Dylan was born on the traditional Memorial Day before the "Monday rule". I don't remember when, exactly, that 3-day-weekend-creating legislation was passed, but I know it was after 1974. I'm also pretty sure that teachers, among others, love that little holiday law. I'm still adjusting. That has almost nothing to do with this post----except that Dylan and Emi took the Amtrak to Sacramento Saturday evening to spend most of the long weekend with us. We liked that idea. After picking them up from the station, we found a BJ's Brewery restaurant on the way back up the hill in which to get a bit of fun food and watch some Lakers basketball, or whatever else showed up on the giant screens around us. I think I saw some UCLA girls softball. I have precious little experience in the "bar" areas of even familiar eating establishments. But I'm beginning to appreciate how a party of four can walk right past a long waiting list of hungry diners and grab a bar table and order a meal right now instead of standing in the entrance for 30 minutes or more. I can learn new things.
Time for some outside fun. Sunday, Dylan's actual birthday, Tom gladly played the part of support crew for our hike along the Yuba River (Tom--to hike or read and do crossword puzzles? Duh.). He dropped us off at Purdon Crossing and picked us up a little more than three hours later at Edward's Crossing. The hike was about 4 1/2 miles of lush woods and fabulous wildflowers along the roaring river. Our only care was to somehow dodge all the poison oak encroaching the trail.
Dylan is especially susceptible and I have no idea how we avoided at least some exposure, but we did, which was amazing. The stuff was everywhere. Much of the time, the trail ran high above the river, so we took a couple little spur trails down to scramble over the boulders and watch the kayakers pass by. A gorgeous day.After that, we found lovely patio dining at Posh Nosh in Nevada City. Then cake and ice cream back at home.
Monday, both of them had to do a bit of work, so they took laptops into the living room to write (Emi) and design (Dylan). In the cracks of the weekend, we watched a red-tail hawk chick and it's mom/dad in the nest through our telescope. Awesome view! I'll make a separate post for that. Tom ordered a camera attachment, so we're practicing snapping some Nature-style pics.
After some home-made fish tacos for dinner, they had to mush along back to SF. They both have crammed schedules for the next week+ til they leave for Italy for a friend's wedding (and two weeks of traveling). Hard to imagine how they would beat the cool weekend we just had, though, but they'll have to try...
