Fun with Tracey (West Coast Van Trip – Post 12)

Meanwhile, despite monsoon storms and trees falling back home, I was having a great time with my friend Tracey in Livermore. She carved out most of her week for me, which was so special!

The first day we went on a long walk at Sycamore Grove, which is a very pleasant park near her neighborhood. It’s a good long walk, about 5 miles around the loop. I did a lot better than on my visit last summer, which was only a month or two after I finished my chemotherapy. I think we didn’t even do the whole loop last summer. And Tracey said I was walking faster this year too. Next year I’ll be jogging it. Twice!

After our walk we had lunch at Garré Vineyard, which has a large outdoor patio with beautiful views of the surrounding vineyards. Unfortunately I forgot to take any pictures! But we had excellent salads and enjoyed the views, and were grateful it wasn’t smoky like it was when I visited last year.

Then we hung out in her backyard, which is very comfortable and the weather was perfect. I failed to take any pictures of the first day, except for this drink because it was yummy and I wanted to remember what it was.

I really like fizzy waters that aren’t sweetened. This one has a little bit of fruit juice in it, but many are magically flavored with nothing in them at all. How is that even possible? My sister introduced me to the La Croix brand a couple of years ago, which is still my staple, but there are a lot of other good brands too.

I also took a picture of her hand soap to remember what it was, because it smelled exactly like meyer lemons. Often lemon-scented things smell like cleaning products to me, but this one smelled wonderful.

The next day we drove up to Lafayette Lake near Walnut Creek to go for a walk around the lake.

There are also hiking trails up into the hills, but it was a fairly warm day and we decided just to do the lake loop.

Finally I remembered to take a picture of us!

We noticed they had row boats and paddle boats – and idea occurred to us – let’s come back tomorrow with the kayak!

After our walk Tracey (who is an excellent tour guide) had lined us up at yet another great little outdoor patio café in yet another nearby cute little downtown.

The next day we came back with my inflatable kayak.

They had to inspect it for zebra mussels, which took all of 3 seconds, and charged me $10 to launch it, but it was easy. We carried it down to the dock and off we went!

Tracey is not an experienced kayaker and I’m a bad tour guide and we almost ended up with her falling between the dock and the kayak while getting in! I felt so bad, like, oh my gosh, I’m going to dump my friend in the lake! I was trying not to panic – what do I do? But she’s a trooper and managed to stay out of the water, and hopped expertly into the kayak on her second try. Disaster averted! She’s a good sport.

It was such a pleasant paddle.

Selfies!

We saw deer along the shore and got quite close, but I didn’t take any pictures of them. Here’s a blue heron on the shoreline.

And there it goes!

I could get used to this, walking or paddling around in the morning, having a salmon salad outside at a nice café for lunch, hanging out in the backyard all afternoon. That is totally my style of life. All this striving and trying and flying and driving – nah. I just want to take walks, go to cafés, and sit in the backyard and talk.

On our last day we met Tracey and Bob for one final patio meal. Looking good!

As a going away gift, Tracey gave me a can of the sparkling water I had enjoyed, as well as the meyer lemon hand soap I had coveted, plus the same two items in grapefruit flavor for John (grapefruit is John’s favorite), all wrapped up in a festive gift bag. It was perfect; modest yet thoughtful, and funny too. John and I are both really bad at gift giving, so we were in awe. The restaurant thought it was my birthday, but thank goodness they didn’t sing!

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