Our California Adventure Part Three

I am picking up where I left off (guess I've been a bit distracted by the arrival of Pete and Lily, Thanksgiving and the impending Holiday Pops concert tomorrow night!)

Mrs. B

Seeing Kathy (and her folks) after about a twenty-three year hiatus was certainly something. Kathy is about the same; just older (who isn't?) Her two children, Emma and Michael (twins) are adorable (two years old this past April). Mikey is definitely the braver of the two; when we walked in the front door, he thumped his chest and announced, "I'm MIKEY!" Later, he confidently informed me that he had on blue shoes. Emma, although not as talkative initially, warmed up to me later and walked me through her baby book while we were visiting at her Grandpa and Grandma's (Kathy's parents). She explained each picture with something like, "This is baby Emma wearing sunglasses" or (if her brother happened to be in the picture), "This is baby Mikey eating pancakes".

Kathy's husband Kurt, whom I barely remembered, is in the National Guard and was quite chatty! They suggested we eat at a restaurant in Tierrasanta called Andiamo's. It was pretty good and we closed the place down (at lunch time) yakking away.

After we took a few pictures in their backyard, we then went over to her mom and dad's. They live in the same house they lived in when we all first moved to Tierrasanta (which happens to be next door to "our" house on Antigua Blvd.) They've done quite a bit to their house to keep it modern (their kitchen is absolutely to die for). Sadly, the folks that bought our house from mom and dad haven't done "a damn thing and it's a damn shame", or so growled Mr. S (Kathy's dad). BTW, he used to scare the crap out of me when I was a kid. Now, he's just a nice old dude. Funny how that works, huh?

It's too bad we couldn't spend more time together; I didn't get nearly enough "alone" time with Kathy to find out more about her past 23 years. Let's hope it's not another 23 years before we get together again.

Last night we stayed in at the resort and ate left-over steak (which Mark made into sandwiches); talked to Peri to confirm that they will be here Friday at 3:00 pm and had our evening cigar (ok, we are on vacation which is the ONLY reason I am allowing myself to smoke a cigar every night). We started to watch a movie about the early days of football called "Leatherheads" but I gave up the ghost fairly early into it.

Today we drove to San Clemente to meet Vesna (one of my TRW buddies) for lunch at a restaurant called The Fisherman's, which was located right on the pier. She looks great and it was wonderful to catch up with her (and for her to meet Mark). Her husband Gary is now working at IBM doing something somewhat similar to what Mark did for them at one point. Her two kids are 13 and almost 7 now. Wow, times flies, doesn't it?

Now we are back at the resort sitting in the sun out on our balcony. It's warm! I'm not sure what we'll do later on tonight; we were going to meet Kathleen for dinner but she is not feeling well. Maybe we'll walk down and check out the Lawrence Welk museum in the lobby of the theatre and have dinner at the only restaurant that is on site.

So far we've been having an easy going relaxed time, even though we've actually been doing quite a bit!

Tomorrow, we'll drive up to Redondo Beach to see Debbie and Pam.