09/14/10 - Update

The trip has gone well thus far, but Mom's fragility underscores my relief that we did not try to go to Spain. Mom can walk only a few yards' distance before she needs to sit down. She has slept magnificently here in San Rafael - through the night every night, followed by a morning nap, and usually a late afternoon nap. She is sleeping about 14 hours out of every 24. Her appetite is good. She focuses well for short periods (and for reasons unknown always seems to be at her best on the phone).

Mom enjoyed talking to all of you on her birthday yesterday. K and C have been magnificent in helping her move about. C had access to a TV production of an opera staged by the SF Opera Company (Don Giovanni) and she has enjoyed watching a portion of it each evening before turning in.

We arrived via Delta early afternoon on Saturday. Everything went very well, right from the magnificent help from the Cs, who met us on the dot at 7 a.m. at the cell phone lot at Charlotte airport (but W did not come in his 1929 red Rolls Royce, a major disappointment), through check in at Delta (the staff was very accommodating), to boarding, seating, service, etc. We used our own wheel chair for the trip; this was a blessing, because we could take Mom right to the plane in it, and it was there waiting for us when we disembarked. K was curbside when we came out the door. They returned to San Rafael while I traveled the airport train to find the magnificent monster-vehicle (Ford Expedition). I arrived in San Rafael about 3:30 (the queue for car rentals was long at all the counters; a chap behind the counter told me that they were still recovering from the gas blast on the hillside in San Bruno, just a couple of miles from the runways).

Quiet dinner Saturday evening. Sparkling weather, which explains why 35 million people have moved to California (not all legally, I understand!). Sunday Mom and I drove gently from San Rafael through small stands of Redwoods to the Pacific , stopping for lunch at a funky little place (Nicasio) recommended (rightly so) by C. We avoided beach traffic by staying north of Stinson Beach, and taking advantage of a miracle (an empty parking place right next to a park bench overlooking the Pacific in Bolinas) got out of the car and sat in the coastal grey zone for a few minutes. The shore temperature could not have exceeded sixty, and I bundled Mom in several light blankets. Bolinas is not a style-conscious beach; it attracts the now aged 1960s surfing crowd. They are wizened but tough, carrying their boards to the beach, dressed only in their bathing suits. C noted later that Bolinas does everything it can to fight off the upper classes. Signs everywhere excoriated everything hinting at convention and establishment politics. Many of the license plates came in blue/yellow and black/orange - the motif of license plates in California in the 1950s and 1960s. (So you can turn the clock back - go to Bolinas.)

Sunday evening the W clan gathered for dinner and birthday cake for Mom: E and D; M and A, young B and P, and younger C A. Mom held up well through the cake and a couple of very nice presents.

Yesterday (Monday) Mom and I drove (with K as tour guide) into San Francisco to see old haunts: where Mom lived (Sunset Beach) while at SF State and later with K; North Beach; the refurbished Presidio (the military is out but the officers housing and many barracks have been preserved and converted to offices, very tastefully), Nob Hill, Russian Hill, the hotels we could never afford to have even a cup of coffee in, the famous site of my mother's running out of gas astride the cable car line on Powell, Embarcadero (the Bank of America building now sports a new moniker). Going into SF we took the slow road through Sausalito (I could not recall being there before - very Italian seaside atmosphere).

Last night we went to a bistro in Ross for dinner and had another piece of birthday cake when we got home, and before a short stint with the mandatory opera.

Mom is still asleep (8 a.m.) but when she is up, bathed, pills-armed, etc. we may drive gently up to Healdsburg to one of the small wineries, have some lunch, and return here. K and C leave for three weeks in Europe on Thursday (including biking in Ireland); we will leave tomorrow and head south. We will stop somewhere north of LA, perhaps near one of the mission churches, for Wednesday night, and then position ourselves to greet S, K and the young gentlemen when they arrive in San Diego from Denver Thursday evening. I am glad they and J and S arranged accommodations, because we heard yesterday morning that one of our friends in San Diego is in hospital in the wine country with food poisoning, so we do not know when they will return to San Diego.

Mom enjoyed hearing from all of you yesterday. Again, we are moving very, very slowly, but she does want to get out and to see something every day. Love, Dad"