One last Hurrah!

February certainly was a whirlwind of activity, and March proved to be more of the same. Jim and I decided to head up to LA to visit Lilly for one of his last visits until she graduates next June. (Can't believe how fast time is flying!) We arrived in LA mid-afternoon and joined Lilly for a terrific dinner at Bacari, which is a place that her sorority has been too many times. Apparently they also have one in San Diego. We will have to find it.

It was wonderful to get to see Lilly in her college habitat, and she filled us in on the recent happenings of her life and what is coming up for next quarter. 

Jim found a room for us at the cool W hotel right off campus. Lilly and Jim have recently been on a Larry David marathon, and apparently the W was one of filming locations (which may or may not have played a role in him choosing it for our stay). Lilly joined us the next morning for breakfast before she had to go to class ... and the hotel was cool but unfortunately no Larry David sightings.

Up next - Santa Barbara!

    

One of our tasks on this whirlwind tour was to purchase a car for the girls to share while they are out here by themselves after our departure this summer. How are they going to share a car when they live 2 hours away from each other you ask? Well it won't be easy that is for sure. Basically they will swap it back and forth until Lilly graduates next June and then Lucy will get it for her last year at UCSB. But I don't want to even THINK about that yet. 

Back to the car buying ... will spare you a description of the painful process, but we visited some  dealerships and made some  calls and found a few leads enroute to SB. We rolled into UCSB in time to grab a quick coffee with Lucy and do a quick tour of the independent, student-run campus newspaper she writes for - The Nexus. The  offices are under the Storke Tower on Campus. It reminded me of the old show WKRP in Cincinnati if that was about a newspaper and not a radio station in the 1970's! 

    

Jim was still riding high on the cool dinner we had with Lilly the previous night, so he googled "best Restaurant in Santa Barbara" and The Stonehouse was at the top of the list. He called and was able to get a reservation for three at 5pm. We had no idea what to expect, but were blown away as we drove up into the Montecito Hills and onto an exclusive resort property. I don't want to go into a deep dive on the property, but in a nutshell the property started out as a mission, then a citrus grove and eventually a resort with 38 cottages that have hosted many of history's greats, from Winston Churchill to Audrey Hepburn to Sinclair Lewis and the wedding of Vivien Leigh and Laurence Olivier. Even JFK and Jackie Kennedy stayed there during their honeymoon trip through California! Needless to say, we were totally ignorant of its history when we walked out on the patio for dinner. To say that we were blown away would be an understatement. From the amazing drinks to the delicious food and impeccable service, we couldn't believe what we were experiencing - Magical!

    

The next morning, we had brunch at another local's favorite spot - "Jeannine's at the Shore" and then we literally stumbled across a real FIND - the Santa Barbara Library and the Courthouse across the street. We had driven by the courthouse several times on previous visits, but hadn't had the opportunity to visit until now.  The Iconic landmark has a distinctive clock tower that is open to the public, so of course we had to check it out. The tower is known as Bisno Schall Clock Gallery and you pass through the workings of the Massive Seth Thomas Clock to get to the top of the tower and incredible panoramic views of the Pacific Ocean, the Channel Islands, the City of Santa Barbara the surrounding mountains beyond. At the time the clock was build in 1929, the clock's inner workings were hidden from view, but it's now accessible in an amazing display. If you are ever in the area, it is worth a visit.

    

We resumed the car shopping for the return trip and struck gold with Facebook Marketplace ... now the girls are proud owners of a hybrid Subaru Crosstrek! It even had a roof rack. As soon as we told them about the purchase, they started plotting out who gets the car when. I think they found a pretty workable plan, now let's see if they can stick to it.

The very next day, Jim and Ben bought another car - this one from the lemon lot on base. Ben has been eyeing a 4Runner for a while now and this one has super low miles (for its age) and since Jim is in a buying mood - why not!

Up next was the Kyoto Prize Symposium Gala. We planned to attend last year as well, but had a conflict. To be honest, I had no idea what kind of event it was going to be, but we were going with our lovely neighbors, Erik and Annie Hermann, so we knew we were in for a good time!  And boy were we glad we went, it was an amazing event. I did some  research and discovered the Kyoto Symposium Organization (KSO) is dedicated to expanding the mission of the Inamori Foundation and the Foundation's Kyoto Prize in North America. Adhering to the founder, Dr. Kazuo Inamori's ideals and philosophies, the KSO promotes education in the fields of Arts and Philosophy, Basic Sciences and Advanced Technology. Every year a winner is announced from the three categories, which are each comprised of four fields, making a total of 12 nominations. In addition to a 100 million yen monetary prize, each laureate receives a medal and a diploma.

One of the major activities of the Gala is to fund the Kyoto Scholarships, which are awarded annually at the Gala to high school seniors in the greater San Diego-Tijuana area who plan to continue their education at accredited 4-year universities. These kids are IMPRESSIVE. Every single one of them have founded clubs or organizations in their schools and communities that have a clear impact on the targeted audience which ranged from their school, communities and worldwide. In between all of the presentations, we saw several musical acts that each outdid the one before it. Also between all the presenting and speeches were several musical acts of previous winners of the Kyoto Prize who had been invited back to perform and to get a recap of their lives since they were last on this stage. It was such an incredible evening and we were grateful to attend.

    

Jim is gearing up to drive cross country to DC and prepare for his next job. But he has a few weeks of delay, so we have been having "last dinners" with friends who feel like family for about a month now even though I am staying for another 3 months, these dinners are emotional. We have made some great friendships here and I will be sad when it is my turn to go.  The neighbors on the Cul-de-sac are like family. We gathered together to bid farewell and safe traveling to Jim at a local brewery where we (especially Jim & I) were probably the oldest people in the entire place by a few decades. Thankful to have some more time with these ladies!

