Adventures with Jimmy and Marian

When we landed at SFO on Monday night coming home from San Diego, we headed to the Hertz rental car center to wait for our great friends the Dickinsons, who were flying in from Cincinnati to visit! We were so excited to see Jimmy, Marian and (almost 18-month-old) baby Joshua! When we realized that we would be flying in just an hour or so before them, and they were planning on renting a minivan large enough for the six of us to drive around in, we decided it made the most sense to just wait at the airport so we could all drive home together, rather than take a separate uber. We typically uber to the airport rather than drive and park because the airport parking at SFO is sooo expensive! It's cheaper to uber there and back.

So, we settled in to wait for our friends... and wait.... and wait.... their flight was a bit delayed, and it took them a while to make their way to Hertz. But finally, sometime around 11 pm, we found them, a bit worse for the wear after a long, rough flight with sick, crabby Joshua. After some difficulty securing the minivan and getting both car seats installed, we were FINALLY on our way home, one exhausted crew with two passed-out little ones.

The next morning we got to catch up a little bit before Rich went in to work and they told us their big news, that Joshua has a little brother on the way (although we did not know it was a brother at the time)!!!! Very exciting!! But also making the travel that much rougher for poor Marian who was a bit more tired and queasy than she would have been without a bun in the oven.

The whole crew walked Valerie to school, and then I took the Dickinsons to Veggie Grill for lunch before they headed out for the next few days. They had booked a hotel up in wine country for Tuesday until Friday, at which point they would come back down and stay with us for the weekend.

We anxiously awaited their return on Friday, and we all piled into the van and drove over to Shoreline park near the Google campus to walk around the park and see the lake before we picked up Indian food for dinner.  Poor Joshua was still under the weather and not himself and poor Marian was fighting a bad headache. We ordered some Indian takeout and hurried home to devour it. Once we all scarfed our meal everyone was feeling a little better and the battle to get Joshua to sleep could begin. Poor thing, we just did not get to see his usual cheerful self on this visit; he was exhausted and unwell and just wanted Marian to hold him.

After a night of less-than-ideal sleep we psyched ourselves up to go to the beach at Santa Cruz for the afternoon. First Joshua ate a bowl of Cheerios, then he puked them up everywhere, so we debated staying home, but decided we might as well still venture to the beach. Fortunately he didn't puke again after that.

We had a fun afternoon playing at the beach in spite of strong winds (well, everyone except Joshua. I can't say he had fun at any point). Jimmy even submerged himself completely in the ice cold Pacific ocean water, and he also tortured Joshua by putting his feet in.

We ferried our ragamuffin crew back home for a quiet night in. We had tried to secure a babysitter to watch the kids Saturday night so the adults could go out, but she canceled on us, and with Joshua in the state he was in we realized we would have had to cancel on her anyway. The boy needed his mama close by.

It ended up being a really fun night in after all once the kids were asleep. We got takeout for dinner again, and played games with plenty of hilarity and got to catch up, which was fantastic.

On Sunday we got Oren's Hummus for lunch and went for a hike (ok... a walk) at Foothills Park. It was a lovely day and a nice walk, but we found out afterward that Marian must have walked in some poison oak because she wound up with a huge, nasty reaction on her ankle after they got home.

With all the sickness, puking, poison oak, terrible flights and lack of sleep, I'm not sure if our friends were really glad they came to visit, but we sure were glad they came all the way out to see us! We miss them and love them so very much! Love you Dickinsons and can't wait to meet new baby boy in December!!! XOXO

Mother's Day weekend in San Diego

Rich and some of the biodesign fellows attended a urology conference in San Diego over Mother's Day weekend, so of course I thought it would be a great opportunity for Valerie and I to tag along and see the sights in San Diego. I am so glad we did!  It was a beautiful weekend in one of the prettiest cities there is.

We arrived Friday morning and stopped at this cute spot called Pizza e Birra for lunch, where we were the only customers. The owner was super friendly and put PBS kids on the TV for Valerie and chatted with us about San Diego. Then we dropped Rich at the conference and drove to the beach to hang out for an hour or two until we could check into the condo we were sharing with three other fellows on Mission Beach. Valerie snoozed in the car while I made a paranoid super-fast dash to one of the public beach bathrooms since I didn't want to wake her and haul her into the stall with me. Some sketchy-looking dude hanging out in his car in the parking lot had me freaked out, but fortunately no one kidnapped her during my quick pee run.

Balboa Park

 We had a whole afternoon to kill so then we headed over to Balboa Park, which was even prettier than I remembered it. We were last there in June of 2011 for some friends' wedding and the weather was a bit chilly and overcast. This time the sun was shining and all the landscaping and architecture in the park really sparkled in the light. We got to take the tram from the parking lot through the park which was a perfect adventure for Valerie. I hauled the stroller on and off the tram and around the park... in hindsight I totally did not need it. Valerie walked all around just fine.

