A Day With Drew

Drew is one of my oldest friends, and as he was in town giving a paper at a conference, I was delighted to get together with him.

Robb was having a very low-energy day, which I tend to attribute to the fact that he has been pushing himself so hard. He has been trying to go four hours a day without his brace. Of course he sleeps without the "turtle shell" as well, so his "free" time is actually longer.

Because of Robb's energy level, Drew and I spent part of our time out without Robb. I still feel like a horrible person for doing this, but I suspect that Robb appreciates the quiet time.

Drew was staying in Lafayette, so it seemed natural to take a trip up Mount Diablo. As we were walking, we got to talking about Drew's recovery from bone cancer, and how until fairly recently he might not have been able to picture himself tromping up a mountain in California. Right now, it is hard to imagine that Robb and I will be hiking together any time soon, but I know that eventually he will be nimble enough to climb mountains again.

I tried to exercise some self-restraint, and not photograph every single wildflower we passed. For example, we saw several examples of the Mount Diablo Fairy Lantern, a flower that exists nowhere on earth but on this mountain, and I actually didn't take a picture (they were a little tired-looking).


Here's a Yellow Mariposa Lily.


This is, I believe, Elegant Brodiaea.

After our trip to Mount Diablo, Drew and I picked up Robb, and we had dinner overlooking the sunset on the San Francisco Bay, and then went for a walk along the shoreline. Very nice, indeed!