Day 3: California

Fresh and clean from giving morning baths to the children and doing our laundry, we had some unstructured time, so I took the children on a driving tour of my hometown. We drove through some of my favorite neighborhoods: it is so refreshing to be outside of the Land of Homeowners' Associations. Here in the west, HOAs are not ubiquitous as they are where I have lived for last ten years: here the houses vary in design, in upkeep, in everything. It provides for a lot of visual interest and neighborly drama!

We drove past my two elementary schools, my high-school, and my university. Remaining on my list are driving past my junior high-school and my childhood homes. (And maybe tomorrow when I'm in the city adjacent, I might drive past my old apartments, former job sites, and law school.)

Next on the agenda was taking the children to a playground, as promised. My hometown has a lot of parks, most connected by the various greenbelts that run through this bicycle-friendly town. Truly, there are so many parks for the population of 65,000: I count 46 of them as described at Wiki-Davis! Click on the City website for a map showing that a person can hardly walk a few blocks without encountering another beautiful and innovative park. I remain unaccustomed to the lack of parks where I live now: because nearly every neighborhood is an HOA, nobody is allowed to use anybody else's park, nor is a lot of money invested into good playgrounds.

So, we are living it up with touring the playgrounds here!

A photo capturing about one-quarter the size
of the labyrinth that is Rainbow Park.

This morning we visited Rainbow Park, which is nestled amidst Community Park: a vast network of wide expanses of grass, soccer fields, Rainbow Park plus two other playgrounds, baseball fields, swimming pools, a skateboarding park, and picnic bench areas, as well as an art gallery.

Rainbow Park is an old-school park made of real wood with real splinters and sitting atop real sand which can cause real eyeball abrasions. The slides are made of real metal which can cause real burns.

I stopped by my favorite deli for lunch. I love Togo's sandwiches and have found no substitute since moving away from California.

Tiny Pink Kitty eats Togo's

After naptime--that is, after Margaret's naptime, as the one-year-old wouldn't fall asleep!--we met Grandpa at Playfields Park. On the bright side, we had the entire place to ourselves. Unfortunately, the reason was that the temperatures were soaring and my tots were red-faced and overheating as a result.

My sister and her children were able to join us and then we all escaped the heat at a longtime favorite Italian restaurant for dinner.

From what I hear, Chris and the kids made it safely to their second night on The Road Trip to Texas. I don't think the driving today was as fun for Chris-the-Daddy as he remembers road trips as Chris-the-little-kid.

I think Chris just might be bribing the children because every time I call him, they are in the background and immediately shout in unison: "Mama, I love you and I miss you!" It's just a possibility that they're earning a Reward Buck for each time they say that to me.

That's okay, I'll take it!

Mary's note to me from the hotel tonight

And completing my culinary tour of the day, Margaret and I enjoyed It's-Its for dessert. These are an ice cream sandwich available only west of the Mississippi and which are so good that I scoff at eating other so-called ice cream sandwiches--those that laughingly try to take on such a name.

These treats can be shipped on dry ice to the South, but the minimum size is something like a case and it costs a couple hundred dollars. Yes, I did research that matter. Hey, it's cheaper than flying me to California on an an airplane . . .