Honey, I’m Home!

A final wrap-up on our trip — the last Thursday, we left Santa Cruz for Buellton just north of Santa Barbara. One rough night’s sleep there was enough to prompt us to just keep driving South and home the following day.

Tau was so happy to be home that every single toy he has was dragged out onto the patio or into the living room and briefly played with before he retreated to his bedroom to find others. On his way to bed that night, he pauses briefly and says to me, “Dad, the living room is a MESS!”

That weekend we caught up on chores, resumed our normal weekend activities like a trip to the library, and celebrated Father’s Day by sporting our handmade-by-Tau-and-Sue tie-dyed shirts. Monday was back to normal for both Tau and Sue — I still had another week off on my sabbatical. The time away was wonderfully relaxing for all of us. My wine fridge is fully stocked with some incredible wines made by interesting and talented people.

A collection of the four sets of pictures from our trip is up on Flickr.

One last note. My wife has now completed her 200 Situp Challenge. When she started this over 6 weeks ago, she could only manage 26 situps. Last week she able to crunch out 210! Next time you see her in person or on the Web, tell her she looks hot!

Nothing in Particular

Sue’s Anderson Valley (Boonville) post pretty much summed up our time in the valley — it was a pastoral break from the coast. Rolling hills, sheep farms, vineyards and orchards on either side of the valley, set up against the mountains that separate the valley from the coast on the west and from the Ukiah/Willits valley that carries the North/South I-101 highway in the east. The weather was also wonderful – cool and overcast until late morning and then clearing with a strong breeze for the afternoons.

Apart from the drive into Ukiah so that Tau could run wild and climb in a neighborhood park, and his parents could check email, we did a whole lot of nothing in particular. I did get out for a road ride to Breggo Cellars for some wine tasting - extremely well-structured wines, particularly their Gewürztraminer, Pinot Noir and Syrah. Other wineries worth visiting are Navarro Vineyards (for the whites) and Toulouse Vineyards (for the Gewürztraminer, Pinot Noir, winery dogs and friendly winemaker Vern).

Crazy thing about the Anderson Valley is the temperature swing from east to west. The east (inland) side of the valley is hot and dry, and can easily reach temperatures of 105 °F (40 °C) in the summer and grow more Cabernet Sauvignon type grapes. The west side of the valley reaches the Pacific ocean where morning fog rolls into the valley, lingering until late morning and sometimes rolling back in the late afternoon. Temperatures are significantly cooler to the west and favor the cool climate grapes of Gewürztraminer and Riesling. So across this 25 mile stretch, summer temperatures can easily swing 40 – 50 degrees making for some extremely diverse grape growing and wine making.

Just So Rough

Today we drove back slowly down from Booneville to Santa Rosa after four of the most relaxing days I think we’ve ever spent.

RELAXING is an understatement.  The most strenuous task we undertook was all that arduous lifting of the wine glasses to our lips at the vineyards.

Oh, and the even more strenuous hoisting and lobbing of rocks — for hours, I tell you — into what Tau dubbed “The Cool Creek,” a tiny stream that ran just next to our private little cottage, one of just a handful on 400 acres.

The rest of the time, we slept in late and read, we baked brownies, we made a swinging fort in the hammock (add one blanket, and presto!). And yes, we watched Iron Chef reruns, Sue’s brain-candy thing to do when we stay somewhere with TV.

Et cetera, et cetera, you get the picture.

A small set of pictures of the rock throwing and the vegging is here – just so rough to have to lift your arm constantly to take all those photos.

We Interrupt This Game …

“Dad! You CAN’T pitch yet!” They are playing baseball in the driveway in front of our cottage. “Da chicken is walking in the way!”

Today we leave Mar Vista Cottages after four memorable days here to head inland for another four days at a remote cottage near Booneville. The plan? Reading, sleeping, playing card games and (I imagine ) more baseball, sans chickens.

Our Mar Vista Flickr set is here … I’ll let the pictures illustrate the wonderful time we have spent here!

Sabbatical Start

On Friday I started my month sabbatical – a paid month off for 8 years of service to my company. Tomorrow I start the road trip to Sonoma for some cycling and wine tasting, Sue and Tau will join me later in the week. From Sonoma, we travel up to Mendocino and then loop back home on the coastal highway through Santa Cruz, Big Sur and Solvang/Santa Barbara. Please check the blog for updates of our travels.

We Had to Count All the Buses That Passed in Spanish Too

So we’re driving to school this morning …

Sue:  I see a big red truck coming!

