(lucy and ella at lu’s third birthday party…)
i have been thinking a lot about friendship lately. since we moved back to california it’s been so much easier for me to spend time with my growing up friends and that has been really grounding and wonderful. we moved to berkeley from seattle when i was five so my longest current friendships started then. (i DID have friends in seattle, but i don’t know them anymore… i even had an adorable boyfriend in preschool that my parents totally lost track of. i LOVE the stories on people.com where they feature couples who knew each other in childhood and reconnected decades later… all the rest of my old boyfriends are either married, gay or disasterous so “ramey” is my last hope to be on the cover of people. we can’t remember his last name, but he was five or six in seattle in 1975…)
(here i am with ramey… we are protesting because it WAS the early 70s…does he look familiar to you??)
(in case you need another reference photo to identify him… teacher dee’s class circa 1973. i am in the front row with the rabbit in my lap and ramey is to my right…)
lucy was mere months old when she met her boulder bestie, ella. these two have been a spicy, hilarious pair for over FIFTEEN years. when we moved to berkeley, i think i missed ella as much as lucy did… she was a constant in my boulder life (AND her mother is a dear friend.) labor day weekend, ella came to visit. we were BESIDE ourselves with excitement.
(lucy and ella in the first or second year of their friendship…they both had mullets!)
(at violet park when their brothers were at soccer practice)
(dress up…)
(sometimes brothers jumped in!)
(ballet class….)
(ballet performance)
(soccer)
(golfing)
(beach holiday… there’s that jumping in BROTHER again!)
(tea party)
(garden party)
(watching the brothers play indoor soccer)
(easter egg hunt)
(dave and busters)
(school)
(swimming)
(nederland lake)
(giraffes)
(oakland airport 2025)
(the REUNION!)
we went directly from the airport to IN-N-OUT, as that is a quintessential california experience everyone should have. i love their cheeseburgers and how bright and clean it is in there… their fries are not tip top but i manage to eat loads of them anyway.
(i get excited everytime i see the IN-N-OUT sign!)
saturday morning we brunched at din tai fung, which is a serious SCHLEP from southside berkeley but so YUMMY! the girls had a good nap on the way home.
sunday we spent at the boardwalk in santa cruz… i LOVE this fun park… it is right on the BEACH! sadly, they got rid of my favorite ride, the parasailing one, where you kind of fly over the ocean and have amazing views. but the famous GIANT dipper is still there so we held on for dear life and screamed all the way through that one. i was worried because i ate a corndog while we were waiting in line and i wasn’t sure it would stay down for all of the twists and turns… but thankfully it DID. boardwalk corndogs are the BEST!
(my favorite ride from a visit with the kids several years ago…)
(lucy and ella on the gondola, which also has amazing views!)
(this is not the corndog we ate on line, it’s from a different visit, but ours were just as golden! they are dipped and fried on site… so GOOD!)
before we took ella to the airport on monday, we hit top dog and then yoghurt park for lunch. we have dubbed this pairing the “durant double” as both of these incredible institutions are on durant street. they are staples from my childhood (my dad LOVED this run) and also my current life. we did not get ella into the city or even over a single bridge (now she will HAVE to come back!) but she DID get to fill her belly with some of the best dogs and burgers california has to offer. x00xxx