Fabulous, wonderful day yesterday. Robyn, with adorable almost-one-old Dexter, picked me up about noon. After a tour of Ellen's house (Robyn loves it), we drove to my twin, Betty's, in Santa Barbara. Her daughter, Carolyn, and almost-two-year old Claire came in shortly and we all went to lunch at a small restaurant nearby. It's really just a little hole in the wall, but the food was west coast wonderful: all natural, organic, unprocessed, and made to order. I had good old Caesar salad with chicken, about the best I've ever had with actual fresh chicken cut off a roasted chicken, then grilled.
Carolyn left to pick up 7-year-old Finn at school and the rest of us walked the few blocks to Mike and Paula's cottage. Mike and not-quite-four-year-old Vivian met us outside and V. yelled, "Follow me!" to lead us into the cottage. It's lovely: two bedrooms, kitchen, nice living room with fireplace, and a hot tub on the deck.
Carolyn, with Finn, rejoined us shortly and we all sat and chatted for a half hour or so, then piled into two cars and went to a great children's park. Vivian loved it, and loved chasing her cousin around. We stayed about two hours, then discussed dinner; we decided to go to Carolyn's and call out for pizza. I went with Mike and Paula back to the cottage. (Vivian was supposed to "take a little nap"--but hah! that'll be the day--and she was soon up and running again.)
After I called Pat and Alison and heard about the big storm, we all reassembled at Carolyn's and Dana's. Vivian and Finn had a ball jumping, sliding, and chasing each other around the big backyard. Carolyn and Dana have two orange trees, a grapefruit tree, tomatoes, peppers, and other veggies growing, plus wonderful flowering trees and plants.
Dana went out for the pizza, pasta, and salad and we set up chairs and trays in the living room to eat, the house being very small. The food was good, the company better, and we were all entertained by the chatter and antics of the four kids. Carolyn said we could have as many oranges as we wanted and Mike and I went out in the dark with two bags to get them. I was delighted to arrange with Carolyn to have her come over on Thursday with Claire to see Ellen's place and spend part of the day with me.
We stayed until about 8:30, then all kissed and hugged and said goodbye, and Robyn dropped me off on her way back to Pasadena. Betty's off to Chicago today, Mike and Paula leave for Vegas tomorrow (Paula has a trade show there), and I, lucky duck, will be here until Sunday.
Later: Met a woman named Joan, who's visiting her daughter next door. She came over during the garage sale on Saturday and we got acquainted. I was happy to find she's a walker, too; she stopped for me at 7:30 this morning and we went about two miles. We'll do the same tomorrow, so I can easily keep to my fitness goals.