Alden Lane Fall Festival 2026

This past Sunday, October 11th, Frank, Alex and I went to Alden Lane Nursery's annual Fall Festival. We enjoyed a leisurely low-key stroll on a beautiful day that felt more like spring than autumn. At the entrance we availed ourselves of the photo opportunities near the painted cow and the growth chart. Alex clutches the map and entry brochure throughout our visit. He is obsessed with these orientation papers like the playbills at shows or song lists at concerts, which seem to add extensively to his tactile enjoyment of the experience.

One of the advertised attractions fro the festival was a petting zoo, happening only for a limited time window within the afternoon. The petting zoo turned out to be a few 4H members with a chicken and a bunny. Alex liked the bunny.

Some of the carvings we say hello to each visit to the nursery are a gnome and a giant squirrel.

One of the highlights of the festival is the scarecrow building contest. It is fun looking at all the entries. Alex posed near Farmer Rick and Frank posed near Dolly Parton. Others were equally clever such as one by a boy scout troop and one representing the three head monster form Harry Potter fame. Hagrid's Fluffy is based on the Hades three headed beast names Cerberus who falls fast asleep whenever he hears music or a harp playing. Note the harp at the base. There were other rows of scarecrows scattered throughout the nursery

We took some time to sit a bit and listen to the music of a local folk band. I did not recognize any of the songs but enjoyed them anyway. The weather was positively gorgeous as can be seen from the flag waving in the cloudless blue sky.

One of the buildings at the nursery housed a rose show. I was impressed with how many varieties there are, not to mention how many different colors within those varieties. When I got home I looked up the classifications.

• Hybrid Teas: Classic, large, high-centered flowers borne singly on long, upright stems.
• Floribundas: Compact bushes that produce large, continuous clusters of smaller flowers.
• Grandifloras: Taller, vigorous plants that cross Hybrid Teas and Floribundas, bearing large blooms in small clusters.
• Miniature Roses: True roses bred to stay small and compact, usually reaching 15 to 30 inches tall with tiny flowers.
• Climbing Roses: Vigorous plants with long, flexible canes designed to train up trellises, walls, or fences.
• Old-Fashioned Roses (Old Garden Roses): Historic varieties that existed before 1867, noted for their intense fragrance and full, double blooms.

At random hidden spots throughout, were small vignettes to remind it is the autumn season. California may not have the riotous foliage display of New England but it has its own beauty in another way and fantastic weather to go with it. Pumpkins and gourds and purple tones abound in rustic displays

After we left the nursery we went to Loard's for ice cream sundaes. Alex positively devoured a black and white, which for him is a scoop of chocolate ice cream a scoop of vanilla ice cream and lots of whip cream. We leave off the nuts and the cherry, afraid Alex might choke on them. I leave those off my own sundae also out of preference, so I do not feel like I am denying him. The hot fudge sauce...? There is a tiny twinge of guilt there. We also left off the hot fudge sauce  — in self defense. There are no pictures of Alex eating the Sundae. I was too busy trying to minimize my own accumulating level of stickiness  since I was seated next to Alex. Had the hot fudge been there as well, the stickiness challenges would have been insurmountable. I was glad that the only syrupiness I had to deal with was my own. Alex seemed no less happy, sans sauce — a win-win for sure! The treat was a sweet finale to a easy-going seasonal outing.

51st Anniversary

Sunday, September 27th, was Frank's and my 51st wedding anniversary. The Saturday night before we remarked how we had absolutely no plans and that was perfectly OK. Unbeknownst to me he got early up before me Sunday morning and snuck out to the store. He pointed out how difficult it is to get a card for 51 years so he did the best he could by modifying a card.

I came down the stairs looking for him and intercepted him coming in from the garage. He told me to go sit in the living room because he was not finished "setting up". Here is what he set up. Frank says when we were first dating he got me red roses since they mean love. He rationalized that since both he and are are a bit faded now, he got me pink roses instead because they are a paler version of red. In the pink striped box are my favorite donuts, French crullers. Frank had the bakery section of the grocery store write on the cake. Our wedding album is at the bottom of the photo. In the center of the table is our scrapbook that he made during our dating years. Why the bananas? In my aging years they have become critical for my health and Frank wanted to make sure I had enough for my daily needs and at the correct stage of ripeness. Romance also has a practical side to it.

The scrapbook Frank made for us is just above the wedding album. It is open to my 21st birthday. Note that the rose I am holding there is red. The cover of the scrapbook is silkscreened from a set of computer punch cards. Now that really dates the relationship.

We normally take our son Alex bowling on Sundays but the alley had a tournament this week and we would not have been able to go until late afternoon. Instead, I went online and located a cell phone directed scavenger hunt in our hometown of Livermore. Afterwards, I recreated the route we took, counterclockwise starting at the red dot where the car was parked, using MapMyWalk.com. It was generated from memory so there may be a few inaccuracies. The total distance as calculated by the app was 1.28 miles.

The hunt took us to historic buildings in Livermore then asked challenge questions about what we had seen on the plaques. The first site was the building near the flag pole that used to house the Independent newspaper. Called the Bank of Italy, Unfortunately my selfie skills showed little of the building but the phot does prove that Frank, Alex and I were there.

