Our Last Day With California Friends Before Heading Home

First to Santa Cruz…

In the early afternoon on Friday of last week we spent the last few hours on the Santa Cruz side visiting Kay Lynne’s sweet elderly aunt, Beulah.

She still lives on her own in her home, just steps from the ocean cliffs near the landmark Santa Cruz lighthouse. Aunt “Beu,” as we all call her, is still sharp as a tack and getting around just fine. A classically beautiful woman in her prime, and still very attractive, Beu’s greatest asset is that she is a beautiful person – inside and out. She is a pure pleasure to be around.

We thoroughly enjoyed the time with her, catching up on the New side of the family. My wife has three cousins, two second cousins, and two third cousins, all from Beu and her late husband, Lee – Kay Lynne’s mom’s brother.

Then to Morgan Hill…

As evening approached, we returned to San Jose, picked up Darlene and headed for Morgan Hill, some 15 miles to the south. Eddie Wall, my old ad agency partner was driving home from an LA business trip and was to meet us, his wife, and Mike & Gwen Silkwood for dinner at a nearby restaurant.

Oooops, wrong partner!

















Ed's never seen a naked statue

After we all met at Mike and Gwen’s beautiful Morgan Hill “mansion”, and viewed HD TV in their high tech theater, we headed out to yak it up and get our fill at an Italian eatery. We enjoyed our usual, humor(?)-laden banter. We soon had the wait persons talking to themselves and regretting ever taking our table. But such is common with this irreverent group.

The funniest part of the evening was when the bill came. Buddy Ed and his dear wife had ordered the most expensive entrees on the menu. As Ed picked up the check, he announced, “Down here we always just split the bill by the number of couples; it’s much easier than trying to figure who got what.”

I’ve gotta remember that one. Seriously, Ed & Darlene are probably two of the most generous people we know, so I can needle him. I’m still trying to figure out if he was just testing my humor limit :-).










After dinner we returned to Silkwoods for more
friendly banter and enjoyed some (Marie Callender) pies that Gwen “had slaved over all afternoon”. We flew back home the next morning following a restful Friday night stay back at the Wall’s Almaden home that was gorgeously decorated for the holidays.

That's Ed & Darlene left above & Mike and Gwen at right above.

Hopefully our paths will again cross somewhere up here in the Northwest next Summer.