Monday, September 12, 2016

Adventures With My Amigo, Part I

I've mentioned before that my friend Matt was my buddy from way back - we met when we were 8 years old and used to hang out together whenever our parents brought us sailing and camping.  We used to roam around the parks and campgrounds, so it's still a natural thing for us to set off on an adventure whenever we get to spend time together (which, sadly, is about once every couple of years now).  This visit, we got two days, and made the most of them.  Here's a recap, mostly for my enjoyment but you might be entertained as well.

We started our first day with a run in Santa Cruz (which I wrote about here).  Then we went back to Barbara's house to change and had a quick breakfast, before heading over the hill to San Jose.  One of the things I wanted to do this trip was to visit some people from our sailing club, so we drove over to the house where we'd spent plenty of time at during Junior Fleet parties.  Mr. and Mrs. M weren't home, but we went into their backyard anyway and took a couple of pictures - the pool was the same, although I swear the slide that we used to go down is way higher than it used to be (or maybe I've just become less daring):
 See how high that slide is?  How did I ever go down it?!?
I've been thrown into this pool countless times as a kid...

After we finished trespassing, we went to visit Matt's mom.  I haven't seen her in over 30 years!  Funny thing - she's into quilting and loves the fabric store that I was going to the following day with Debby - what a small world.  Here's me and Matt's mom:
See the plants in the background?  She ripped one out by the roots and gave it to me to bring home - more on that in another post.

When we left his mom's place, we drove back to Matt's neck of the woods, where we were suddenly starving, so we had a late lunch:
Burger, fries, chocolate shake - hey, it was Happy Hour on the shakes, so we went for it!

After that, we went back to Matt's house so he could show me his latest hobby - beekeeping.  I was not super thrilled to get near the bee boxes, but he promised me that as long as I stayed out of their flight path, they wouldn't sting me.  I dashed over to the chair sitting just off of their flight path - side note, did you know bees have a flight path to their keep?  I didn't.  This is one hobby I can safely say I won't get into, but he seems to enjoy it:
Pretty sure my face says it all when it comes to bees.

Of more interest to me were their pet bunnies roaming in the yard:
 Fiona, Leona, LaDoris, and Benny.  Don't ask me which is which. 

Matt also makes fairy gardens (and is writing a children's book based on that theme), so I got to oooh and ahhh over them:
Each garden has so much to discover - I wish I could have brought one of these home with me! 

I noted that the huge trumpet vine growing in their backyard would make excellent fairy hats, so naturally, we had to test out that theory:
Human fairy hats, or...
 
 Old-time telephone?

Then we decided to try our sailing club friends again - it was closer to dinnertime, so we figured we might have a shot at them being home.  This go-round, Mrs. M opened the door and the reunion was on!  It was like no time had gone by, except that we're all a little bit older.  We chatted and caught up and heard all about what their kadults are doing (their boys were older than Matt and I, so usually we were pestering them to let us hang around, but they were nice about including us most of the time).  It was really lovely to spend some time with them, and let them know how they were such a big part of our good childhood memories.  We took pictures - Mrs. M took one of us to send to their boys:
And then we took a selfie and sent it to my parents and Matt's mom:
San Jose Sailing Club throwback - Mr. and Mrs. M, me, and Matt

We didn't want to let go of the sailing club memories, so even though it was nearing dusk, we drove to Vasona park, which is the lake where they used to have our sailboat races, and where I learned how to sail.  It's a county park now, and a little more natural, but just as nice as I remembered it.  We walked from the dam (which I don't remember being allowed to do back in the day - it was probably too far from where our parents were) to the far side of the lake.  I took a couple of pictures, but it was getting dark so they aren't great:
Sunset at Vasona.
The docks where we used to tie up our boats, and where Kathy B fell off and her brother saved her - a very dramatic, memorable moment in our kid brains!

Once we saw the sailboat at the dock, we decided to come back in a few days and rent one.  Why not, right?  I'm sure it would all come back to us, even though we haven't sailed in decades.  We left Vasona with big plans for our next adventure...coming in Part II of this ridiculously long blog post.

13 comments:

  1. Oh boy! A part II! What a great day you had, and how fun to visit good memories from 30 years ago. That lake really looks so peaceful. And its in or near San Jose? Isn't it funny how you can grow up in an area and never know about something as big as a lake?

    And of course, I love the fairy gardens. and that trumpet vine is gorgeous!

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    1. Vasona is in Los Gatos. It seemed so far away when we were kids, but it wasn't - I think I was always antsy to get there and get started on the fun!

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  2. I just love the nostalgia in this post. They say you can't go home again, but I say it sure is fun to visit and revisit all your great memories. Can't wait for part 2!

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    1. In this case, going home again is nice because I'm only choosing to revisit the good places, LOL!

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  3. What a great time you had! I love those fairy gardens :D

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    1. It's taking everything I have to not make one myself...mostly because I know I don't have the eye like Matt has. He just needs to come visit me and make one here. :)

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  4. I love the walk through memory lane! And it's funny how memories work. My Mom still bowls with the same bowling league from when my sister and I were 4 years old. Back then it seemed huge! A few years ago they needed an extra bowler so I volunteered. I walked in and was shocked to see it was just a 4 lane bowling alley and so small! Looking forward to the rest of your recaps :D

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    1. Too funny about the tiny bowling alley - but yeah, things are always much bigger when we are kids, aren't they?

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  5. Going down memory lane is fun. I recently went back to my home town, which really isn't that far away from where I live now. But I never seem to get back there. It looks like you had an awesome time

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  6. What a fun trip down memory lane for you. Seems as if beekeeping is becoming quite popular. I've heard of several people recently doing it. I know you like to garden (or at least like plants) so perhaps you should make a fairy garden! I think you should and then blog about it!

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  7. What a lovely trip to memory lane and I was happy to walk it with you. What a fun day you and Matt had with all these lovely memories.

    Look forward to part 2.

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  8. That looks like so much fun (except for the bees!)

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