Valentine’s Day

February 14, 2025

It’s Valentine’s Day! For Team Anderson though, since this is one of our alternating days for a dinner out it mostly comes as an inconvenience because our chances of finding a restaurant that appeals to us that has an unbooked table when the Gem Show is on are virtually zero. So we don’t even bother looking around. Instead we decide to make a loop of some sort up to Rillito Wash and have a lunch at Ren Cafe.

A few ideas are on for a route. One is to bike around the eastern horn of the loop, climbing up Julian Wash to its high point at Rita Road and rhen dropping back down Harrison and Pantano washes for the next 20 miles. Looping back to home from Ren Cafe though puts it at roughly fifty miles, which is more than Rachael wants to tackle today, her feet bothering her a bit more after her wonderful but long hike up toward Starr Pass yesterday.

So that idea gets passed on, which is just as well because I just showed it to you a few days ago and you likely haven’t forgotten about it yet. Instead I draft up a side that bikes north to Rillito and then follows its north-side path to its end near Ina Road before doubling back to our lunch spot. 30 miles looks just right to Rocky, so it’s a date.

It’s a no camera day, so there’s not much to impede us until we turn back east and roll up to Ren about 1:00. The inside is full but it’s no problem finding a table outside in the sun.

Sound track: Fall Out, by Gerry Mulligan and Paul Desmond

Lunch is fine, though I enjoy my late breakfast of a bowl of oatmeal with berries and bananas and a chiabatta roll with two eggs and bacon more than Rachael seems to do with hers. Here she’s trying to remember what she had last time that she was so pleased with, while I’m more focused on that amazing grey, shaggy mountain in the back. What kind of dog is that, anyway?

Later in the day, feeling badly that my valentine want more enthusiastic about her lunch, I do the right thing by going down to Time Market to bring her back a treat - a pint of pistachio gelato to share and a pair of chocolate sable cookies. She says she’ll save hers for me, but in fact it quickly disappears.

And as long as I’m there I can’t think of any good reason not to hang around for a slice of the pizza of the day - mortadella today.

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