Truck passes …

Tau:  That truck isn’t red …

Sue:  You’re right … it’s red from the front (the cab) and white at the back (the whole trailer part).

Tau:  No … it’s not, Mom …

Sue:  ?

Tau:  It’s rojo e blanco.

Sue: !

Easter Visit from Dad and Sybil

We had a great visit with Sue’s dad and step-mom over the Easter weekend. They were booked, with Sybil’s brother Ron, on a two-week Panama Canal cruise and so spent a few days with us before heading out on the seas.

The last time they’d seen Tau, he was three months old, so they had lots to catch up on – riding the Poway train, playing soccer at a nearby field, laughing at a seaside park, and making us all smoothies for breakfast. Grandpa is an excellent smoothie maker, so got to pass on the tricks of the trade to Tau.

On Saturday, Ron arrived from Toronto, and Dave fired up the BBQ to cook up some outstanding tri-tip, which we had with salad and rosemary oven potatoes.

Before heading downtown to put them on the boat on Sunday, we had not one but TWO visits from the Easter Bunny, who brought a total dud of a bubble-maker (fortunately, the Easter Bunny shops at Target, so I was able to return it), a new soccer ball and a load of the good stuff (our bunny has a habit of leaving Lindt for the grown-ups).

Their boat, the Celebrity Infinity was ginormous and very stylish. As I write, Dad, Sybil and Ron are almost half way through their cruise and, I believe, doing a hike in the Costa Rican rainforest today. We hope they are having a ball!

Last Weekend in the Park

Last Sunday we met friend James, Vix and Harry in the park for a picnic, and Vix snapped a few family pics for us.

I haven’t had a chance to really work with them but will be sending them out throughout the year for Mother’s Day, Father’s Day, birthdays and so on.

First Snow

Yesterday we went up to Palomar Observatory for the first time. There were small pockets of snow still left from the last snowfall — the observatory sits high on top of Palomar Mountain, one of the few places nearby that actually gets snow.

Tau got to see and touch the white stuff for the first time, something he’s been longing to do since watching Curious George Plays in the Snow and reading Snow is My Favorite and My Best numerous times over the holidays.

Ha! Better Late Than Never!

We were slack about getting Christmas cards out this year — and so we didn’t. Didn’t even write our usual blah-di-blah-blah holiday letter.

Instead we were crazy busy in the weeks leading up to Christmas and then spent yesterday leisurely opening gifts, cooking and eating way too much food. Dave and I did a delicious Moroccan Lamb Tagine with couscous and two North-African veggie dishes. All with a lovely bottle of British Columbia Blackhills Nota Bene 2005 (thanks Stu-ee), finished off with a apple, pear and berry crumble for dessert.

Our Christmas photo set is here.

We plan to take the rest of the holiday period easy, and do some clearing out of cupboards before the new year starts.

We hope your Christmas was warm, cosy and full of love, and that the coming year brings many happy surprises your way!

Love,
Sue, Dave and Tau

Holding Our Breath …

Mendo-Frisco Photos Up on Flickr

We’re back and photos of our trip up to Mendocino, down through Sonoma and a few days in San Francisco are on Flickr.

There are some good ones … enjoy!

The Circus is Coming to Town

One of the not-so-thrilling aspects of living in Southern California is dealing with termite infestation in our wood-framed homes.

Our townhouse development (about 250 units in all) is being fumigated this month, which means double-bagging all our food and medicines, moving all our houseplants out into the yard, packing up everything we need for work and daycare, and moving out for three days while our home is tented.

We’ll be living it up in a local budget motel — watching junk TV, eating out and swimming in the hotel pool.

With all the packing, living out of bags and then unpacking again later in the week, I think I’m going to take a little holiday from blogging. Our hotel has wireless Internet access but I think we’re going to take those three days to just hang out!

See you all next week!

Out of the Frying Pan

Our lovely state, she’s on fire again! This time it’s Northern California — to be precise, the exact area we’re planning on holidaying in later this year (says she with a wry smile).

There are 1400 (yes, fourteen HUNDRED) fires currently burning and officials say that the kind of dry vegetation conditions they are seeing (caused no doubt by the recent hot spell) are normally what we see in October or November!

So I’m guessing that unless we get lots of rain in the coming weeks, we’ll be facing more fires in California this summer. Bah!

Hopefully the last lot of SoCal fires left little around us to burn!

The Hood

I took Tau to the park to ride the train yesterday and took a few snaps along the way.

Thought I’d post them for the family who haven’t had the chance to visit. They are in our La Casa set on Flickr.

Enjoy!