We had a lovely afternoon at Balboa Park smelling the flowers, playing with palm fronds and splashing in fountains and then we headed back downtown to pick up Rich from the conference and go home to the condo. We walked down to the boardwalk with Elise and Alesandro and watched an absolutely stunning sunset over Mission Beach and grabbed some dinner at the patio at Draft right on the boardwalk. We all then called it an early night since it had been a long day with an early morning.

Mission Beach sunset Friday night

Saturday they went back to the conference and Valerie and I found breakfast at Mission Beach Coffee Break - an avocado egg white bagel for me, and an acai bowl also for me because I got her to eat maybe 3 bites of it. Oh the joys of traveling with a 3-year-old.

We had a leisurely morning and went down to the beach in the afternoon, where we found a mom and an 11-year-old girl building a sandcastle, mostly alone on the vast stretch of sand. Valerie walked right up next to them and sat down to watch, without saying a word. The mom was friendly and welcomed us to join them though the 11-year-old did not look particularly thrilled.

We rejoined the group at the condo to freshen up and take in an even more brilliant sunset and then picked up some carryout from Sara's Mexican Food for dinner.

Saturday night

Sunday, Mother's Day, the fellows all skipped the conference and we packed lunches and went to the San Diego Zoo. We planned to meet up with the other three, who arrived maybe 20 minutes after us, at the zoo, but then only crossed paths with them once headed opposite directions and never saw them again in spite of trying to coordinate our days. That was an epic fail, and they ended up buying lunch at the zoo since we had all the lunches with us. Oh well.

We had a fantastic day at the zoo just the three of us, got to ride the skyfari and the kangaroo bus, saw a show, the pandas, giraffes, elephants, flamingos, koalas, gorillas, polar bear, bonobos, hippo and I can't remember what else! That zoo is absolutely enormous. We were worn out from walking by the end and ready to sit down.

Rich's dad also happened to be in town for the conference and after the zoo we picked him up to join us for dinner. Jonathan had a friend with a boat in Carlsbad who invited us all to join him on the boat and for dinner so then we all drove up to Carlsbad for another pretty sunset on the water and dinner and cocktails at the Compass. We had a lot of fun meeting those new friends and riding on their boat and Valerie amazingly managed to last the whole long day in a pretty good mood.

Monday was the last day of the conference. We checked out of the condo, got the most outstanding brunch with delicious mimosas (and nutella chocolate milk!!) at crushed, then dropped Rich downtown and Valerie and I drove across the bridge to spend the afternoon on Coronado Island. We went to the park, walked along the bike path around the island, did some shopping and got ice cream. It was another gorgeous sunny day and we really enjoyed each other's company (especially after I bought her strawberry ice cream with sprinkles). I forgot to put sunblock on my shoulders and did get a bit fried.

view of San Diego from Coronado

beautiful purple jacaranda trees blooming all over

After we picked up Rich we stopped at another little park with a splash pad to burn some energy before our evening flight home. It really was the most idyllic day until we arrived to return the rental car and the employee pointed out some chipped paint on the front bumper which we are still sorting out five months later. (Long story short: Do Not rent from Thrifty/Dollar if you can avoid it!!! Total sketchy scam shenanigans on their part!!)

It was a wonderful weekend trip to one of my favorite California destinations. I just love that beautiful city!

April visits from Opa and Tutu and Nana and Papa

The highlights in April were my birthday and visits from Opa and Tutu AND Nana and Papa, as well as the constant rain finally coming to an end.

Our awesome friends Elise, Veronique and Justin watched Valerie on my birthday so Rich and I could go out for a nice birthday dinner at Lure + Till in downtown Palo Alto. It was a wonderful delicious meal with excellent cocktails and perfect cool weather on the patio (under a heater). Very memorable.

a delicious chickpea appetizer at Lure + Till

dinner at Lure + Till

I also got to enjoy a fabulous birthday brunch with Elise and (the other) Liz at Local Union 271, my favorite brunch spot with the famous mimosa tree (six different 4 oz mimosas). Who could ask for anything more? It was a special treat to have dry, sunny and beautiful weather on my birthday, since it always rains in Cincinnati.

brunch at Local Union

The next weekend Opa and Tutu came to visit, and unfortunately the rain made its last, final appearance during (pretty much all of) their visit. Fortunately we did not let that get us down, and we still had a wonderful time. We spent time just hanging out at home and I made an admittedly outstanding garlic parmesan halibut with roasted asparagus for dinner. Their last day we had brunch at Bumble and drove up to Half Moon Bay and had a lovely wine tasting at Barterra Winery.  It was great fun as always and too short.

The weekend after that, Nana and Papa came to visit. They picked the perfect weekend to visit, with the spring sun finally coming out for good and gorgeous weather. We went for a picnic at Foothills with Oren's Hummus, and of course went to Stanford Shopping Center to spoil Valerie. She got a cupcake at Sprinkles, new shoes and bathing suits and a kitty in a purse, and was a rotten mess by the end of the day. It was of course wonderful as always to see them and too short.

Valerie also got her first haircut in April, at the age of 3 (whoops...) and she loved her swim lessons at the "frog slide pool" at the JCC. We were all happy to finally see spring and the return of sunshine!

California poppies, the state flower

Half Moon Bay

flowers in our garden