SoCal! Disneyland and Newport Harbor

BOY were we excited to take Valerie to Disneyland! We knew we had to take her this year while we are (just barely) within driving distance of Disneyland in Anaheim, California and she is at the age where it's all real and magical. We had talked to some family at Sara and Dannon's wedding back in October about our plans, Tom and Karen, and they enthusiastically offered to have us stay with them in Mission Viejo. We gladly accepted their offer and determined the last weekend of February would be a good time to go.

We picked Valerie up from school on Friday and started driving right around the evening rush hour, in hopes of making it to their house not too long past midnight. It's a six hour drive without traffic, and rush hour added about 45 minutes to the trip, plus we stopped for dinner at Ginger Cafe in Gilroy. The drive was pretty smooth once we got south of San Jose, although it was very dark (I hate driving in the dark since I got LASIK - I see big halos).  Rich thankfully took over the second half of the driving.

We woke up on Saturday morning to sunshine, palm trees, and a gloriously beautiful SoCal day! It was absolutely perfect for Disneyland, about 75 and sunny. Unfortunately, the entire population of California, all 40 million of them, also thought it was a perfect day for Disneyland. So much for a random February weekend not being too crowded. I'd hate to see what it's like on a peak summer day. My god. The crowds.

We had a nice big breakfast with Tom and Karen at home and then we got ourselves ready for the day and headed out. It was about a 30 minute drive, plus the slow crawl into the parking lot, where we had our first taste of being herded like cattle. Finally, around 11 am we were there!! We brought the stroller since we knew Valerie wasn't going to make it through the whole day walking. She tires easily. I also had Minnie Mouse ears for her to wear, but she wasn't interested in keeping those on, so we never did get a picture with those.

 

Our first sighting in the park was Belle, meeting a long line of fans just inside the gate. At first we just walked in and took in the sights. People, characters, balloons, storefronts, the castle which I learned is not Cinderella's castle like the one at Disney World, but Sleeping Beauty's. We caught a bit of an abbreviated live action Frozen show, and then got in line to meet the princesses in the Royal Hall. We got super lucky and got in line before it got very long, and it was definitely a highlight of the day. Valerie was scared at first, but the first princess in the hall was Belle, and she did a wonderful job making Valerie feel comfortable enough to smile and get a hug and a picture. The next princess was her favorite.... Cinderella, who was also wonderful and gentle and chatted with Valerie about her mice friends hidden all over the park. The third was Snow White, who was a little too in character and scared Valerie with her startlingly high pitched voice.

  Next Rich and Valerie got in line to ride King Arthur's carousel, the first ride of the day, and then we "pulled the sword from the stone."

After that it was time to find some lunch, and we had a cafeteria-style meal at the Plaza Inn, where I got a plateful of extremely overpriced spaghetti and Rich got fried chicken meals for himself and Valerie, who did not remotely need an entire meal for herself. I nearly passed out at the amount of food we threw away but I pulled myself together and tried to let it go, in the spirit of Elsa.

We walked around some more, despaired at the monstrous lines for everything, walked through Sleeping Beauty's castle, and rode the Mad Tea Party teacups. We wanted to meet Mickey and Minnie in Mickey's Toontown but the lines were so long we gave up and went to see a show instead - Mickey and the Magical Map, which was great, and we all enjoyed sitting down.

 

  

 

After that we tried to get Valerie to nap in her stroller, to no avail. We gave up on that and headed to Main street to get ice cream before Mickey's Soundsational Parade, which again was awesome. The highlights of the day were definitely the shows, parades and fireworks. Disney knows how to put on a show, there's no denying that.

We then got in line to ride the Flying Dumbos and the sun went down while we stood in that line. We squeezed the three of us into a dumbo for our third and final ride of the day, and then went out to Downtown Disney outside the park to find beers. The lines and crowds were really starting to wear us out. We each drank a nice cold, refreshing beer to help us gather our strength for fighting the crowds once more, and we went back in to find a spot to watch the Paint the Night parade and the Disneyland Forever fireworks show.

