USA on speed!

October 14 through October 30

On Oct 14th we went to bed at 11:00 and got up two hours later to start a 24 hour trip to the US. Oy! We flew from TBS to Munich with a layover then on to London with a layover then to SFO where we took a shuttle to San Jose, which took two hours. That last two hours put me over the top. I could not get comfortable after so much sitting and my back let me know ‘enough already!’ We arrived Friday late afternoon. We went to San Jose for Ron’s ICMA annual conference which started on Sunday morning and ended on Wednesday. After checking in to our hotel in downtown San Jose, we unpacked and walked to a lovely restaurant nearby where we ate a light supper of appetizers and headed back to our hotel and to bed.

Saturday we rented a car which took 45 minutes. We were second in line but only one person was staffing the office and he kept taking phone calls while waiting on customers. Oy! We drove to Alameda to see our friend Wendy Wibbens, who I have known for 40 years. We met when I gave her a GED when she was 16! At the time she scored higher than anyone I had tested. We became lifelong friends. She went on to college where I was working at the time. We visited with Wendy and her daughter Jasmine who prepared a lovely lunch of fresh salad with lots of goodies and an omelet with smoked salmon and cheeses. Yum!

Afterwards we went to an outdoor art show and then we came home and rested due to extreme jet lag. Saturday was a beautiful sunny California day but Sunday it started with rain. I had planned to go to a mall to buy a sweater but ended up reading in my room and finding a great Thai restaurant for lunch. That night we went to a reception at the conference for dinner and later to a reception for dessert. Monday I made it to the mall and it was huge. After being in TBS for a year where most stores are the size of a walk in closet I got overwhelmed by the mall. I needed a basic black cardigan sweater and wandered around Nordstrom’s in an overwhelmed daze. Later I managed to go Macy’s and find just what I needed. I took a bus back to the hotel and rested.

On Wednesday we flew to home to Vancouver. What a treat! We hadn’t been home in a year. Although we were in the States in February and in May, we didn’t have time to go home. We arrived late Wednesday afternoon and Dana picked us up at the airport. She and her husband Wayne have been taking care of our home for the past year. On Wednesday we hit the road running. At 8:00 we had our first doctor appointment for check ups. We ended at 5:30 with me seeing the fourth doctor of the day. Then we headed to Jeri and Tony Holt’s for a great visit and fabulous salmon. Yum! On Thursday and Friday we spent our time doing a consumables shopping spree. We are allowed to ship up to 1250 pounds a year of consumable products: food items and things like shampoo, deodorant, wax paper, etc. We managed to spend $1800 in two days.  What's this about a recession?

On Friday night we had dinner with Gary and Edmund, another couple whom we have known for years. They treated us to a wonderful meal of salad, homemade soup and bread. Gary made the soup and Edmund baked the bread. This was followed by apple crisp. Yum! On Saturday Dana and Wayne hosted us with Chris, our neighbor. We had chicken marsala, rice and salad. We ate well the entire time. After eating in restaurants in San Jose this was a most appreciated treat each evening.

On Sunday we flew to Los Angeles to see Sonia and Bob, Ron’s mom and her friend Bob. They recently celebrated 23 years together. We had a great time with them. Sonia and Bob live in a senior residence right next to UCLA. One day Ron took a trip down memory lane and we walked around campus where he got his undergrad degree. We went into one of the four original buildings and I was overwhelmed with the arts and crafts architecture. What a treat.

We ate each meal with Sonia and Bob at Westwood Horizons. The dining is restaurant style where we order from a limited menu each meal. I worried about gaining weight with the big meals I ate there. There was incredible weather while in LA. One day it got to 82 degrees. Our hotel was one block away so we were lucky that we didn’t need a car while there. We discovered right before arriving that Tom Cohn, an exchange student from Germany who lived with us in 1988-89 had recently moved to LA. So one day he came by with two of his kids and we had a brief visit. What a thrill to see him. He is no longer the skinny 16 year old we knew back then. He is all grown up and we so loved seeing him again. We saw him once in London in 1999 after he had married but before he had three kids!

We flew home on Thursday going from LA to San Francisco then on to Munich and on to TBS. Again it took about 24 hours door to door. We arrived here at 3:30 a.m. Oy! I managed to stay awake until 7:00 then slept until 1:00 in the afternoon. Ron however fell asleep sooner and woke up at 2:00, asking ‘is it really 2:00?’ For the next four nights neither of us slept well due to extreme jet lag and our bodies wondering what time zone were we in. I had been waking up at 3:00 or 4:00 and had been unable to get back to sleep. Last night was our first night where we both managed to sleep all night. What a relief.