Monday 8th June

This morning I went with Dorothy to her pool to do a session of water aerobics. Dorothy lives in a ‘modular home park’ for the over 55’s where there is a swimming pool, library and other ‘community‘ amenities,

Dorothy's 'modular' house

and I would think the average age of the ladies doing the water aerobics was 75 - and, boy, did they put me to shame! There were about 18 of us and they were all doing far better than me - but then, they do these aerobics daily so I suppose it’s not surprising. Nevertheless, it was a laugh and the rewarding dip in the Jacuzzi afterwards made it worth while.

We then went shopping (Dorothy’s favourite pastime!). She took us to a lovely shopping mall called Fashion Island where stores there included Macy's and Bloomingdales. It was a beautiful place, lots of colourful flowers, water features and open spaces.

We had lunch there and then paid a visit to a garden centre. It was interesting to see what ‘Californian’ plants were for sale. They had pohutukawa trees there and we discovered that the Californian name for it is The New Zealand Christmas Tree - also a common name for it in NZ.

Val, who drove us all the way down from Redding, had invited us for dinner. It was lovely to see her again and she cooked us a delicious meal and we spent a very jolly evening at her lovely home. We were sorry to have to say goodbye to her.