Happy Easter! and Happy Passover!

We had a busy, fun week with the high of point visiting friends in the Sacramento area. Since we were headed that way we decided to spend one night beforehand near the California Capitol. We stopped in to see it, where we took an informative guided tour. 

We learned the Great Seal of the State of California includes among other symbolism, Minerva — the Goddess of Wisdom, 31 stars — because California was the 31st state to join the union, and, the word Eureka, meaning I have found it — with “it” being gold.

That evening we enjoyed a light dinner out with long time family friends of Loren’s. It was good to catch up, as it has been many years since we had last been together. 

Then Loren and I spent another night seeing a long time colleague friend of Loren’s. He is an avid gardener and his yard boasts many impressive fruits of his efforts. Their newly planted dogwood bloomed beautifully just in time for our visit.

 

This friend took us to a local hamburger restaurant that boasts over four hundred — 406 to be exact — different flavors of milkshake. I thoroughly enjoyed their staff suggested “Death By Chocolate” flavor. Later we tried to work it off on community walking paths.

It was a good visit together, sharing our memories and more recent experiences.

Then, we visited with a dear colleague friend of mine at her lovely home. Since we were there last she has added a soothing “river” to their appealing back yard. Their pink blossomed dogwood tree too is just about to burst into full bloom.

Together we took a short ride to see the local Bikram Yoga studio, newly reopened by Teacher Training littermates of mine. It was so nice to see them! Next time I will be sure to take a class there and they have invited me to teach a class there as well. 

It was too short a visit with these special friends, so we will look forward to our next opportunity to be together again.

Otherwise it was another week of being thoroughly awed by aspects of California’s Superbloom from all our rainstorms — which still have not fully abated,

and, watching some of our Golden State Warriors’ players on a 60 Minutes interview with our AirBnB friends, one of whom was making pancakes and eggs for her young teen son with her Mickey Mouse cookie cutouts.

 

We also shared the agony with these AirBnB friends of one of the two Round 1 Playoff Games in which our Warriors lost — after a 31 point lead! Loren and I then listened by radio to their other Playoff Game this week, and we were elated that they completed it with a move into a 2-1 position lead against the LA Clippers in a best of 7 series. 

Go Warriors!