There were no spots to be found. We circled and circled and finally squeezed into a spot on the ground behind several tightly packed rows of people. By this time Valerie had passed out in the stroller and we let her rest for half an hour til the parade started.

I woke her up to watch the parade, which, of course, was totally worth it. Amazing lighting, costumes, sound, music, dancing, moving floats... an epic display. We loved the parade, and the final fireworks show was absolutely spectacular. I can't even imagine the budget for these shows and all the special effects. Just wow. It was really worth battling the crowds and staying for.

As soon as the last show ended we made our way back to the car, and, starving, began our search for some food. I wanted Cheesecake Factory but there was nowhere to park, so we tried to get to Panera, but they were closed, and we finally came to the last resort - Burger King. Rich got a burger, I got a veggie burger, and while not one of the better veggie burgers I've had, I was so hungry it sure tasted good. We drove back to Tom and Karen's and passed out, grateful to have survived the day.

Sunday morning we slept in, had a lovely breakfast of pumpkin waffles and fresh fruit out on the patio, and got ready to drive to Newport Harbor for a day on their boat, the Genty Lee. It was a perfect, relaxing day after the Disneyland craziness. We made sandwiches for lunch and cruised around the harbor, while Tom and Karen told us about the various celebrities and scandals associated with the harbor homes we passed.

 

 

Then we headed out to the ocean and saw seals, whales and dolphins up close. It was amazing! Valerie fell asleep and missed the whale, but she needed the rest. We cruised back into the harbor and  got a nice dinner at the Cannery (I think?) to end the day. What an absolutely beautiful day with our wonderful hosts, we could not thank them enough for such a fabulous visit. Every minute was jam packed and we can't wait to get back down to SoCal again, hopefully with more time to spend!

Sarah visits / Our Spa Day Adventure

My best friend in the world Sarah came out to visit for three and a half days in February and it was sooo wonderful to see her, and to show her a California good time. I had a packed itinerary planned for us, and after I picked her up from the airport we headed straight to Picchetti Winery for a wine tasting to set the mood. She arrived a bit shaken due to a crazy windstorm that caused her flight to have a scary rough landing, and at the winery we watched out the windows as strong winds blew the trees sideways.

All the craziest things always happen to her, so it was only fitting that she brought crazy weather with her.

We went out for a Mexican feast her first night at Vive Sol, which sounded like it would have delicious food and margaritas. The food lived up to the hype but unfortunately the drinks were bad, fake and too-sweet, which was disappointing. We filled up on yummy food anyway and rolled ourselves back home.

strawberry cupcake from Sprinkles Cupcakes

Our most memorable and hilarious day was Thursday, our spa day. I had gotten a groupon to Fremont Day Spa for the two of us to get massages, facials and body scrubs. We arrived and were shown to a small room with two beds in it - for us. Apparently we were getting a couples massage! This was unexpected, but we laughed and were game. A woman and a man came in to do the massages, and the woman asked us which of them we preferred to massage us. The man evidently did not speak a word of English. We indicated it didn't matter to us, so the woman went to Sarah and I had the man, and they started our massages.

I had a very thorough full body massage with extra emphasis on my buttocks and thighs, and then we flipped over onto our backs, while staying covered under the blankets. The next step was the body scrub. The woman proceeded to uncover all the parts that would get the scrub - arms, legs, and belly - and I asked her to please cover my belly back up, I did not want my belly scrubbed. Arms, legs and chest would be fine. It did not take long to conclude that the body scrub was a terrible idea. It was quite chilly in the air conditioned room and as our masseuses scrubbed us all over, all our exposed and now-wet skin grew ice cold and we began to shiver.

Next, we were supposed to go shower all the scrub off before beginning our facials. The woman asked Sarah, "you and your friend, go shower together?"
"There's just one shower?" asked Sarah. The woman confirmed there was one."We'll take turns," she said, and the woman gave us robes to wear, and Sarah went to take her shower first. I lay in the room, freezing and shivering, and waited til she came back to go take my shower. The hot water thawed me out, thankfully.

