Find me in my field of grass

While living so far from the family is sometimes a relief, it's also very tough. I'm missing on out on the nephews as they grow up, I can't run to my sister's for a periodic home-cooked meal or a shoulder to cry on, there's none of Mom's chicken soup for my occasionally melancholy soul, I don't get to hang out in the yard with Dad and talk about the growing trees. So I'm fortunate that they make the effort to come visit me as often as they can afford to. And yay! they were just here for a visit.

I picked my mom up at the airport on Wednesday after work, we rented a minivan, and on Thursday I went to work leaving her to wander town on her own. We did meet for a Dim Sum lunch, and later headed to the Bruns Memorial Ampitheater (I know!) for a little outdoor Shakespeare. It was a wickedly hot day in the City (one of the 5 we got all year), but a perfect evening for outdoor theater. The fog rolled in on Friday, though, so we headed up Mt. Tam to get above the chill. Which we did. It was 95 degrees atop the mountain, yet 59 on the beach below.

Being of similar temperament, we get along really well and so had a terrific time, just the two of us, playing with her new camera, beachcombing, and just hanging out (though there was no hanggliding, which was on the original docket) -- even laughing about the giant wave that nearly swallowed Mom at the beach while she was picking through pebbles, unfortunately drenching her camera in the process, but hopefully not ruining it completely.

It was super nice to have Mom visit for a couple days before the rest of the crew came in, because, well, I miss her. So yay! Of course, the list of things we're going to do keeps getting longer instead of shorter. Next time it's hanggliding for sure, maybe after a spa day and camping down in Big Sur...