helpful; the app somehow knows when she needs another bottle, when she’s ready for a nap. It takes some of the mystery out of babysitting, although the mystery is now transferred to the app; I mean how does it know?

It is absolutely beautiful here. It rained all winter and now the sun is shining, the highs are in the 60’s and 70’s and flowers are blooming riotously. Roses, poppies, daisies, so many others, all different colors, shapes and sizes! I will definitely be taking some pictures when I’m not photographing Emi that is!

Sunday May 5

Yesterday was very rainy so I took the day off from exercising. We decided to go on a little adventure. First we went to this pastry place in San Mateo. Backhaus. Dan and Kelsey said it was really good and it was. Dan got an “everything” croissant that tasted like a bagel. Kelsey got a traditional croissant that was HUGE. I got a miso pecan sticky roll. You couldn’t taste the miso but it made the pecan roll less sweet and really really good. I thought I wouldn’t eat the whole thing but I did! 

It was still pouring, but the next stop was very interesting. We went to pick up some noodles in Daly City that a guy sells out of his house. They are supposed to be really good, so Daniel ordered them a couple of years ago and then forgot about them. Well this week his name finally rose to the top of the list so  we went to pick them up. We pulled up to the house, Dan texted the guy and he brought out the noodles, including condiments and garnishes to cook them with.

Our last stop was a bit of a drive, up to Marin on the other side of San Francisco. It was kind of fun driving through GG park and across the bridge. First we stopped at an InandOut because Lee didn’t get a pastry so he was hungry. He got a burger, Kelsey got some french fries to go and a shake and Dan got one of the items on their secret menu, a burger made with lettuce to hold it instead of a bun. Apparently InandOut has a “secret” menu where if you’re in the know you can order all kinds of variations on their standard menu. Just Google “InandOut secret menu” and you’ll see what I mean.

Then we went to our last stop but sadly it was a bust. It was a ceramic store in Sausalito called Heath, that was having a big sale. Dan and Kelsey wanted more plates and bowls but there was a line way out the door and down the street so we called it a day and drove home.

When we got back to their house it stopped raining so we went for a walk which felt great after being cooped up in the car. I took pictures of all the flowers; so very pretty!

For dinner we had some of the noodles, grilled chicken, and asparagus. The noodles were really good. Lee and I split one of the packages because it really was a lot of food. It was too spicy for Kelsey so Dan has a lot left over, but he can freeze them.

This morning it was cold but sunny, 45F at 8 am. I had found a nearby pool where I could go swimming, Rinconada pool. I could get a day pass as a senior for $9 so a deal. I was afraid that it would be like the pool in La Hoya and be cold, but it was great. The locker room was heated and the pool was heated to 80F, so all I had to do was walk across the deck and slip into the water.

I had 1000 yards to swim, as 3x100, then 3x200 and then 100 to cool down. My swimming is going so much better. Then online class I took helped me so much. I really should write a blog post about it and how it transformed my swimming. Anyway I had no trouble with this workout and could have swum more.

Next up, we drove to Menlo Park to check out a daycare that was having an open house. D and K like their current daycare but they wanted to see another one and compare. Lee and I took Rossi for a walk around a pretty neighborhood and through a park. D and K said that they liked their daycare better. It was kind of reassuring to them that their daycare was a good fit for them.

Then for lunch we went to a place called the Alpine Inn, an outdoor Mexican/American restaurant that’s very popular. We were lucky that there was only a 30 minute wait. It reminded me of places in Texas with all the outdoor seating under tents, trees and canopies, with heaters for this time of year when it’s still a little chilly. Lots of kids, dogs and ppl with bicycles too. We ordered a variety of food. Chips and guacamole, chilly cheese french fries (good), margaritas, lemonade. Then Dan got a burrito, I got a BLAT, Lee got tacos, and Kelsey got mac and cheese. I could only eat half of my sandwich, it was HUGE, and I let ppl eat some of the bacon and avocado too. We hung out for a while, it was just so nice out.

Tuesday May 7

Flying home today, our flight leaves at 3. Friday night and last night we watched the Timberwolves annihilate the Nuggets. I’m not a big fan of professional basketball, but wow, they are fun to watch! The Nuggets are last year’s NBA champions so the Wolves are now considered serious contenders for the title. It’s a 7 game series, though and there are lots of games to go; the season doesn’t end until June.

Yesterday we watched Emi while Dan and Kelsey worked. She is such an easy baby, even though she is teething so she does get fussy sometimes, and DROOLS, lol. I went for a run and we went for both a morning and afternoon walk. I had lots of steps by the end of the day!

We did tummy time, read books, took naps, drank bottles. We are getting the hang of what she needs but of course by the next time we see them it will all have changed again. Babies change so quickly that first year.

For our afternoon coffee I went to a place called Backyard Brewery to pick up some coffee to go. It was excellent! For dinner we went to an Udon noodle restaurant. We brought Rossi so we had to sit outside, which would have been fine except that the trees were shedding pollen and little seed things. It was all around us in the air and on the table; I’m sure we ate some! 

It was a very nice visit. They are coming to Minnesota at the end of June, and we are going back to Palo Alto in August. I can’t wait!