On September 26, 2020, in a blog post titled Travel Talk: San Francisco (Part Three), I wrote:
I look forward to writing Part Four of Travel Talk: San Francisco when I visit my children in the same city in the near future.
That near future came more than three years later, one week this December, from December 21 to 28.
It also marked the best Christmas timeššš I have ever had. The last time the three of us were all together during the Christmas season was at least ten years ago.
Time flies. Before I realized it, they have both moved on with their lives since then and moved away from the city they grew up in...
Even though they both came to see me this June, spending this Christmas together has become a hot topic during their visits in June. I even dreamed a few times about how we would spend time together...š“š“š“
Here are some highlights of my "real" short but very sweet trip:
The weather, shortly after I left, Montreal embraced a big snowstorm with lots of flight cancellations. I had photos in front of a huge Christmas tree under a clear blue sky the second day I arrived
The freedom to explore the city. Since it was my third time, I was pretty at ease walking around on my own. I viewed both the Oakland Bay Bridge and the Golden Gate Bridge from afar
The time spent together. We cooked, dined out, and dined in with take-outs. We played cards. I met a few of my daughter's friends. We had a few animated conversations
I visited two parks for the first time: Lands End Lookout and Glen Park. We spotted a fox in the open field. I practiced my French and they practiced Chinese from time to time. We also had honest conversations about other things. That is also how I got my steps accumulated. On Dec. 23rd, my steps are a little shy away from 20 km.š¶āāļøš¶āāļøš¶āāļø
An unexpected belly massage from Tamarašāā¬šāā¬šāā¬ , the black cat. After I stayed for a night or two, he came to me one day when I was sitting on the sofa and he did at least twenty seconds of tapping on my belly. Way to go, Tamara šššThe shy Snow Bell šššdidn't make an appearance the first day or two. Both cats are adorable and added a lot of fun to my stay
Eating MacDonald's while watching my daughter skating and shoveling the snow on the ice rinkāøļøāøļøāøļø
A Day at Google: It was so impressive that I decided to write an entry, hopefully, tomorrow, if not, the first day or two into the next yearāļøāļøāļø
The three of us went to the cinema on Christmas day and watched a three-hour Chinese movie called Yi Yi. The room was packed and I was impressed to see so many people coming out to watch a movie that they had to read subtitles. I guess it does have to do with the fact that the movie has won a few prizes. The story is quite touching. I shed some tears when the film ended š¢š¢š¢
Listening to both of them play piano, guitar, and singing made me want to learn to play an instrument too. Maybe next time I can play with them and we will arrange to have a stand to videotape our performance ššš
Catching a beautiful sunset and doing morning exercise on the rooftop while watching the sunrise. It wasn't as glorious as the sunset but the city view was amazing...ā£ļøā£ļøā£ļø
Click on the red texts below for the first two short articles documenting my trips in 2019.
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