San Fransisco, Fourth of July

This is a late in being posted, but...

The first week of July, work sent me to the Bay Area for a 3-day training in Cognitive Behavioral Therapy. I loved it. I got to get away and learn and eat (they feed you nonstop) and sleep in a quiet hotel. All the people that normally want my attention had to do without and leave me in peace for a while...glorious! A bonus was that the training ended the day before 4th of July (Friday) so I just extended my flight home until Sunday and hung out with the Lindsays, so I got a free family visit, paid for by the federal government!

Here are some street pictures and fireworks pictures. Below is a picture standing on Kristin and Mike's street. Unfortunately, the fireworks pictures were taken sans tripod so they're very "impressionistic."


Here are some domestic scenes at the Lindsays' then-furniture-less apartment. They had just arrived from Vermont a week before and were waiting on the moving van to deliver their worldly possessions.

In the absence of a couch, Mike had to recline on a blowup bed and Gretchen had to recline on..dad.

Here's the li'l gipper getting her hair done while watching "'Credibles," (The Incredibles) which I learned is her favorite movie and needs to be watched a couple of times a day!

The kiddo.




Took a fresh air walk to the community garden near their apartment.

Scenes from an evening walk we took to "The Crepevine" on Irvine for dinner. Kristin and Mike live in the Sunset district:


I'm a little naieve as a Southern Californian and didn't bring enough warm clothes (..I mean, it was July!) I ended up high-tailing it to the local thrift store with Kristin where we both bought some additional long sleeve shirts, jackets, and sweaters. Just to give this some perspective, I slept under about 4 nice warm quilts and we turned on the heat at night! It was so very windy and cold walking and walking to the wharf for fireworks that I was a little short on holiday gaiety. However, I must have benefitted from the body heat of the thousands of other San Franciscans at the wharf because I warmed up once we got a spot on the grass. The fireworks were great. We learned that fireworks will just tinge the sky with their color, but no pattern is visible when there's fog. We also ate a 4th of July dinner at a Brazilian restaurant in honor of Camila and in honor of the fact that we were starving and it was the first restaurant we ran across:)


NEXT DAY: Chinatown




Look close, there's Gretchen, Mike, and Kristin.

Window shopping.

The iconic trolley...you're supposed to take pictures of the trolleys if you're from out of town.









We bought some scarves on the street, ate some good Chinese food, and then went back to a jacket shop where Mike bought a jacket and Kristin talked me in to plopping down some cash ($219..that's CASH for a social worker..but it was 50% off) for a rock n roll motorcycle jacket. That's about when the little miss started to poop out, as you see pictured above. The ensuing crankiness signalled that the time was right to take a long drive down to Moss Beach so she could hopefully fall asleep in the car seat. Here's us searching for little crabs, sea urchins, and the like in the tidepools at low tide (around 7 p.m.):





Auntie Winnow made friends with and gained the trust of the seals by slowly inching towards them two baby steps at a time. See those trusting gazes? Only a third of them jumped in the water and swam away. The others felt very comfortable around me.





The happy family.




FRIDAY MORNING (moving backwards in time just to keep you on your toes and avoid moving around these darn pictures); Moss Beach at high tide:





A memo was circulated, notifying everyone to wear pink on this day.


We didn't take pictures of Mike, except for one faraway hiking picture (above) because he wouldn't comply with the rule to wear pink.

Again, it was freezing cold. But because making Gretchen laugh and squeal called for me and Kristin to carry her close to, and then run away from the surf (which got us a couple of times), we took off our shoes and rolled up our pants.

Here's the cutest picture of the bunch of mommy and little miss:

One of my favorite things about Gretchen is that she makes herself really clear by repeating everything she says about 3-4 times in her cute, squeaky voice. I.e. "Let's go down the hill now. Ok, let's go down the hill now. Go down the hill now." Maybe another time, just to make her point. Each time she intones as if she's saying it for the first time and it's a new idea. She's also really good at pronouncing my name, which most adults can't do. She liked to sit on my lap and help me eat my food. I hadn't seen her for some time so it was so fun to see how big she's gotten and how many words she's now got in her little vocabulary.

