SATURDAY - MONDAY, JUNE 13-15

SATURDAY – MONDAY, JUNE 13-15:

      After a leisurely Saturday morning, we made the trek up to Alhambra. What an ordeal! Took us nearly 3 hours to go under 90 miles. Traffic would be bumper-to-bumper, crawling at a snail's pace, across 6 lanes of freeway, for miles. Then would open up for a while, then repeat. We figured out that at least some of it was caused by locals heading toward the beaches. Then we asked ourselves the question: Where will all of those people park once they're there?? But beach traffic didn't account for all of it, especially once we started going east, away from the beaches. The simple answer: just way too many people for the infrastructure.

      At any rate, we finally made it to Atherton in late afternoon. Went immediately to Mother's room. A hard, distressing experience. We hardly recognized her. She's very weak, slept most of the time, although she did give us some semblance of a greeting when we woke her up. It's hard to know if she recognized me and was aware of what was going on. We repeated many times: “It's me, Caryn. You know Caryn! And Lynn is coming soon.” At times she seemed to nod her head in recognition of that. We coaxed her into drinking some sips of water, and she ate a few spoonfuls of Bill's chocolate shake from Wendy's that he fed her. She will soon leave this world and its pain and sorrow, along with its joys and beauty, behind. Thank God she is getting excellent care at Atherton, and always has. As she has said many times, moving to that retirement community over 25 years ago was one of the best decisions she ever made. She'd made lots of friends and acquaintances there, and was very happy (at least as happy as our Mother knew how to be!)

      We gave ourselves plenty of time to get to the Orange County airport – had no idea what kind of traffic to expect. I don't know if it's different if you live here, but in our case, how do you know how much travel time to allow to go any place? I guess just allow at least double what a trip would be without traffic, and if you arrive early, relax and bring a book! At any rate, after a while, here come Beth & Landon off the plane. Was so wonderful to see them – a needed antidote to the stressful afternoon. Landon was clutching stuffed dog Foxy – he didn't want to leave him at home!

     A traffic-free ride home (at 10:00) – Landon fell immediately asleep in the back seat of the truck; Beth was taking in the southern Calif surroundings, albeit in the dark. We all went to bed shortly after we got back to the RV . . . was between 1 and 2:00 a.m. for them!

      After a breakfast of pancakes and bacon on Saturday morning, Beth, Landon, & I walked down to the beach. A little cool, and definitely overcast. But that didn't stop Landon! He ran right down, and immediately adopted the 6-year old posture of dancing in the waves. His absolute delight made all the hassles of getting here more than worth it! The water felt too cold for his mom, but Grandma got feet and calves wet too. After an hour or so, we finally coaxed him out. B & I made a run to WalMart to supplement what Bill & I had gotten the other day, including the essentials for making margaritas.

      Despite Landon's pleas, we never did make it back down to the beach the rest of the day – his mom thought it too cool, and I was too tired. Plus she & I spent a couple of hours doing some computer research on Disneyland. It used to be so easy – just get in the car and go! But now, accounting for traffic, and crowds, and more and more rides & attractions to choose from in just 1 day, it seems like planning for an overseas tour! So Grandpa stepped up and took him to the park just outside the RV park fence, and he had a ball playing on all the unique playground equipment. Needless to say, he made 3 new friends immediately (by his count).

      Enjoyed steaks, mashed potatoes, & grilled veggies outside on the picnic table. With jackets on, the air temp felt perfect – made it so enjoyable for all of us. I could stay outside like this for hours. In fact, after dinner & cleaning up, I caught up with Bill & Landon as they were walking Pappy. Predictably, I found them at the park. He was having a blast again, with another little girl there (bi-lingual), and it was so pleasant, we stayed til around 9:30.

     Monday was a ditto weather day. Whiled away the morning and early afternoon . . . Beth & Landon spent some time up at the game/rec room (the “Arcade,” as Landon calls it) . . . Bill & I napped extensively. Still recuperating. Landon napped as well – been up til the equivalent of 11-12 St. Louis time for 2 nights now. It never did clear up and get warmer, so the 3 of us just set out for the beach, regardless, about 3:30. Landon had an absolute ball again. Despite the weather, the beach was pretty full of people this afternoon, and L found a couple of playmates right away. I stayed in the water with him (up to my calves, anyway) for a good while . . . finally got too cool for me, so I came up on the beach to join Beth. He continued running, jumping, splashing in the waves til around 5:30, when he finally came out, lips and extremities a shade of blue. A dry towel warmed us all up. Dinner was grilled salmon, baked potato, & salad, which we once again enjoyed al fresco.

      Hoping for warmer, clearer days ahead. But we're making the best of these less than perfect days til then. 

                                                                      

 

                                An unusually still and sedate Landon immersed in a movie before bedtime.