Thursday

My nephew, Wes, from Chicago, plus Ellen and I, went back and forth on Message, trying to see if we could get together this weekend. Wes is visiting his brother in L.A. and drove to Santa Barbara to Carolyn's last night. The complication is that Ellen will pick up Violet today and will be taking her to camp on Sunday. Tomorrow, El has to get a number of things V. will need for camp, including a sleeping bag, so she can't very well drive me to SB. I don't want to ask Wes to drive here an back, so am thinking about the possibility of taking the bus there and back on Sunday. 

I met Stella in front of City Hall at 11:00 and we went off to the Botanic Gardens. It was pretty strenuous and I wish I hadn't turned down Stella's offer of one of her walking sticks. It was lovely, of course, and it felt good. Here's Stella and some of the terrain: 

We spent about an hour and a half hiking up, then down, then went to Aloha for lunch. Sat on the patio on the ocean side--very pleasant. We then strolled to the pier, finally open after several years of repairs, which was nice to walk. We saw a huge crab somebody had brought up and that a little boy wanted to take home. Hope he made it:

We saw a young woman with twin boys and stopped to chap with her. The little ones, eighteen months old, look different here, but are actually identical, which was evident in real life:

 

We were on the pier for an hour or so, then Stella asked if I wanted to go to the Odd Lots store. We did and she got covers for her outdoor furniture, then dropped me off at the transit center and I bused home.