April California Trip – Walks, Cafés, and Easter Brunch

After John flew back to Tucson, I stayed with my good friend, Tracey. The weather was beautiful and I loved sitting on her back patio. She’s been doing some work in her yard. I was very intrigued by her super-realistic artificial lawn in her side yard. It was amazing, it looked so real.

Even close up:

Here’s a super close-up shot so you can see how it was made, complete with a realistic withering underlay:

John likes having a lawn for the dog, but we live in Tucson, so our little patch of grass always looks horrible. I hate dead grass almost as bad as I hate mud. There’s just some things from my childhood up north that I don’t want in my life anymore. Mud, rain, dead grass, puddles so large that passing cars drench the pedestrians on the sidewalk, black ice, sleet, darkness at 3:00 PM, mold, mildew, mosquitos – oh wait – we get mosquitoes in Tucson. Well, to the extent possible, at least!

Not only did Tracey have a lovely new lawn, she also magically expanded her backyard patio and now has a beautiful swimming pool! Ok, I’m joking. Her back fence had blown down and I doubt I could have gotten away with swimming in her neighbor’s pool, no matter how inviting it looked over there.

Their fence guy had done a disappearing act (just like the fence), so her husband, Bob, was having to build it himself. Sounds familiar, right, John?

Speaking of pools, while I was in California, John invited his brother and sister-in-law, Dan and Dawn, and their three kids over for one final dip in our pool before they headed back up to Minnesota for the summer.

You can see my crappy half-dead lawn in the left edge of the photos, to Dawn’s right. We have a big swath of that dirty-muddy-bumpy struggling, incongruous desert (!) lawn. We didn’t plant it ourselves. It volunteered after the monsoon rains one year, and I haven’t managed to make it quite go away since. It still hangs on, but barely. The fact that John intermittently waters it, is not helping. In my opinion, we just need to hasten the inevitable, and let it go! There are so many beautiful, desert hardy plants I want to grow – we don’t have enough acreage to plant them all. And certainly not with a large chunk of property being squandered with half-dead grass and dirt patches.

The family visit looks fun. I was sorry to miss it, but they will be back in the fall. Dan and Dawn spend every winter in Tucson, and now that we’re finally in Tucson permanently we hope to see them on a more regular basis.

Speaking of keeping up with family, one day Tracey and I met Tamara and Michael for lunch. Tamara is Alex’s mom, and Michael is Tamara’s partner. So essentially they are Laura’s in-laws. Tamara and Michael live in Pleasanton, which is right next to Livermore. I thought it would be fun to get to know them better. Family bonding time!

Tamara and Michael are extensive travelers and we enjoyed hearing about their adventures. Tamara is from Kazakhstan and I believe Michael is from the Ukraine. Michael told incredibly interesting stories, including how he is currently supporting a family in the Ukraine whose predecessors had rescued his predecessors during WWII (Michael is Jewish). So wow, so much history.

I appear to have failed to take any pictures of us at lunch, but here is a gas station. LOL. I forget to take pictures of family but I captured the gas station. Hmmm, priority check needed, maybe?!? I just thought it was amusing how fancified this gas station was.

I also took a picture of this cute little car.

We eventually plan to replace my Mini Cooper with an electric car. I’m keeping my eye out for something small. We’re not really ready to embark on a big new car-buying project right now though, so hopefully my 2007 Mini keeps chugging along for awhile yet.

Here’s another BMW i3 in Tracey’s neighborhood.

The BMW i3 has unfortunately has already been discontinued and replaced with the larger (and longer range) i4 and iX. They also make an electric Mini, so we will just have to see what’s available when we’re ready to start seriously researching cars.

That weekend was Easter. Tracey and I had a great time with this Easter egg kit – complete with stickers!

When we ran out of stickers, Tracey got out a paint set.

Tracey’s daughter, Amy, who is the same age as Laura and lives in Oakland, came out for brunch. Laura came too. We’ve been meaning to get them together for a long time, so that was fun. I failed to take pictures of them too. But it was really nice, chatting around the patio table.

Bob grilled salmon and we made a variety of gluten-free and vegan side dishes, plus two salads. The weather was perfect and we enjoyed eating outside – in Tracey’s newly expanded (visually at least) backyard 😉

That afternoon Laura drove me back to Santa Clara, and I flew out of San Jose the next morning. It was a great trip!

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Kristina’s Website: Life Coaching for Adults with Autism