Since we had taken both the girls to dinner, Jim felt like he couldn't not take Ben to one as well, so we headed over to La Jolla in time to catch the tail end of the sunset and then over to the Whaling Bar for a low key dinner. We felt lucky to carve out this time with Ben, he is like a shark - always in motion, generally has about 10 activities stacked throughout the weekend. Hopefully studying for AP Calculus is on that list.

The next morning Jim loaded up the 2004 Sequoia and headed east to DC. Fingers crossed he doesn't run into any problems. He had a pretty aggressive first couple of days of driving planned and hopes to be in Virginia in 4 days. Wesley gave him lots of kisses and wondered why he wasn't going with him on this road trip. 

So now it is just me, Ben, Yoshi and Wesley. Hopefully Jim can come back before Ben graduates and we have to move out of this house. It sure will be quieter around here without him.

    

             

He updated us from the road a few times. His trusty Yeti riding shotgun was christened as "Wilson" somewhere in New Mexico. Jim says Wilson isn't much of a conversationalist, but is a pretty good listener and they share a fondness for military history audiobooks. Jim also rediscovered his love of Buc-ee's somewhere in Texas while on I40. Of course he tried the brisket, but he was especially complimentary of their wide variety of snacks. 

    

No sooner did Jim pull out than Lucy rolled into town. She is stealing my car for the National Park Extravaganza that she is doing with Lilly and several friends for part of Spring Break. I tried to get her to take their new car on this trip, but they think it is too small for all the camping gear they will need. I don't really mind, their car is pretty zippy! I am all but positive my next car will be a Subaru. 

Lucy was only here for two days but during that time, she and Ben got to link up with a family favorite - Nic Cicchi - for a surfing session out at Blacks Beach. He was out for his spring break as well. Always fun when the kids get to reconnect. It is especially cool for the parents to keep having these touch points. It is always heart warming when the kids are friends with my friend's kids.

So as mentioned, the girls took my car on their spring break trip. They were going to hit up some National Parks in Utah along with several of their friends. We know they had a fantastic time, because they willingly share lots of photos with us - always a good sign. I am sure we got the sanitized version of what actually happened on this trip but we are happy that they enjoyed themselves and there were no injuries, with the exception of blisters. Over the course of 5 days they (and the aforementioned gaggle of friends)visited Zion (hiking Angel's Landing, Emerald Pools and the Narrows) before heading off to Capital Reef (where they hiked Navajo Knobs, Cassidy Arch, the Hickman and part of the scenic loop) before stopping at Bryce Canyon (Navajo Loop Trail) and ended their adventure at Sunset Point. They finally turned the car towards San Diego just in time for my birthday! More on that in a minute.

    

        

    

Meanwhile back in San Diego, I was invited to a one-woman play called "All Things Equal: The Life & Trails of Ruth Bader Ginsburg by my always up-for-anything friend June and when she said we could grab some dumplings beforehand, I was SOLD! The play was incredible! I read the "Notorious RBG" a few years ago, so I thought I was spun up on her story. Boy was I wrong! RBG had her fingers in pretty much every landmark case involving women's rights for the last fifty years. Truly she was a legend. If you happen to get the chance to see it, please do!

    

Remember how I said that Jim drove east to start his job in DC? Wellll, turns out he could have stayed a bit longer. Since all the kids were going to be back in San Diego for the last weekend of the month AND it was also my birthday, he flew back into town! Yay!! First thing we decided to do was to head down to Balboa Park to check out the cherry blossoms. The Japanese Friendship Garden and Museum hosted a Cherry Blossom Festival earlier in the month, but the peak bloom was just now beginning so we decided to take advantage. Longtime readers will remember that we have had a fascination with the cherry blossoms starting with our first time stationed in DC, and this grew into an obsession during our time in Japan. The Friendship Garden here in San Diego opened to the public in 1991 as a visual representation of the friendship shared between San Diego and its sister city, Yokohama in Japan. It originally displayed plants and flora native to both cities. The cherry grove wasn't introduced until 2015, mainly because cherry trees won't reliably blossom in San Diego due to the mild winter temperatures. Eventually a double hybrid cherry tree was created that grows in our dry climate. Needless to say, the garden didn't disappoint.

    

    

The next night we headed up to Del Mar for a Birthday dinner and a sunset picture opportunity. We missed the actual sunset, but still caught the last bit of light to snap a few family pictures. 

   

Once we got home the birthday celebration kept going. I was showered with cards and gifts and then they pulled out the cake and ice cream! The best gift of all was that we were all together. With the way our year is playing out, I don't know when we will all be under the same roof again. So we will treasure every second.

        

The next morning, the girls loaded up the crosstrek and headed up to LA. Lilly was moving out of one apartment into another and Lucy agreed to help and then was going to catch a ride up to school with her roommate who lives in Los Angeles. Ben didn't stick around much longer after this picture was taken either. Things to do, people to see. He was going to Mammoth Mountain with a few friends for a few days so suddenly Jim and I were alone in the house - too quiet.

Ben also had a great time hitting the spring snow in Mammoth. We didn't get as many pictures but the few times we did talk to him you could hear the smile on his face and he did share some pictures and videos as well. His terrain park skills have improved greatly! I guess all that time on the skate board/balance board/surf board  have really paid off 😂!

    

So that leaves Jim and I home for 3 days with no kids in the house. With Jim set to leave on April 1st to return to DC, we still had a ton of work to do to prepare for this multi-phase move back east.  But we did manage to mix in some  fun stuff with all the work ... such as a visit to La Jolla where we visited the Museum of Contemporary Art San Diego as well as the La Jolla Historical Society next door and ultimately found ourselves out on the tide pools enjoying the sunny afternoon. I have said it before and I am sure will say it again (and again) This place is amazing.