Then we lay in the room, covered up with blankets again, warm and comfortable, to wait for the facialist, a different woman, to come in. We laughed and laughed at the tiny shower where we were supposed to go shower together. There wasn't even room for two people to shower at once! "We could have taken turns rinsing each other off," we laughed.

The facial was my favorite part of our spa day; the woman did a great job and my skin felt soft and smooth and wonderful afterward, although she did make some interesting comments. After we indicated it had been a while since either of us had had a facial, she said "You're lucky you're still young!" and had a good chuckle.

We made sure to leave good tips for our masseuses and facialist and then we got back in the car and died laughing all the way home about our bargain spa day, featuring a couples' butt massage, freezing body scrub and single shower.

The rest of the weekend was relaxing, fun and uneventful - we got our nails done, went shopping, had cupcakes, worked out at the gym, ate Oren's hummus, walked around Stanford campus and the art museum, had the mimosa sampler at Local Union 271, went to a chocolate tasting downtown that her husband Ben bought for us, had ice cream cookie sandwiches at CREAM, and got to catch up on life. Having so much girl time was a revelation; I don't get nearly as much since we moved out here and I miss it SO MUCH. I'm so happy Sarah was able to get away for a long weekend to come visit and we'll always have our spa day to look back and laugh about. I love and miss her so much!!

chocolate tasting

South Lake Tahoe Ski Trip

Valentine's Day/President's Day weekend was a long anticipated trip to South Lake Tahoe with most of the biodesign group and their families. Elise and Jonathan found an amazing house big enough for everyone to stay in (which was available!) and managed the planning of a monster trip for our group of 17 adults and 5 kids, ranging in age from tiny 2-month-old baby Charlotte to Valerie at 3.

The house was perfect and had gorgeous views of the lake from the hot tub deck, definitely its best feature, as well as its location, just a few minutes from the Heavenly Ski Resort.

view from the deck

We decided to stop in Sacramento and rent an SUV for the drive up into the mountains since we weren't sure if there would be snow on the roads and chains needed on our tires. It turned out we wouldn't have needed chains after all, but the extra space was nice with all our stuff, including Rich's skis. We overpacked and were just barely able to squeeze ourselves and our stuff into Rich's car for the drive to Sacramento. We didn't end up needing the air mattress, sheets, or potty seat... but oh well. At least we didn't need diapers!! I tried to take notes on this experience to pack lighter for our next trip, but, on a ski vacation with a toddler, you're going to have a lot of bulky stuff. All our coats, snow pants, thick layers, boots, and ski equipment would have been difficult to condense any better.

Friday, the day we arrived, was Elise's birthday, and I made a buttermilk spice cake recipe with brown sugar cream cheese frosting from her pinterest board to bring - and the well stocked kitchen even had candles and a lighter when we arrived. We first stopped for dinner in town, which was less than satisfying for me... we tried to get into one of the nicer sit-down places but there was a long wait everywhere and Valerie was melting in a hurry so we ordered from Baja Fresh. My vegetarian bowl was lacking in flavor and Valerie was on her worst behavior the entire time due to hanger (a blend of hunger and anger, not the thing you hang clothes on). She refused to eat the quesadilla we ordered for her and tried to run away from our table and cause a scene. Mama was in serious need of a drink after our long drive and that crappy dinner.

We finally made it to the house and selected our room for the weekend - we stayed upstairs with the other 3 families with kids. Our room had a bunk bed that was a double on bottom and twin on top. It said "ABSOLUTELY NO CHILDREN UNDER 6" should sleep on the top bunk, so we quickly determined Valerie would be fine up there. It did have rails so there was no danger of her rolling off, and she did fine. She navigated the ladder up and down by herself with no problem. I had brought ear plugs, so I was prepared to sleep in the same room with her, and on the same floor with the babies. The ear plugs did the trick and I never heard any crying during the night. Sharing a double bed with my husband, on the other hand, was sucky and uncomfortable as always, but, ya know, first world problems on your Tahoe ski trip. Occasionally enduring cramped sleeping quarters helps me to appreciate my spacious comfortable bed, I tell myself between gritted teeth.

