East Bay 2012

It had been a year and a half since we were last in the bay area -wow! I had seen my kids at Thanksgiving in Palm Desert but we hadn't been back to see our friends in forever and when we do we never seem to come for long enough. Barely time to see my daughter, Lauryn, and a few friends and it's time to go...again...we're moving too fast and this trip was no different.

My friends Susan and Ron Stoltz offered us premium parking in front of their lovely home in Walnut Creek and it was super close to where Lauryn lives and works so that worked out great, but the temps were in the 90's during the day and with no 50amp hook up to run our A/C we knew we weren't going to last for long.
Susan was one of my first friends when I moved to Walnut Creek in 1994. She has seen me through thick and thin and has always been there as one of my wisest advisers. Once again I was seeking her counsel and advice...I do miss my friends.

As soon as we got settled we went to see where Lauryn was living - she's in a great house just a few blocks from Salon Salon where she works in Todos Santos Plaza and we took her out for dinner. I can't believe we didn't take one pic together the whole time I was there :( but here's a cute one I found on her FB page around that time.

I woke up early Saturday morning and met one of my very best friends, Beth, for a walk in my old stomping grounds down the canal from Arbolado park. I walked this trail with my dog, Sammy, for 15 years, most of the time with Beth. It was so great to see her and catch up, just the two of us.

We had planned a little brunch party in Oakland to see our "hash" friends and we had a great turn-out. It seems as if most of our hash friends are on FaceBook so we can really keep up with what's going on in their lives, FB is a lifesaver for us road warriors, wherever you are your friends are only a key stroke away. Old and new friends joined us for a super brunch at Rudy's Can't Fail Cafe - recommended by our friend FoS (aka Lempi) who mentioned they had super bloodies (and they did!!). The food was excellent but seeing our friends was the best, there were even two FB "friends" that we had never met  "in person" so that was really fun.

After brunch a few of us did a little pub crawl around Oakland, or rather, we tried to! Saturday afternoon and very few bars were open but being the good little hashers we are we ended up in a great little place where I had fun sampling some amazing whiskeys with Trink!

Next on the social calendar was a BBQ at my friend's Joanne and Gary's home. Joanne is a doll and threw us a great going away party when we moved from Walnut Creek to Tahoe. They are also one of the three couples we had at our wedding, close friends, to say the least. There were so many people I could have invited to the BBQ but we wanted to keep it small which meant I missed seeing a lot of friends, which I still feel badly about...next time we have to stay longer and have a nice big happy hour wherever we end up camping!! MUST STAY LONGER!!

Joanne, me and Beth - my Walnut Creek bestest friends!

One friend I hadn't seen since I left town in 2008 was Zina - we met right around the time we both got divorced and our kids are the same age too - we've kept in touch over the years but it was great seeing her in person!

With the heat continuing we knew we had to move someplace where we could use our AC - the bay area is sorely lacking in RV parks but we decided to try the Pleasanton Fairgrounds RV Park - it was the most reasonable and not too far away from Concord, where Lauryn lives. I was a little hesitant from the reviews but it turned out to be just fine and we will definitely plan to stay there again. We hate the traffic and all the commuting you must do when you live in the bay area but when it's where you want to be you don't have much choice. We didn't get to one hash on this visit, just not enough time...

One of the best things about the rv park is that it is biking distance to the cute little town of Pleasanton and we rode our bikes to have brunch with Pix and Sparkle Pony (aka Patty & Michael)! I met Pix the same day I met Bill - she is a hasher and burner and traveled often to Tahoe to play with us.

We spent the next several days with Lauryn - and of course she did my hair, have I mentioned what a fabulous hair stylist she is?!