I Love My Mom!

I try to visit with my Mom at least once a month.  Most of the time Paul will drop me off at the Amtrak in Stockton & I will take the train on down to Bakersfield where Mom will pick me up, then Paul will pick me up on his return trip - it works out nicely.  Last week I was headed down to the Pasadena area for a little reunion with some friends so I decided to take a Road Trip & drive down from San Jose.  I took advantage of my own time-table & made a couple of stops.  First stop - Casa de Fruta on Pacheco Pass.  I used to love to stop here & pick up some fresh fruits/nuts...they had a great little pumpkin patch going on...

Second stop - I decided to swing by my old junior high school to watch the tail end of my niece's volleyball game...she coaches at our old alma-mater & I like to catch her games when I can & watch her in action.  Carrie is an amazing athlete & fitness guru!

I got to Mom's just in time to watch our favorite TV shows...we don't do much but hang out during our visits - play Bingo, put puzzles together, & try to beat Alex Trebek & Pat Sajak on TV...funny how simple things can increase the love you feel for family. 

 But this visit, Mom decided to participate in a local "Senior Olympics" hosted by the Rosewood Retirement Center.  Only a hand full of residents from her facility went, but it was great fun!  (Certainly great people watching!)  Rosewood is a very large complex & back in the day, Mom made drapes for this monstrosity over a period of months.  Look at all those windows!  I tried to get a close up of one so we could see the lining of the drapes, but the glare was a bit bright...

I finally went inside & found some sheers that she had made...this job kept her busy for quite some time & I'm sure helped pay the bills.

The Senior Olympics started with a flag raising, welcome, & parade...here's her group waiting to get this party started!

There were bands & cheerleaders from different area high schools, but this was the best band - Bearsdley Junior High School feeds into my old high school - no wonder we always had an award winning marching band with talent like this feeding into it!

The best part of the parade was all the classic cars!  It was fun to sit in the middle of all these seniors & hear their comments about how they used to have a car like that & so on...my Mom even leaned over to me & told me that my Dad justified buying my brother one of these classics before his 16th birthday because My Dad really wanted it!

They chose a King & Queen for the parade - they were the oldest male & female residence in the different facilities that participated.  The King was 94 & the Queen was 99 - I thought it was really fun because the King was Mr Bill Varner (I went to high school with his kids.)...but the driver of the vehicle is Bill Varner's great-grandson...Olympic Gold Medal Wrestling Champion Jake Varner!  He was there to volunteer & help pass out awards.  It was so fun to watch him interacting with the seniors - truly a very nice young man!

The games were run by CSUBakersfield athletes.  Mom was a pretty good athlete back in the day.  Softball & Basketball were her favorites.  She participated in the horse shoe pitch & the softball throw - she's got great form!

We looked at all the booths, collected freebees from the different vendors, & enjoyed lunch - pretty sure Mom was tired of me taking pictures by then...

Mom & I had a great time & I got a hug from an Olympic Gold Medalist - It was a fun day!