The Big Sick instead

We got to the movie yesterday just to find it was sold out.  Plan B was The Big Sick, and it did not disappoint.  Very good film, excellent acting and writing.  I highly recommend it.

We had a delicious dinner at Red Robin, and then went home to watch a little TV before bedtime.

All in all I enjoyed my Sunday, although I was up a pound this morning.  Must have been the Caramel M and Ms I ate during the movie.  At Red Robin I got broccoli instead of fries and no alcohol or appetizers.  I had a Boca burger with just veggies and pepper jack cheese, although I did eat the bun.  Today all my meals will be at home, so I suspect that pound will be gone tomorrow morning.

Today is a gigantic Mah Jongg day.  This is the first time I'll be playing for two hours in the morning in one lady's house and then three hours in the afternoon in my neighbor's house.  That is going to be my usual Monday when I'm home on Mondays from now on unless one of the games gets cancelled.  I expect my brain to be fried by the time I finish at 4 p.m. today.  Then I have to go out and do a little shopping before I can crash.

On Sundays we call both Evey and Lowell.  Often we speak to only one or none, but yesterday we spoke to both kids.  How delightful that was!

Tropical Storm Emily is going across Central Florida today.  No worries about damage or anything.  Winds aren't even that high, but there will be a good bit of rain all day as I go to Mahj and shop.  Well, we can use the rain, I suppose.

Planet of the Apes

Yesterday we watched Rise of the Planet of the Apes from 2011 in the morning and Dawn of the Planet of the Apes from 2014 in the evening.  Both were excellent.  We did that because this afternoon we are going to see the third movie in the trilogy, War of the Planet of the Apes.  We both got an offer from Red Robin that if we bought a $25 gift card, we would get a voucher for a free movie ticket to that movie.  So we are heading out around 2 p.m. to see the movie at Disney Springs followed by dinner at Red Robin with our gift cards.  Should be fun, although heavy rain is predicted for the whole day. Except for driving in the rain, what better way is there to spend a rainy, summer afternoon in Florida than in a movie?

Just because I ate three meals at home that were far lower in sodium than eating train food for the last five days, I am down two and a half pounds this morning to 286.  I admit that I was pretty excited to see that.  I'm hoping to make good choices at Red Robin today.  The veggie burger can come in a lettuce wrap instead of a bun.  That's what Mark always chooses to keep the carbs down.  I hope I am smart enough and in control enough at that point to say the same thing.

Here are some pictures from our return train trip.

We traveled out of Emeryville in a roomette for the first two nights. 

Missing Evey and Eric and Kiwi, but happy to be heading home.  This was a selfie I took to  send to Evey.

The beauty of the scenery going over the Sierra Nevada mountains is hard to capture with my camera.

Donner Lake again.

Truckee is such a cute little town.  Both going out and coming back I really wished we had had the time to get out and explore.

Going through Utah there are some spectacular rock formations.

Both the Truckee and Colorado rivers were very muddy on the return trip.  There had been a lot of rain.  In fact, it rained  most of the time that we were on this train trip.  It even hailed very hard for about 20 minutes!

We passed a herd of Elk!

Reading and doing puzzles is how we occupied ourselves on the train some of the time.  Watching the scenery and watching movies on the laptop helped, too.  Somehow the days go by very fast.

Napping is another thing we did a lot on the train!  LOL

Red Rock Canyon

As soon as you come out of one of the many, many tunnels cutting through the Rockies, you see this vast high plain in front of you with Denver in the misty distance.  Wow.

Before you know it, we are in Chicago, although we did arrive four and a half hours late.  That still left us about an hour and a half to pick up some subs for dinner before boarding the Chicago Limited to D.C.

We left Chicago two and a half hours late because we were waiting for another train to come in late and send us 150 passengers.  Because of that, it was daylight when we went through Pittsburgh.  I really enjoyed that!  Here is the view of Pittsburgh out the back door of the last train car, which was where we were in coach for this leg of the trip.

Mark is adjusting some things on the overhead storage rack as we pull out of Pittsburgh.

We lost more time and arrived in D.C. four and a half hours late.  Our dinner at Pizzeria Uno with Farlee got cancelled, but she still met us at the train station!  We got Subway subs to take on board again, so she hung out and talked with us in the Club Acela first class area until we were called to our train.  How fun that was!

Mark enjoying conversation with Farlee in the lounge.

