Friends and Fairyland

This past week we had another set of friends visiting us in Alameda.  They are moving here from D.C. this transfer season and they stayed with us for the week of house hunting.  In the end, they found a great rental in Alameda.  It will be wonderful to have them so close, right in our town.  On Friday, we spent the day in San Francisco showing them around a little bit.  O stayed in school, and we had a nice grown-up day!

Lombard Street

Today we spent the day at Children's Fairyland in Oakland.  This was our first time there, and it was very charming and fun.  O was so excited and thoroughly enjoyed his day.  

Flying monkey!

C'mon, put 'em up, put 'em up.....

The park is mostly play areas themed after children's stories, but there are a few rides.  The train was closed for repairs today, but that just gave us a reason to go back.

Sliding down Jack and Jill Hill.

His favorite parts were the boat play areas.  He definitely gravitated towards the helm on each of them!

Crooked House.

There was a mini ferris wheel.  I was not sure how he would do, but O really liked it.  He went back twice for another ride.

 After spending a few hours at Fairyland, we walked through the botanical garden and bonsai garden nearby.  That is definitely a place I would like to explore more.  It is amazing what a beautiful garden there is right in the middle of Oakland.  Tom and O had been to the garden once before, so we did a comparison picture...

Today

June, 2012

It was a fun day!  The weather was absolutely gorgeous and the park was not crowded, perfect!

Joe!

We got to see Joe this weekend. He is in the area for a school up in Petaluma, and he came down for the weekend. Today, we went for a hike on Mount Tamalpais. The goal was to stop a place called The Tourist Club for a beverage at the turnaround point. Unfortunately, they were closed for their annual maintenance day today.

We had a great hike though.  O did the full 2.5 miles all himself, and even enjoyed it!  Our reward at the end was a late lunch at a delicious Puerto Rican restaurant in San Rafael before returning Joe to the cows and turkeys in Petaluma.

Swimming

O is doing so well in his swimming lessons, I thought I would share some pictures from today's lesson. He had a different teach than usual, but he is still very comfortable in the water and getting better with every lesson.

Swimming with face in.

Backfloat

He is doing a really good job of pulling himself up out of the water.  One of the first skills they learned in the beginning lessons was how to pull out of the pool.  

And, finally, he is making progress on jumping in!   This video is a little hard to see behind the other kids in his class, but you will get the idea.

Year of the Horse

Last night we ventured into San Francisco for the annual Chinese Lunar New Year Parade.  It is the biggest Chinese New Year Parade outside of Asia, and one of the few remaining night parades in a major US city.  We braved the crowds (which is a big deal for me) and really enjoyed the parade.  Tom went over to the city early to get us a front row spot for our chairs.  He is helpful like that.

The parade consisted of many marching bands, drum groups, dancers, gymnasts, floats and lots of traditional dragons and lions.

O really liked the dragons and lions, but was not such a fan of the firecrakers.  I think it is a good thing we left before the finale, which was a 201 foot long dragon accompanied by 600,000 firecrackers!

Wow!  Look at that!

Overall, it was a very fun experience.  We watched for a little over two hours and then we left early to avoid the crowds on the train ride home.

Happy Year of the Horse!  Gong Xi Fa Chai!

New Orleans!

Our jet-setting family spent a few days in New Orleans visiting the Meuses this past week.  It has been way too long since we last saw them, and they will be leaving New Orleans for Cape May this summer.  We all had a great time, of course!

Although we were a little too early for Mardis Gras, we did get to catch the first parade of the season.  It was a daytime kid-friendly parade and O had a great time.  The little Meuse is an old pro at parades, so he coached O on how to get the best loot!

Decked out for the parade.

Meuses!

Buddies.

Collecting goodies.

7 already!

We were able to get a sitter one night so we could go out for some dinner and dancing.  It was definitely great to be back with our good friends.

We were there for about five days, and we were sad to leave.  We had delicious food, yummy beignets and cafe au lait, explored City Park and sported lots of new hair!

Lunch at the French Market.

Grandma and Grandpa

Grandma and Grandpa were here for a visit at the end of January and first week of February.  We had lots of fun showing them around Alameda and the surrounding area.  O especially enjoyed all of the attention and spending lots of time with them.  

We made a weekend trip up to Sonoma to visit Benziger (O's favorite winery).  We were really lucky with our timing - the four of us were the only people on our tour so we got a private tour without paying extra!  I think Grandpa really enjoyed the tour through the vineyards, caves and winery.  

We also made the obligatory stop at the Sculpture Garden and at Gloria.  We had a really nice day tasting wine and playing in the sculptures.

Twins!

The Big Blue Chair

During the week, Grandma and Grandpa took O to tour the USS Hornet, on a ferry ride, and to the park.  They all had a great time while I was at work, and I really enjoyed having dinner ready when I got home!  (Thanks Grandma.)

After Tom got home from his underway trip, we all spent a long weekend in Big Sur.  We rented a house up a long winding rode with a nice view of the ocean. 

On the way down we stopped in Carmel Valley and for a little hike at Garrapatta State Park.  The weather was beautiful and the ocean was breathtaking.

Garrapatta Beach.

Pulling Bull Kelp.

The view from our deck.

O and Daddy watching the sunset.

We had planned on taking a tour of Big Sur Lighthouse, but the weather did not cooperate so we just took a driving tour of the coast.

Bixby Bridge.

Grandma at Julia Pfieffer-Burns State Park.

On our second full day we visited Pfeiffer Beach - the national park that was closed when we were in Big Sur in October.  It was a little windy, but we still had a nice picnic and fun exploring the purple sand beach.

Hello!

Our picnic spot.

Exploring the beach.

Purple Sand!

We had such a great time with Grandma and Grandpa that it was hard to say good-bye.  O really loved having them here, and was sad to see them go. 

Lucky for us, we had our trip to New Orleans right around the corner when then left - so we had a new adventure to look forward to!