It’s Sunday here, Saturday back home. Two NFL playoff games today, two more tomorrow. We had a pretty good morning coffee and toast. We sent Brian and Val a text, suggesting a brunch meeting. They text back that they need to be out of their hotel by 10:30. That means we have hurry up our morning routine. It takes half an hour to drive my old rental van downtown. We find the hotel, but not the Funks. But it IS the right place. I’m in the lobby when I see Brian pushing some big suitcases down the hall. He adds them to the big collection that is already in the lobby. Whoa! I’m not sure all the luggage will fit in the van without removing seats. But with Scott’s help, we manage to cram it all into the one vehicle. Now to find a brunch place. I start driving around the block. I park the van and we walk around a bit. This isn’t really working. Why don’t we all just go back to OUR neighbourhood. We have nice restaurants and cafes. And maybe we can even go to our apartment and catch at least SOME of the football games?
After a far too good breakfast in a far too expensive restaurant we go across the road to the Countdown grocery store and get some SERIOUS grocery shopping done. We need snacks and drinks for an afternoon of football watching, supper at our apartment, and sandwiches for tomorrow’s scheduled sailing excursion. We get home just in time to see the end of the first game (by now the outcome has LONG been decided). Sue and Val sit on the balcony while the boys are inside on the couch. Soon Scott has a nap. Brian is looking for a car to rent or buy and a hotel to stay at later in the week. All is going well until Val gets a text from their hotel — they will need to check in by 5pm at the latest. That means no supper at our apartment, and we’ll need to be on the road by 4:15.
We find the Funks’ replacement hotel/apartment near the waterfront. Unload our cargo. Say adieu until tomorrow. Sue and I drive back to the apartment. Now the second football game is over too, and it wasn’t a close game either! Oh well. The important game is tomorrow afternoon: Giants at Green Bay. I’ll miss that too — I’ll be sailing on a tri-hulled boat in the Auckland sea.
We have supper. Watch an episode of “The Crown”. Getting tired and it’s not yet nine o’clock. Sue suggests we go for a walk around our ‘neighbourhood’. We do that — a 45-minute stroll just before sunset. It’s cool, windy (what else is new?). Back in our apartment, we watch a Fifth Estate episode (isn’t that AppleTV thing working out well for us!) and another documentary after that. It’s eleven when we call it a night. Looking forward to seeing what tomorrow brings.