MEMBER FEATURE: Q&A with B&T (Barb & Terry)

Heads up! Incoming news from our neighborhood! 

Back in May, Barb and Terry ("B&T") rented an apartment across the street from our building to start getting acquainted with their future neighborhood - How cool is that?? (Answer: Very)

B&T have been watching Washington Commons come to life since 2017 when, knowing “next to nothing about cohousing,” they accompanied a friend to a WC event. Drawn by the many attractions of community, they attended a second event in 2019 and joined “just in time to participate in design workshops.”

And now they’re learning all about the ‘hood: dining out and finding out, discovering sites and sounds, lolling and strolling. Boots on the ground!

Well, okay, maybe not. Apparently some boots were not made for walkin’.

"We’ve been lousy investigators of our new neighborhood,” they admit, but they’re regulars at our neighboring Tree House Cafe where they can watch our future homes take shape.

​“It moves really slowly when you check every day, but it’s exciting to hear construction sounds, knowing it’s our building getting closer to move-in!”

(They also enjoy the sound of barking seals on the river, lazing on their rafts, but we digress.)
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Okay, when not hangin’ out at the Tree House, where are they? (Answer: Probably riding their bikes)

The 32-mile American River Bike Trail runs from Discovery Park (an easy ride from Washington Commons) to Beal’s Point at Folsom Lake.

“We have yet to bike the entire trail,” they report, “generally riding out and back 20 miles on this beautiful, mostly wooded trail alongside the American River with wonderful birding…Red-shouldered hawk, Cooper’s hawk, wild turkeys, Nuttall’s woodpecker, spotted towhee, black Phoebe, herons, egrets, Canada geese, etc.”

So, when not riding their bikes, what are they doing? (Answer: Probably traveling)

Fond travel memories from their four-month cross-country RV trip in 2016: “Hearing loons call on Farm Lake in Minnesota, loving the peacefulness of Rollins Pond in the Adirondacks, and eating an amazing hamburger with bacon onion jam!”

Bacon onion jam? Are B&T foodies? (Answer: Sounds like!)

They confess to “years of serious eating” in downtown Sacramento during their 15 years living there. Favorite restaurants include Magpie Cafe: “Solid farm-to-fork offerings and we love their chocolate avocado mousse!” Chocolate avocado mousse?? (Yep, foodies.)

They also love the margarita pizza and wedge salad at Anonimo Pizza, and creative pizzas at Majka Pizzeria & Bakery. And then there’s happy hour at up-scale Ella, where “just the thought of their special gin & tonic, steak tartare with a popover, and caesar salad” makes Terry want to show up when the doors open.

Happy hour at Ella sound fun? (Answer: Definitely!)

Hmm, maybe we could join B&T in that gin & tonic, hear their travel stories about Italy’s Cinque Terra or Tahiti and Moorea, or that bike-barge adventure in the Netherlands? 

​Or maybe get them to tell how 33 years ago when Terry, on a date with someone else, met Barb and “the rest is history.” Is that a story we want to hear? (Answer: Absolutely!)