A Week with My Sister - Part 2

Friday June 20th after the tea room and Berry Patch store Maxine and I met up with Frank at the Ironwood new home development in Pleasanton to browse the models. It had been a busy day and after touring briefly we came home and crashed on the couch with the movie Just Like Heaven.  Earlier in the week we had watched Hitch and Spanglish. I've have seen these movies several times and they always are enjoyable light entertainment.

Hitch: The Sea-doo scene and the food allergy scene are hysterical.
Spanglish: In one fast-paced scene the young daughter translates during an argument. She is amazing!
Just Like Heaven: This romantic comedy with Reese Witherspoon and Mark Ruffalo is one of my favorites.

Saturday June 21st Maxine announced "I do not want to look at any model homes unless they are over $1,000,000." That is not difficult at all in California so we set off to Cameron Place in Pleasanton. We enjoyed looking at the decor but did not pine over anything we saw. There was an extended size great room with adjoining office and a media room that were pretentious but not all that desirable. There is a quote by Lin Yutang that goes "The secret of contentment is knowing how to enjoy what you have, and to be able to lose all desire for things beyond your reach." I think we were on the same page.

Maxine is relaxing in the great room. Just behind her is the office extension option.
From the angle of this photo it looks to me like she is on post in a gun turret
and the viewer is gazing down the barrel of the cannon.

Frank and Maxine are on their way to join me in the extended office. This place was HUGE!

Media room anyone? What is there to watch that merits this dedication of space?

My favorite parts were little details in the home. The laundry room had a gift wrapping section. I liked this stack of wrapped packages. It reinforces my strong penchant for polka dots.

Colorful and cheery this stack of gifts just made me smile.
So I took a picture to remind me. Maxine said I was silly.

I just thought Maxine looked so nice in color-coordinated, beautiful shades of blue.
 I made her pause for a picture between model homes.

After our model home outing we had lunch at Red Robin. They are known for their gourmet burgers but we went their mainly for the variety in their menu and the ambience. The hostess station where you turn in your name for the wait list is actually half a car. There were large model airplanes hanging from the ceiling in the eating area and retro metal signage on the walls.

The bird mascot is fun and (do not quote me on this) but I believe the car is a '57 Chevy... red, of course!

When we got home, I dug out some piano music and Maxine began to warm up her fingers by "tickling the ivories" a bit.

Sunday June 22nd we picked up Alex from St. Denis where Alex demonstrated his puzzle assembly skills to Aunt Maxine. We then went bowling with him and had lunch at the Earl Anthony's Dublin Bowl where Alex is a regular. We took him back to St. Denis and then drove back home to Livermore.

Aunt Maxine and Alex pause from working on his safari 100 piece giant wooden puzzle.
Note how Alex hogs all the puzzle pieces.

Applause is in order after every piece is popped in place with a decisive slap.

Earl Anthony's Dublin Bowl is Alex's home alley. He is well-like and welcomed here anytime!

On the drive back to Livermore we drove south of the Livermore Airport by the more rural Jack London Boulevard. The airport is bordered on the north by the I-580 freeway and on the east by Isabel Avenue and we take either the northern then eastern 580/Isabel route or the south Jack London route. We did both during Maxine's visit since the two routes gave different perspectives. Maxine seemed to enjoy watching the small planes landing or taking off at the local airport, occasionally commenting on how low they were.

Central to the map is the Livermore Municipal Airport.
Point B is roughly the crash site and Point C is roughly our house.

The evening before a small private plane, had taken off from this airport about 5:00 pm and had caught fire, crashing 2-3 miles northeast of Livermore. Since we had been returning from Pleasanton about that time Saturday June 21st, it very well could have been one of the planes we'd noticed. The plane had been built from a kit by a veteran pilot but he did not survive. The crash set off a grass fire that consumed about 1.5 acres. Our two weeks of visitors had coincided with two fires and a plane crash. Instead of driving directly home after bowling, we detoured north to see the crash site.

The plane went down in a rural area so no-one other that the pilot was hurt.
Property damage was limited to the 1.5 acre grass fire, the blackened area on the hill.
The silver region in the center of the blackened area is remaining debris from the plane.

Once we got back home from our rubber-necking excursion, Maxine sat down and played the piano in earnest. She fearlessly attacked all sorts of classical music that I had never had the training nor courage to attempt. She apologized that her fingers were a bit rusty and that she had not brought the correct glasses but I thought she sounded way, way better that I ever could!

Just look at all the notes on those pages of music! Way out of my league!
The next book up in her repertoire was the one to the right with the portraits of classical composers.

Is this intense concentration? Or is this, "I wish I'd brought my music glasses"?

Monday June 23rd was the day before Maxine was to leave so we intended to keep it low key. But we did venture across the San Francisco Bay. We drove out to our closest IKEA, 45 minutes and 34 miles southwest of us. We crossed the bay on the Dumbarton Bridge, which, at 1.63 miles long, is the shortest bridge across San Francisco Bay. We ate lunch at their cafeteria renowned for, what else, Swedish meatballs!

Although on the other side of the bay, IKEA is a reasonable drive from us across the Dumbarton Bridge.
This was our farthest day trip during her stay. 

The store is arranged in three levels: a showroom level where their products are displayed in room setting type situations, a market place level where you can pick from shelves items you'd seen and wanted to purchase, and a furniture and checkout out area.

After leisurely strolling the showroom area and having lunch
we began to tire and made only a brief tour of the marketplace. 

Of course for lunch we had to have their famous Swedish meatballs - fifteen per serving. 

We counted! And they were sooooo good!

Maxine enjoyed hamming up playing her role of Vanna White as she demonstrated some kitchen cabinet features in the IKEA display kitchens.

And here we have a highly engineered, efficient rotating corner storage unit.
Maxine was even color coordinated well with the kitchen she promoted.

 

And Voila! You too can own this precisely organized drawer system for all
your kitchen tools, utensils, gadgets, bowls and specialty items!

After IKEA we came home and Maxine packed for the next day. We played Scrabble late into the night, since Maxine's flight was, thankfully not until Tuesday afternoon.

The games we played were close. But I won!

I almost forgot one of Maxine's major activities while here. She really liked my HGTV magazines. She read through over a years' worth of the issues while she was here. Maxine was very methodic, placing a check mark in the upper left corner of the cover of each issue as she read it. She even circled some articles on each cover that she thought might be of particular interest to me. Even the night before she left, she was up to the wee hours determined to finish the last ones. I offered that she could take them with her but she did not want the weight. I dare say she will be getting her own subscription. They have lots of good information and ideas in them and are so colorful, they are just a joy to browse through even if all you do is look at the pictures.

Note the check mark in each upper left corner. Bravo for Maxine. She met her reading goal before she left.
Ironically when we got home from taking her to the airport my newest issue was waiting in the mailbox.

Tuesday June 24th Maxine's flight left mid afternoon so we left for the Oakland airport around noon. Frank dropped Maxine and me off curbside at the terminal and parked the car. Southwest personnel were so nice and allowed us both to have gate passes so we could go back and wait with her and not say goodbye til the last moment when she boarded. It was a great visit. I think we mutually tired each other out but had fun.

Maxine poses for one last picture before leaving for Oakland airport.

Maxine's flight went through Chicago and left just a few minutes after schedule.

Our visitors have all  left. Time for Frank and me to go home and collapse. There will be opportunity enough later in the week to clean out the refrigerator and catch up on laundering sheets and towels. Details. Details. Having visitors is well worth the effort!