This final leg of the trip we had a roomette on a Viewliner car, which included our own private toilet and sink.  This is the toilet with the sink folded up.

Here's the sink folded down.  The room also included pump soap, bar soap, wash rags, and hand towels.  The car had a shower with bath towels, too.  We actually thought this little roomette was more spacious and comfortable than the usual ones in the Superliner cars.

Stepping out in Jacksonville to enjoy being back in Florida.  We arrived in Kissimmee about  an hour or so late, but our friends Ed and Barb were waiting for us.

Home after a great vacation.

The best news is that I did not gain any weight on this 19 day trip.  I weighed myself, and I'm basically the same as when we left, 288.5.  This is one of those rare times that I stayed the same on a vacation.  Wow.  I am happy with that.

Today we are staying home, relaxing, and catching up on TV.  I actually slept in until almost 9 a.m.

The rest of the vacation was great.  We went to the San Jose History Park last Sunday with Evey and Eric.  There was a bike show there, which we all enjoyed looking at.  It was National Vanilla Ice Cream Day, so we all had some of that at the historic ice cream parlor.  We got to ride a trolley that was 105 years old.  All in all, we had a wonderful time there.  The next day we boarded the train again for our five day trip home.  It went well.  We had some new sights to see and met some nice people in the dining car.  Three of the four nights were in roomettes, so I slept very well.

Although we are missing Eric, Evey, and Kiwi, we are also glad to be home.

Here are some pictures from the San Jose History Park.  Tomorrow I'll post pictures of our eastbound train trip.

We took Subway subs into the park for a picnic lunch.

One of the winning customized bikes.

That is a TALL bike.

A three wheeler with a big seat.  That's the one I want.

The old Palace Hotel also holds the ice cream parlor.

Several bike stunt shows happened throughout the day.

On the trolley

Mark and Evey playing in the kid-sized trolley outside the Trolley Barn.

Standing on a historic horse drawn trolley in the barn.

Finally got our vanilla ice cream.  O'Brien's is the name of the place, and it was the first place that people could get ice cream west of the Mississippi.

Then we drove a short way to the San Pedro Market area, the site of the earliest parts of San Jose.  Unfortunately, this building was not open to the public even though it was a Sunday.

An adobe house in the San Pedro Market

As we walked back to our car, we saw people going by on this Beer Mobile, pedaling it to make it go.  Crazy!

Shabbat at Evey's house

Friday I got the new battery installed in my iPhone.  That was very exciting.  It also gave us an hour to wander around the beautiful mall that is walking distance from Evey's house.  It's an amazing, vibrant mall full of people.  So many are dying or closed now around the country that it was great to see a thriving mall.  We even went to their Disney Store!

I have binge watched all ten episodes of The Handmaid's Tale and finished reading the book.  It was excellent.  I may have to add Hulu to our huge package of cable TV programming just to watch next year's second season.

Friday evening we had a great Shabbat dinner.  It was a communal affair.  Mark made corn on the cob.  Evey fixed the string beans and her tilapia.  Eric made sous vide chicken breast, and I set the table.  It's always lovely to spend Shabbat with Evey and Eric.

Today is Saturday.   Evey is baking some more cookies and brownies as the Curly Baker.  This time I am the one who ordered them.  I am hoping they survive the train trip to give to Ed and Barb when they pick us up at the train station as well as some to take to the next NARFE meeting.

Today will probably be a very relaxing day.  We might take Kiwi out for a walk.  Tomorrow is our last full day at the house.  The ten days have flown by.  Our plan is to go to the San Jose History Park for about four or five hours.  Then we will come home, wash clothes, get everything packed and ready to go.  Our plan is to go to bed at 9 when Evey does because we will be getting up at 4:30 and out the door at 5:30 to head up to Emeryville.  Evey leaves for work at 4:40, so we'll have a few minutes to say good-bye to her as she heads out.  We booked a roomette for the first two nights on the California Zephyr, which is pretty cool.  The privacy and quiet of the little room is delightful.

Evey and Eric have turned their back yard in to a beautiful outdoor living space.  There is also a grill and a table with four chairs off to the left as well as a shaded bench off to the right.  We had a great time eating breakfast out their Saturday morning as well as watching the fire blaze Thursday night.

The beautiful, big new dining room table with two colors of wood.

Thursday night Happy Hour at their bar.

Preparing Shabbat diner

Preparing to bless Evey before dinner

One of Mark's favorite things is blessing his children whenever we are with them on a Friday night.