An Impromptu Date

To say that we miss spending time with him is an understatement.  When the girls were babies, my brother came for a weekly visit.  Most of the time, he came to bring me some "adult time" and some nourishment which is welcome treat when I/we get stuck at home.  It's also a time when we get to go out and discover new places or simply walk around the block to shoot pictures that are now etched forever. Needless to say, we look forward to it every week!

When my brother got diagnosed with Bipolar, things changed and his visits became fewer and far in between.  After a few years of that struggle, we are somewhat reconnecting again and trying to spend time together as regularly as possible. And although it still not as often as it once was, it is still a special time when we do. So when he texted this morning and said, "do you want to get together for lunch?"  We dropped everything and spent the day in the heat of San Jose to enjoy some QT with my brother. 

We decided on a brunch place and went to Scrambles in Blossom Hill which we discovered as a family one time.  It's a great place to hang since the whole restaurant is filled with interesting paraphernalia, some too funny not to commemorate.  

Since we are both veggie eating now, most of us settled for a similar omelette while Ickey went for pancakes.  And since it is a brunch after all, we skipped dessert there and opted to go to Yogurtland across the street.

Of course, when we get together like this it usually means that we will do a photo shoot of sorts.  I figured it would be a good day to try the mural route that I wanted to do with the kids and also check out the Monopoly Board at the park that my brother wanted to see here in our area. 

Despite our best efforts of locating other nearby murals, we only found one and she's a beauty.  

It's close to the museum we go to often when the girls were younger so shooting around these parts was somewhat also nostalgic.  Nowadays, the girls don't just tag along...we'll ok Ickey still does...but Mer is completely immersed with taking pictures as well so it is now a share experience that we all enjoy and the results are not just memorable but stunning!

What became apparent though is the fact that South Bay is definitely too hot to be strolling around in in the middle of summer so maybe this may not be the best idea for our Tuesday group but it should be great around Fall or maybe even Winter.  We tried finding relief in the fountains but of course, that would be non-functioning today of all days!  Disappointed and hot, we cut our day short since, it is a Friday after all so we separated early so that he can meet up with Jules and Lenette (who's also in town for a visit from college) to catch a movie.

It's a proven fact that most impromptu days are usually the best and most memorable days!  That's definitely true today!