All complaints aside, once we finally arrived and got settled to wait for the others to trickle in, the drinks started flowing, and it was a fun chill night by the fire talking and listening to our playlist with the group.

We enjoyed the amazing view of the stars from the hot tub on the deck once it got warm enough, and I stayed close to the blazing fire in the fireplace when inside.

On Saturday Valerie and I stayed back at the house while Rich and the other more advanced skiers went to Heavenly. Valerie got to snuggle with Elise and watch Cinderella, and then we ventured out into the snow to slide down the hill behind the house on our butts a few times. I tried to get her to nap, but that wasn't happening, so she joined me and William and Kelly in the hot tub while their kids napped. I wanted to go into town with Elise and Megan after that, but then she was finally ready to nap so no trips to town for me. Fortunately they brought back some sushi from the Naked Fish so I had a happy dinner.

sliding down the hill

That night was a blast. We played the most hilarious round of Cards Against Humanity, with teams of two since there were so many of us, and I can't remember the last time I laughed so hard.

Sunday was our big ski day. We rounded up our things and drove into town to rent skis and boots for Valerie and me. Since we had to carry our own equipment as well as Valerie's we moved at a turtle's pace to the line for the gondola. We finally got in line, and Valerie announced she had to go potty. I picked her up and hobbled in my ski boots to the nearby coffee shop to ask if they had a bathroom - they did not. The man behind the counter indicated the direction of the bathrooms and I ran/hobbled at top speed there. Valerie went potty and we successfully raced back to our spot in line.

What amazing views on the gondola ride up. Absolutely gorgeous panorama of the lake, mountains, trees and sky. We lucked out with perfect weather, too, about 50 degrees and quite comfortable. We made it to the ski area and found a nice tiny hill where we could put our skis on and practice before tackling the bunny slope. Valerie wasn't too thrilled. She saw a snowman nearby and all she wanted to do was build a snowman. Rich patiently insisted she practice going down the hill with him holding her by straps attached to her skis. He worked with her, and I practiced going down by myself, since the only time I ever skied previously was my freshman year of high school and "skied" is not an accurate term for what I did, which was fail to even attempt a single bunny slope.

I learned to angle my skis inward to slow myself down and made it down the tiny hill a few times, which I saw as enormous progress. Finally we went to get in line for the chair lift to the bunny slope.

The low point of the day for me was when we got to the bunny slope and I tripped trying to get off the chair lift, lost a ski and went down like a rock. The workers had to stop the lift and help me get up. I flashed back to my last ski experience, when I fell face down in the snow with my butt in the air and couldn't get up.

I pulled myself together and braced to make it down this very gentle slope, of which I was admittedly terrified. Though not as terrified as Valerie. Rich guided her very, very slowly down the hill, and I let myself pick up a bit of speed and get ahead of them. I was doing it! I did it! I practiced stopping and starting and slowing down, and going a little faster. I was soooo proud of myself for making it down the slope without falling! This was a huge success and everything I had hoped to accomplish.

Valerie kept saying, "Stop! Stop! I want to take a break." After several breaks we were able to coax her all the way down at a snail's pace. It was quite exhausting making it down that slope once. At the bottom, we made our way to the lodge for lunch. We got some overpriced but absolutely delicious vegan chili in a bread bowl and I was just happy to get those horrible, awkward, heavy ski boots off my feet. Rich wanted to go for another run after lunch, but the thought of waiting in the long line for the chair lift again was too much for both Valerie and me. We headed back to the gondola to go home and Rich went to hit some advanced trails.

The most difficult part of the day, it turned out, was getting back to the ski rental place with Valerie's and my skis. I carried mine and hers, and prodded her to stay with me. We both struggled to walk in our ski boots. We made it to the bottom of the gondola and I grabbed all our stuff, and exited on the wrong side. By the time I figured out where we were, I saw we were going to have to walk the long way around the gondola to get back to the rental place. We limped and hobbled and dragged our skis and finally made it, and I've never been so happy to be rid of a load of heavy gear.

