a weekend alone

 It was just Jay and me and the three little kids for a couple days at the cabin.  It was fine, nice.

They brought along this game, Mall Madness, which was fun, though a little confusing as games are, especially when the instructions are explained by children.

Jay's not big on shopping at the mall anyway, and he got more and more aggravated and cantankerous as the game went on until finally even though he won, he stomped off.

Kari quipped, "Yeah, he's pretty much rocking the madness."

In the morning we went to the fishing museum in Hayward.

That's the big fish with a stairway inside and viewing tower out the mouth.

 Here's the view from inside the mouth of the fish.

 And back down the stairs:

 There was a fishing pond outside, sunfish swimming.

 The view from underneath:

 Taxidermy fish were everywhere.  Some dude named Frenchy caught this in 1973.

 Posing with the statues:

We were here once before, in the fall of 2006.   When we were looking in this diorama that day, an actual live mouse was running around in this scene.

 And in 2006, these guys were four and two.  Julia especially was rebellious and difficult.  She rolled on the floor and yelled about every little thing.

Now she's almost ten and quite civilized.

Yeah, a taxidermy bear, much like the REAL bear we saw in the field when we got home.

 After the museum we walked downtown to the art festival and looked in all the booths, and bought fancy candy, and had lunch on the patio at some bar.

It was a lovely, lovely day and it's fun that they're so adult-like and easy.

Okay, in the photo below-- there's where we saw the bear in the field.   From behind he looked like Sam, except we left Sam at home in the city with the big kids.   Then this newf-looking critter turned to look at us and had the face of a BEAR and then quickly ran back into the woods.

I mean, we knew there are bears around, but we've never seen one before.

 Sea salt chocolate covered caramels--amazing.

 And then we went for a ride around the lake.

This morning we got up right away and headed for my aunt and uncle's place for a 50th anniversary party.

And tonight we were back in town so we could go downtown and listen to jazz--my sales manager plays piano.   And now it's the end of the night.

Perfect, beautiful June.   love always, Val, aka MOM