I'm glad Mike/Kristin/Gretchen and bun-in-the-oven now live so close to me and we can visit again soon! San Francisco couldn't be a more fabulous destination, too. Thank you, guys, for putting me up (they even borrowed a blowup bed and blankets for me) and showing me around town 'n beaches! Let's do it again soon!

Kim and Spencer tour SoCal

Kim, the vacationing special ed teacher, and little Spencer, who is a professional flirt and smiley guy, visited Spencer's Los Angeles aunties early this month of June. I will defer to Kim to fill you in further on her blog, but here are some of my highlights:

While Auntie Deanna was race car driving, Kim and Spencer spent Saturday, 6/7, with me. We interrupted Spencer's car nap to get down to a craggy beach below a snotty Malibu neighborhood where they sic the local sheriff on you for daring to park near their oversized houses:). This was Spencer's first visit to the beach. While I drove the six or seven miles to the nearest non-prohibited parking space and then hiked back to the beach, Kim descended the stairs to the beach with the tired Spencer. Spencer perked up once when he saw the water and said "Oh, Wow." But once down on the sand he wanted to be held again and he spent the rest of his time doing what you see him doing in the picture.

So we hiked the arduous and hot distance back to the hot car and drove back to my apartment pool, swam some, and then ate popsicles. Then we headed out for some Korean food. We had some adventures in using 1800free411 to get directions to BCD Tofu House, which we finally found. Luckily, Spencer was very content in his car seat. Kim and Spencer are true Wilsons and enjoyed a foray into un-boring food realm. Spencer even like the pickled cabbage with only a slight bit of a little shiver when he hit the pickled cabbage juice!

Spencer got to spend Sunday with me while his mommy helped out Deanna. He was such a good boy and was friendly with everybody at church and climbed on and explored all the furniture. At home after church, he ate a banana and three bites of ramen noodles for lunch. I got him to repeat all the names of the vegetables I was eating and say "yum!" after each one, but couldn't get him interested in actually eating any himself. Then he went back to climbing on furniture and bumped his head. Being comforted and having his head rubbed was a perfect segway into a nap on the inflatable mattress. He loves to sleep with his arms around your neck and loves to pet hair. Since I am a very good napper myself, Spencer and I snoozed for about 2 hours. Then we played and took a walk and etc. before driving up to join Deanna and Kim.

Monday we took a second shot at the beach, this time in Santa Monica. First we went to the Santa Monica Pier, where Spencer and his ladyfriends rode the carousel.

Then Spencer had some superjuice and Deanna had some tea, and both felt refreshed.


We walked around the pier some.

Spencer is a very friendly little guy and says "Hi" to everyone he makes eye contact with.
Here he is making friends with a doggie and his owner.



Afterwards, we were ready to hit the beach itself.



First Spencer contemplated the waves.



Then his mommy helped him get his feet wet. He didn't like the cold, fish-y smelling Pacific ocean crashing over his tender little toes and screamed in displeasure!


He required a little comforting.


Then Auntie Deanna helped him build a sandpile (the precursor to a sandcastle)..




..and soon he was feeling much better!
So much better that he got a hankering to taste the sand, which he made a few attempts at, thwarted by mommy. On the third try he just swiftly bent down and, all in one motion, licked the sand and popped back up and thought no one noticed. We hooted!




Here's Spencer kissing up to all the right people!



Here's the beach with the pier (with rides) up above:



We drove back to Auntie Deanna's house afterwards and everyone except me sacked out for a while. I took pictures of the people who were sacked out!




We then took cousin Rhino and cousin Ernie for a walk in the neighborhood (cousin Ernie was busy peeing on a bush and missed being in this picture.)



When asked how he felt about his day at the beach, Spencer said, "I came, I saw, I conquered!"