Our next stop was the Muse and Mane Hair Salon. The significance of that business is the building that houses it, the Bernal Building. The plaque  had interesting facts about early history, such as it was built with bricks salvaged from the Livermore Brewery.

Our third stop was Carnegie Park, the green area on the route map. Central to the park is the Carnegie building that once was Livermore's first library and has a gazebo for outdoor concerts. In the surrounding paved area I located a Livermore-made brick. The hunt instruction told us to make sure we stretch at this point. Alex and Frank complied. I did too but there is no picture to document that. It is hard to simultaneously selfie and stretch.

 Next stop on the hunt was the Veteran's Memorial on Fifth and L Streets. I photographed Frank posed at the corner near the flagpole. Frank photographed Alex and me executing an honorary salute as instructed by the hunt. 

The next stop on the hunt was to locate murals in Downtown Livermore. The area was very busy as this particular Sunday was Nostalgia Day for Livermore and the streets for a about a three-block by four-block area had classic cars parked all along them. I took a photo for our son Dan of a particularly striking Corvette since he likes those. One definite advantage of Nostalgia Day is that the streets were closed off to traffic, leaving pedestrians free rein to roam wherever, not having to pay attention to traffic lights or walk signs, or even having the freedom to diagonal across streets safely as they pleased.

We decide at this point we'd had enough of the hunt and wanted to take a break. We all had sundaes at Loard's Ice Cream. Afterward we walked back to the car and drove Alex back home to San Ramon.

Once home we chilled for a couple hours and turned on recorded football. That cake was calling to us and we rationalized it had been about four hours since the ice cream, so not too soon to commemorate our 51st anniversary by cutting the cake.

Frank had bought the cake because he liked all the colors on top. He did not know what flavor it was, only that it was pretty. I read the label describing the cake as Chocolate Enrobed Mousse Cake, which I had never heard of. I googgled it and AI informed me that

A chocolate enrobed mousse cake is a rich dessert featuring light chocolate mousse layered with sponge cake and completely coated in a smooth chocolate glaze, ganache, or icing.

We do not know what it was, but it was certainly GOOD — no glaze, no ganache, no chocolate icing, no chocolate at all. It was full of surprises, just like 51 years of marriage.

Beauty and the Beast Musical

Saturday, Sept 12th, Frank and I took Alex to see the musical Beauty and the Beast playing at the Center for Performing Arts in San Jose.

Frank and I are season ticket holders. This year we moved our seats from Orchestra Right (odd numbers) to Orchestra Left (even numbers). We are now a few rows closer to the stage (Row 8 instead of Row 12) and nearer the end. The numbering system has seats 1 and 2 in each row being on the midline of the theatre. We have now have end seats 46 and 44; seat 42 was added especially for Alex for this particular show. Our previous season's seats Row 12 seats were 45 and 47. Our new aisle seats are great for restroom access and for making an early beeline to the concession stands at intermission. A drawback is that we have to get up — or everybody has to clamber over us — on their way to their more centered seats. Our angle of view to the stage is about the same as last season. 

The stage display before the show periodically had rose petals fluttering about. Hmmm ... is this some romantic reference like that TV show The Bachelor? Alex, as usual, intently peruses his program prior to the start of the show. 

Alex loved the appearance of Belle in her regal, flashy, classic yellow gown. He did loudly announce "Beast!" when he appeared in the light, but did not note the beast's presence in the dark shadows.

I was surprised to note the lack of overlap between songs from the 1991 animated Disney movie and the 1994 musical. (Wow! Has it been that long ago?) Alex was very much animated and engaged for songs he recognized. 

We have seen this musical once before, years ago. If my memory serves me correctly, I remembered the huge scene of plates and cutlery dancing to the song Be Our Guest to be much more flamboyant than this performance. People then were dressed as huge plates while dancing around in huge numbers. This show, each dancer held up a super-sized Frisbee type disk — not at all as awe-inspiring— and there were fewer dancers. The men carried lamppost type super big forks and spoon which they danced around in Singin' in the Rain fashion, instead of being costumed as cutlery. I had been looking forward to revisiting that scene from my memory and was a bit bummed when it had been dumbed down. Perhaps it was budget cuts or just the difficulty of maintenances on such elaborate costumes that forced the downgrade. 

On a more positive note though, the costume of Lumière was exciting, as he would periodically shoot flames from his arms — way higher than the following photo captures. At some points I think they would surge about two feet up into the air. I did wonder if the actress who played Mrs. Potts had a sore arm from keeping it uplifted the entire show. She certainly portrayed a teapot skillfully. The little boy who played her son Chip was adorable and his singing voice for a child his size and age impressed me.

Gaston was so well cast you just wanted to throttle him for his arrogant posture and utterances. I loved that Belle personified the Belle of the movie and did not play the part as some modernized interpretation. The transformation scene from Beast to Man near the end was so well done that Frank and I were scratching our heads on how they'd levitated the actor while morphing his form. Very well done.

As we exited the theatre, looking back and admiring the projected image on the stage, were we glad we had made the effort to assure that Alex saw this musical. The parts he recognized and enjoyed, he really got into. We are pleased with our seat upgrades and glad we renewed our season tickets for Frank and me.