Sea Runners

A couple of weekends ago, we drove down to the beach just south of Half Moon Bay. We visited Pigeon Point Lighthouse, a goat farm where they specialize in cheese, and the beach.

Olin likes to chase the waves and be chased by them.  He calls it sea-runners. 

Birthday Week!

We had quite a week celebrating someone's fourth birthday this week.  Nan was here to visit, and we definitely enjoyed the visit and the birthday.

On his last day as a three-year old we stopped at Fort Point in San Francisco on our way out the cabin we rented for a few nights.  It was a gorgeous sunny day, and we all had fun walking through the old fort and enjoying the view of the Golden Gate Bridge above us.

We have been looking forward to staying in the cabins at Steep Ravine in Mount Tamalpais State Park for over a year.  The cabins are very popular and hard to get - we knew that April would be a good month because of Tom's ship's schedule, and it just so happened that we were able to get a reservation for O's birthday.

View of the cabins from the beach below.  Ours is the closest to the rocks.

When we arrived we spent the afternoon relaxing in the cabin and exploring the area right around the cabin.  It is definitely a beautiful, magical place.

Nan and O coloring in the cabin.

The view from our window.

O playing lookout.  Our "ship" kept getting stuck on the rocks, so he had to call
"Mayday, mayday, Coast Guard, save us!"

 On Monday (the big day!), we went for a special birthday hike around the headlands at the cabin.  We hiked to a tide pool beach and checked out the critters in the water.

Dad and O spied a pirate ship.

 After the tide pools, we had a picnic lunch before heading back to the cabin.  O found a little Kermit figurine in the bushes on the hike - of all his birthday presents, that Kermit is his favorite...

O, Kermit and Nan at lunch.

 In the afternoon, we had birthday cake and opened a few more presents.  O was pleased with the peanut butter icing on his cake.

Blowing out the candles.

Checking out his new telescope.

Dad and O flying a kite.  

On Tuesday, Tom and I got to go out for a longer hike while O and Nan stayed back and did a scavenger hunt at the cabin.  It was an amazing hike along Webb Creek up Mount Tam.  We thoroughly enjoyed getting out to stretch our legs on a longer hike.

The beach below our cabin.

Dad and O enjoying the water after our hike.

Sunset.

 We had to tear ourselves away from the cabin on Wednesday after three peaceful nights.  On our way back we stopped to do a little bit of the hike that Tom and I did the day before.

The birthday trip was truly amazing.  O was so excited for every minute that I think he was exhausted just from the fun as much as the activity.   We had his second birthday party at school on Thursday afternoon.  This year, O requested an airplane cake, so I obliged.  

The airplane cake.

Happy Birthday to you...

Blowing out the candles (again).

Tonight, we had his final birthday celebration.  O's favorite restaurant is the Japanese restaurant right down the street from our house.  Pretty much every time we are there, someone has a birthday - so we knew he would get a kick out of hearing everyone sing for him and getting the special birthday tray.

O getting his card from Faith, the owner. 

Happy Fourth Birthday!

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!