Yesterday was the first day of our second week on the road, and so far, it seems like mom is bearing up, if not thriving. Except for biting her tongue halfway through, I don't think that physically the trip is being bad for her. On the contrary, I think that she is getting a lot more exercise than she does when we are at her house in Geneva. And she isn't complaining about her her stomach being upset. I think part of that is that I am not giving her coffee unless I give her food at the same time. And I am just giving her less coffee in general...
Yesterday was a visiting day. We only had two assignations. The first was in Oakland for lunch. When I was a lad, I married a young woman from China. Her parents lived in Shanghai. My mom taught in Shanghai for a few years. And they looked after mom a lot! Later, they moved to the US, at first living with mom and then moving to NYC and then to CA where they still live. Mom and Jean got especially close. So, while we were out here, I thought it would be great to see them. I haven't seen them in about 10 years I think. The families are still in touch even though Emma and I have been divorced for 21 years.
The drive down had potential for being terrible. We had to drive through one of the worst designed pieces of roadway in the entire country - a true can of worms. Luckily we only had to slow down to a crawl and not stop and inch along. Yay! They still live in the same building they have lived in for a long time. Sadly, their puppies have passed (they had two Pomeranians). After catching up, we headed to lunch at a Restaurant in Emmeryville that is right on the water - I think even on a little jutting point or peninsula - it felt like we were almost surrounded by water! Great view! It did, though, make it clear, that the ferry was off the table - the water was way too choppy for it to be a fun and comfortable way to get across the bay. But I pre-write.
Lunch was a feast! Kinda makes sense since we haven't seen each other in a long while. Dim Sum style, lots of little dishes were ordered. Spanish People think they are on to something new and hot with Tapas - ha! The Chinese have been doing that for thousands and thousands of years. I don't know what all we ate, but we ate a lot of it! I didn't really speak to the servers as we were too busy eating and chatting amongst ourselves.
I was surprised to learn that Emma and her family moved to the West Coast. And even more surprised when she called during lunch. We had a little chat and she told me that I had ignored her friend invite on Facebook. Oops! I must have done that by mistake. I hope she friends me again!
After lunch, we took Jean and Dick back to their apartment and then headed off to San Francisco. We sailed into town, found parking at the Sutter Stockton Garage (the most economical garage in that part of town) and found the restaurant we were to dine in later that evening. Unfortunately, because of not taking the ferry, we were about two hours early for our next assignation. Fortunately, I stopped and asked a man wearing a beer related t-shirt about beer places nearby. He pointed out the Oz Lounge right across the street as having a decent selection.
Mom and I headed there and sat down. A young woman from Ireland, Aofe, (pronounced Effie) greeted us and gave us libations! Beer for me - a Scotch Ale from Belmont, CA - soda water for mom. Then we settled in to wait. Jeff was on his way and would join us about an hour before dinner. Which is exactly what happened. He was great with mom! And it was great to see him as always.
We wended our way the half a block to Sam's Grill for dinner. Apparently it is an SF tradition, having been around for a looooong time. We had an interesting waiter who was from France, having come to the US in 1960 (still had a bit of his accent - it took me a while to place - not a garrulous individual that I noticed in our brief encounter). Mom and Jeff worked out their meals, and I took our waiter's recommendation of the seafood sauté. It was all shellfish - scallops, shrimp and crab. Yum! Mom was aghast that I ordered seafood (not remembering that I enjoy shellfish, just not fishy fish fish). She had a great looking piece of salmon, and Jeff had "melt in the mouth" tuna! All in all, a great meal! In fact as I type this, I am still full!
After dinner, I gave mom two options - anything more than that overwhelms her - and even the two sometimes causes gridlock and teeny panic: wait outside the restaurant with Jeff while I went and got the car, or climb the two blocks of hill to get back to where we parked. Surprisingly, she opted for the climb! Who is this woman? She barely (relatively) complained on the whole upward struggle. Yay her!
Zip, zoom, back to our host's abode for nappy time! Yay! Full day - both stomach wise and activity wise!
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| Jean, Dick, me, Mom |
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| Mom in 7th heaven! |
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| me, Jeff and Mom at Sam's Grill in SF |
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