It was another fun night at the house, taking pictures of the gorgeous sunset, playing games, singing songs, eating cookies and watching old music videos until we all crashed.

In the morning we all packed up to head home. Little Nicolas even took some of his first steps just as we were loading up the cars! We all had such a great time, it was sad to say goodbye to everyone and go back to reality. After we dropped off the SUV, we found a perfect little lunch at the Hoppy Brewing Company just down the road from Enterprise, and sampled their tasty beers. What a fun and memorable trip! It was definitely a highlight of this year with biodesign.

Nana visit and the Superbowl

We were so excited to kick off February with a quick visit from Nana, who we miss so much! She flew in on Thursday night and Valerie and I went to pick her up (and give Daddy a night to himself) and then to Pacific Catch for dinner, just us girls. It was a pretty late dinner for Valerie, I think we got there at 8 or 8:15. She was starving, and our server kindly brought us some goldfish and edamame to snack on while we waited for our food. Valerie scarfed the goldfish and a few edamame and asked for more, but we managed to hold her off.

Fish sticks are one of her favorite dinners at home, so we ordered the kids' fish 'n chips for her. Naturally, she wanted nothing to do with the fried fish. She went straight for the steamed broccoli and gobbled most of it up. What kid bypasses fried fish and sweet potato fries (both of which she loves) and goes straight for steamed broccoli??? Sometimes I wonder how she is my child. But hey, no complaints from me!! I can never predict what she will eat on any given day. There's no end to the surprises.

We had a delicious salmon sandwich, ahi tuna poke and coconut shrimp, and then the macadamia nut brownie with coconut ice cream for dessert. And vanilla ice cream for Valerie, of course. She was soooo happy to have Nana here to see her!

Friday morning Nana took Valerie to Target and Kohl's for new shoes while I squeezed in a workout, and then we took her to school for her nap so Mom and I could get lunch at Oren's Hummus. We lucked out again with a beautiful sunny afternoon to sit outside and roll around in hummus and pitas, and it was so nice to have time to catch up just the two of us.

Nana very generously offered to stay home with Valerie that night so Rich and I could go out to dinner just the two of us. We considered this our date night for Valentine's Day since we were going to be in Tahoe with a group on the actual day. We went to Scratch in Mountain View for cocktails and dinner and it was wonderful. The truffle mushroom pizza lived up to the hype, and I had a hard time choosing what to order from all the lovely vegetarian options. I ended up going with brussels sprouts and a salad and Rich had the lobster pot pie. The truffle pizza and cocktails, and of course the company, were the highlights in the end. I shouldn't have ordered the brussels sprouts; let me not forget that this is not Boca. I have to learn to stop trying to get brussels sprouts other places.

Saturday morning we made delicious lemon curd pancakes with raspberry syrup and mimosas for breakfast, and then we all ventured out to Half Moon Bay and Pescadero for the day. We stopped at Lemos Farm for Valerie to take a pony ride, and then for lunch at Romesco Bistro & Tapas, where we ate some of the most beautifully presented tapas I have ever seen. The shrimp came lit on fire and every plate was an absolutely dazzling display of color.

lemon curd pancakes with raspberry syrup and mimosas... mmmm!

riding the pony at Lemos Farm

crab stuffed avocado at Romesco Bistro

crab stuffed piquillo peppers

Pescadero State Beach

pretty but so cold!

we found a little wood hideout on the beach

 Then we made our way to Pescadero Beach. It was quite chilly in the wind. The sun was shining down and felt nice further inland, but in the cold wind coming off the water I could barely stand the chill. We hung out on the beach as long as we could stand it and then headed back up to Half Moon Bay for dinner on the patio at Half Moon Bay Brewing Co. We were so looking forward to enjoying their outdoor patio under heat lamps! Unfortunately, they had recently nailed all the heat lamps down so people would stop hoarding them around one table, and since we could only sit close to one heat lamp, only one or two of us would be warm. We had to move inside. On the bright side, they sat us next to the fish tank so Valerie got to watch the clownfish swim around while we waited for dinner, and dinner was delicious.

We had such a great visit with Nana and took her back to the airport the next morning.

