Welcome Back, California!

 Life is...

 ...joyfully operating at full capacity.

Hi Everyone!

How the heck are you?  Lots has been happening, right?  We have much to catch up on, you and we, but we didn't want to let this moment in history escape.   For today, we celebrate.  More later.

Fill us in on your adventures too!

So much love,

Darrell and Andi

 

California was the first state in the nation to shut down in the face of COVID-19.  (We wrote about the stay-home Executive Order here.) Darrell and I were reaching for the entrance door at Islands when we got the news that all restaurants were ceasing dine-in service.  They closed the restaurant literally in our faces.  Darrell was heart broken.  We clawed at the door for a few minutes before accepting our fate and entering the next strange, sad phase of life during a pandemic. 

Yesterday California started its grand reopening.  No masks for vaccinated people, no social distancing, and restaurants are back to full capacity.  You can see, above, that today Darrell headed straight to our home away from home.  That's right.  Islands.  It felt like a huge party, with humans enjoying the formerly simple pleasure of eating fries in each other's company.  

 

There also seemed to be a sense of collective appreciation for what we all have done, working together to begin turning the page on this pandemic.  We know, we know.  It's not over.  And we know that the costs to our world and its people are immeasurable.  There are such worse things in life than skipping restaurant meals.  But the French fries might just give us a little boost to take the next steps in this journey.  For now, we're all just smiling at each other.  With our mouths.

 

Today's Blooms