2017 CROSS-COUNTRY ROAD TRIP - APRIL 27TH, 2017

APRIL 27TH, 2017 

12.29 p.m.  Lovely to be in one spot for a few day. I love our traveling but staying in my pj's later than usual has been restful. Gregg went out and dropped a couple of items off at a dry cleaner, and brought me oatmeal from McDonalds.  He had his usual and picked up a latte from Starbucks for me. There is obviously food here but the first day it was hard to break the cycle of traveling. He picked up milk for his sister at Safeway and showed me a photo he had taken of a very artistic and colorful display of veggies.  Hello California!  I do love your artistic spin on things.

 We are using his sister's washer and dryer to catch up on our laundry. 

She had been busy this week and as we were two days early, had not finished the week out.  We went off to a book store Gregg had heard about in San Jose.  

2.56 p.m. we had fun at Keplers. His sister had given him a book about the founder, the reason for his interest. A very nice place not that we need an excuse to go into any bookstore. 

Gregg bought a book on philosophy. I purchased three relatively smaller books by Mary Oliver, one of my favorite poets.  And of course there are always greeting cards to look through, ones that I don't see at home.  There was also a list of authors shown.

We ordered a drink at a place with seating outside. I can't remember its name now, but it was very pleasant sipping on a lemonade and looking through our purchases.  

Next on our list was the Arizona Cactus Garden at Stanford University.  We learned about it on Yelp.  

3:59 PM.  It was lovely, very interesting. There were lots of lizards running around, and birds. I saw a cactus wren. We didn't have the camera with the zoom lens, so it was impossible to get decent photos of them.  But I got a pretty decent shot of this bug with my cell phone.  I saw several of them on the cacti, and then found this one crawling on my top.

It is a Tussock Moth Caterpillar.  I put him back on the nearest cactus and was very careful not to touch it.  Some species tend to feel like you have been stabbed with fiberglass and can give a nasty rash.  I don't know if this is one of them but I wasn't taking any chances.

Such a pleasant place, first to take photos and then to sit on a bench in the shade and admire the surroundings.

We had difficulty finding it at first, and asked several people if they knew where it was.  We were on the grounds but no one seemed to be able to point us in the right direction.  We muddled on and found it not too long after asking the last person.

We spent a very pleasant hour looking at all the plants.  It wasn't a big garden but very enjoyable.

When it was time to go GPS took us on the back roads.  It was rush hour and the freeway was a solid red on their map.  Staying off the freeway made it a pleasanter ride home.

5.57 p.m.   We are back at the house and waiting for both sister and brother-in-law to come home.

9.43 p.m. I am tucked up in bed for the night. Gregg's sister and her husband took us to a very nice restaurant with Mediterranean cuisine. Neither Gregg nor I can remember the name of it now but it was a very nice restaurant, and lovely to catch up with them both.  We came back and chatted a little more and then we all went to bed.