Mom turns 89 on June 25th. Carol graciously offered her home as a place to gather for a small celebration. We drove up around 10:00 and dealt with the typical summer traffic. The weather in Oakland was perfect, a little breezy, but warm in the sun. The party consisted of Mom, Carol & Boyd, the four Carmel Clifford’s and Katie, who drove straight from Donner to Oakland.
There was. great lunch of two salads for sandwiches and fruit. Tommy and Liv stopped by for a short visit too. He’s learning Python and working on bikes. He seemed to enjoy visiting with Grandma as well. The Sleeths have a new deck which overlooks the East Bay. We then had cake made by Boyd with hand-shaved chocolate and Fenton’s ice cream, complete with party hats. Carol and Katie gave Mom cards and a 6-month subscription to monthly flowers. Katie left first to head back to Palo Alto and we left about 30 minutes later. We did a drive through Piedmont, around 29 Sierra, PHS, Sea View, La Salle, and other common streets. We had an easy drive back to the Monterey Peninsula with a dinner provided by Forest Hill in her room when we arrived.
The next day was Mom’s actual birthday. I picked her up around 5:30, and together we made dinner as we waited for Sarah to finish with Cow Nite. It was a simple evening with BBQ shrimp shish kabobs. Mom opened her gift from us and card as we enjoyed a small fruit tart (as we were still full from Boyd’s cake.) We watched the video of Lou Ann’s celebration of life. There were some wonderful pictures and great memories that she recalled. We also looked at some really nice photos of Sarah and Parke’s trip to France. The evening was a nice way to celebrate family.
Pushing hard today ... 