of proposals and walks on the beach

The next day, a Friday, we drove into San Francisco. Adam had a television interview to go to- relating to a deadbeat contractor that swindled a few thousand from us on a down payment to paint our Oakland House. The law had finally caught up with him, and he has been in prison for a few weeks now, awaiting arraignment. The TV station was doing a followup interview with Adam for the evening news. We heard it ran (thanks Octavia!), but didn't catch it since we were already out of town. Tony went into San Francisco Botanical Garden to do some consulting for them, and catch up with old friends. The gardens looked amazingly gorgeous, and they continuing with great renovation's of sections of gardens.

Adam decided to trek out to the Gardens on foot from downtown, since he knew Tony would be working. En route, he stopped at the Conservatory of Flowers and picked up a little something which I will come back to.

After rejoining Tony, Adam took him out to the California Native Garden, and sat him down. He then proceeded to get on his knee, bring out this amazingly beautiful 4 foot tall Titan Arum (Amorphophallus titanum) plant (which Tony LOVES!) and proposed marriage to Tony. Of course he said YES! Tony could not think of a more perfect spot to be proposed to, and was giddy and bouncy for several days afterwards! We haven't settled on the details or date yet, as we figure we have two months at least during the road-trip to make some decisions.

Oh, and about that Amorphophallus? Adam had been secretly contacting various places, trying to find a small bulb (corm) to stash in a ring box, so he could pop the question sometime on the trip. When Adam visited the Conservatory, Claire (bless her hart!) asked him "Well, are you married yet?!?". Adam explained his search, and she grabbed Adam and dragged him through the back greenhouses on a crazy quest to find some bulbs. When they couldn't find any bulbs, Claire and Lupe put a four foot plant in Adam's hands. Adam said "Well, I guess I am proposing to him today.. I really can't hide this in my pocket!".

[theres supposed to be a pic of us with the plant here, but I can't find the memory stick right now]

That night as we were driving back to my sister's, Tony called home to the parents, and learned that his aunt, who was diagnosed just days before with inoperable advanced brain cancer, had driven out from Utah and was arriving in Simi the next day. So Adam and Tony scooped up his sis & bro-in-law Celeste and Garrick, and had a little conference over dinner. We knew Aunt Sue does not have a lot of time, and with our road trip, we weren't sure if she would be with us when we got to the Utah area. So we decided over dinner to cancel our first couple of couchsurfing "reservations" and go back down to L.A. and visit Sue while she was there. Garrick had to work and take a test, so we collected Celeste and left Oakland at 11pm, arriving in Simi around 5 AM. We hadn't told a soul that we were coming, but luckily we had grandma's empty house to stay in and sleep for a few hours.

We spent a tearful but wonderful weekend with Aunt Sue and family, mostly enjoying each other's company. We took a drive out to the ocean for a walk on the beach, stopped at a great seafood restaurant, and shared many hugs and some tears. Sue, Dennis, and Aunt Mickey (forever the family care-taker with an extraordinary heart), departed for Utah on Monday, and we saw them off. It was really difficult, but totally worth postponing the trip.