That day was the Superbowl live from Santa Clara, just a few minutes away. We drove north, away from Santa Clara and up to San Francisco to watch the Broncos defeat the Panthers with biodesign friends. Alesandro and Christina hosted at their sweet pad in the Mission, streamed the game on their projector and grilled burgers and hot dogs, and also demonstrated their voice-controlled Alexa device for us, which was entertaining. Justin and Aly brought Doritos, and I made guacamole and made the earth-shaking discovery that Doritos and guacamole are amazing together. We had a lot of fun watching the game, the commercials and the halftime show, which I especially loved as a Coldplay fan. The night was perfectly topped off with Bi-rite ice cream. A great end to a great weekend!

Winter in the Bay

We don't have much exciting to report from the second half of January. It was chilly for outdoor activities and still getting dark soon after 5 pm. We attempted to meet Kalinda for a play date at a park one Saturday but got chased inside by rain and ended up hanging at the Billy Beez indoor playground at the Oakridge mall. The girls did have a blast there. It's always hard to say goodbye when it's time to go home.

The January book club meeting featuring tacos, St Germain sangria and lots of brownies, cookies and toffee was a great success.

We got to have lunch and dinner with our friend Mark while he was in town for work and also meet his sister Lynn, which was fun.

I joined the JCC, which I am loving so far. They have a great class schedule, and I have done yoga, pilates/yoga fusion, step, interval, and core blast classes. Doing step again is a blast from the past; I hadn't taken a step class in forever. I still need to try the dance/zumba, bodypump and other classes. I've been doing stronglifts again, and also started taking Valerie to the indoor pool once a week to play, which she loves. I'm planning to enroll her in swim lessons for March and April, which I am hopeful will help her gain confidence in the water. As it is she clings to me even in two feet of water. I think she will get a lot out of lessons.

We found that the orange tree in our backyard was producing incredibly delicious, tart, juicy oranges and enjoyed eating those while they lasted. A lot of the flowers in our yard and around the neighborhood also started blooming thanks to all the rain. The seasons are so different here, with some plants and trees going dormant and shedding leaves for the winter, and others blooming and looking the most radiant.

the peonies (?) in our front yard are gorgeous!

 

this tree on our street was ablaze with bright yellow blooms for a while, really striking.

 Valerie's obsession with all flowers and plant life continues, and her great love is for dandelions. She loves the yellow ones and the fluffy white "seed head" ones as well. Our walks to school are extended due to stopping to look at, pluck, touch and play with all the dandelions we see along our route. She also likes to tell me she's going to give this or that dandelion to whoever she is thinking about that day. Most often she's "going to give this dandelion to Caiya (her friend at school) or Kalinda" but sometimes it's one of her cousins or friends from Cincinnati.

She loves all flowers, but I won't let her pluck the actual flowers from people's yards, so it makes sense that she loves being allowed to pluck dandelions. She also collects clover and other flowering weeds, sticks, leaves, fallen blooms, and anything else that looks interesting, before immediately discarding and then stomping on whatever she has discarded.

a dandelion to give to Kalinda

We enjoyed lots of family movie nights this winter when we were stuck in the house after dark. Since we only have a small love seat in front of the TV, Rich had the brilliant idea to construct "mega couch" by putting 4 dining chairs in front of the love seat for our feet and using blankets to hold it all together. It has the feel of being all snuggled up together in a cozy blanket fort, and is best with his special recipe for stove-popped popcorn with herbs or truffle oil. 

mega couch!

We completed Disney boot camp, which entailed watching all the Disney animated movies from the library so Valerie would know the characters when we went to Disneyland at the end of February. Some of the ones we watched all together on mega couch were Inside Out, Ratatouille, Toy Story and Tangled. It's so much fun being able to watch movies together as a family. Always a good option when it's dark and/or cold outside!

 Valerie also enjoys taking her baby doll - who, she insists, is named "Baby" - just Baby!! - on walks to the park. She assures me she has packed snacks in the stroller in case baby gets hungry.

We survived January and look forward to spring; each day is a little lighter than the one before!