#30yearsin30days Day 7 As I promised, you received flowers that grew in number throughout each day, and grew in number until there was no more room for them in the house and so I had to take you out of the house to the Filoli Garden Estate. That was to tell you how much I love you and that you are like a garden to me – beautiful, peaceful and refreshing. The day began with a quick visit to our great friend, Lita Clapper, who has been along for our adventure for most of our 30 years. We stopped by to say “Happy Birthday, Lita!” (September 8), and we love you and appreciate you for all you have done for us, for our children and for the many families at Calvary Bible Chapel. And we think you are one of the greatest daughters we know as we watch you care for your mom! Your friendship is incalculable. Then our adventure continued to Filoli Gardens. We first visited the many gardens at the 654 acre estate, some were formal after the British style while others were more natural, but beautiful. They have flower gardens of so many varieties, rose gardens, knot gardens (where the plants look like they are interwoven together to form what look like knots), fruit tree orchards, terraced gardens, etc. Well, you can visit their website for yourself if you want to. There is a small café at the property and we enjoyed a lunch in the garden café; a smoked turkey Panini and salad. We meandered over to the mansion that was built in 1917-1922. It is an amazing 36,000 square feet – although much of it is off limits to the public. What we did see was opulent for its time and the home is now a property of the National Trust For Historic Preservation. Docents are scattered throughout the home and the gardens to answer any questions. We cannot imagine the cost of building something like this today and we were quite happy that, at the end of the day, we could walk away and all of the maintenance, daily care etc is left to others. This was well worth the $15 admission. On the way back home we decided to take a walk at Crown Memorial State Beach in Alameda. The Bay Area weather is fabulous in September and October. After a quick supper we came home to work and then it was off to the Ice Creamery to visit our boys and plan for the upcoming week. We, of course, had to have a scoop of chocolate ice cream, which gives me a nice transition into the new adventure starting Sunday. And so we begin a week of “something sweet” and that is chocolate. To be continued....
Posted on: Sun, 08 Sep 2013 07:33:30 +0000
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