something like this

This past weekend we were lucky enough to go camping with our friends Amy and Peter and their boys. Tom took great joy in telling our local friends that we were going someplace incredibly exotic – perhaps they’d heard of it… San Rafael. For those of you who aren’t from our neck of the woods, it means we were camping about 15 minutes from home. In essence, it means that the campsite nailed my all-time favorite getaway goal, which is minimum travel distance for maximum effect. It might have been close to our home, but we were surrounded by campers from all over; our neighbors the first night were from Chile! They were on a bike tour starting in upstate Washington and traveling the way to San Francisco – with no set route or plan for each night’s stay. Suddenly our back yard camping felt a bit more exotic.

I’ve decided that camping is really a Virgo’s dream scenario. Think of the lists! The careful minimizing of supplies! It’s euphoric. Our friend Peter is just one badge shy of an Eagle Scout, and Amy is a list maker like me, so it’s insanely satisfying to talk to them about what they bring and the solutions they’ve come up with for comfort vs. carrying, in terms of what to pack. Peter even had his Boy Scout handbook with him – it has illustrations on how to pack your bag, people. Pages of knots and tent styles and fire structures. I get light headed just thinking about it.

We were staying at China Camp State Park, and on Saturday we headed over to the beach to play by the water and explore around a bit. I hadn’t been there in years, and it was a beautiful afternoon to enjoy the bay. The area was named after a Chinese shrimp fishing village from the late 1800s and you can stroll through some of the old buildings that still stand along the shore. Now it’s pretty quiet except for the day visitors and the mountain bikes whizzing along the trails nearby. The kids love, love, loved it. And of course you know what the whole weekend is about. You pack, and plan, and anticipate, just for this moment:

mmmmmmmmm.

That’s what it’s all about. Ok, that and the beautiful moments falling asleep and waking up in a tent, listening to the sounds around you and bathing in that gorgeous filtered light. Sunday morning we woke to a quiet warbly scratchy bird sound outside our tent. Tom thought at first that it might be quail. Turns out that instead it was….

The blurry turkeys of San Rafael!!!! I just poked the lens of the camera out of our tent to grab this photo of them pecking around the fire pit before they scuttled off into the woods again. I know you’ll all think I photoshopped this just to get fame and fortune, but I swear the blurry turkeys exist in the wilds of China Camp.

I’ll leave you with the obligatory morning toast shot with vegemite. These were some happy campers. (I stuck with the muffins, though.)

Birthday! Sing it with me!

Well, actually, it was yesterday, but what the heck. Sing it anyway. Who cares if you’re at work? Take a chachachachance.

What an awesome day – you wake up in the morning and you think, “It’s my birthday!” Or, if you’re particularly fortunate, you have a 5 year old waiting for you to wake up so he can whisper in your ear, “It’s your birthday.” You can have an extra [fill in the blank - croissant, coffee, cocktail...] without looking over your shoulder for witnesses, because well, hey – it’s your birthday. You can do all your chores and still have fun, because it’s your birthday. It’s GREAT.

Have a look at the cards the kids made for me. Bet you can’t guess who did what!

That’s me in the front of the bottom car. I think it’s a vintage Jag. I think I need a stylist.

Check it out! “My love for you is Explosive” – with volcano!!

I also had four birthday serenades – all amazing, and dinner out with wonderful friends. It was actually warm last night (because our summer always starts in September) and we were able to sit outside. I’m so grateful for all our family, friends and where we live – days like this are real reminders of our good fortune.

The other good news Dad and I figured out on the phone yesterday? I’m 39 – I’ve finally caught up to him.

We’ve had a busy couple of weeks here. The cousins are all having a great time together and we’ve just run from day to day, trying to cram a year and a half apart into a few weeks’ visiting time. Not easy, folks, but we’re doing the best we can.

We spent an overnight at the hostel up at Point Reyes, which is right up the road from Limantour beach, where Tom and I got engaged. We scored a perfect weekend there, which is a feat considering how unpredictable the coast can be here in the summertime. I don’t have good photos of the hostel, but here’s one shot of the bunkhouse that our party shared:

We had this building to ourselves at night – it had two big rooms that each slept ten people in bunk beds, and one common room filled with couches. The main hostel building had the typical huge shared kitchen with 543 rules but 1 very lovely hostel worker who explained them all to us quite nicely. There are some really nice shots of the place up on their website, and I’d highly recommend a stay there. We spent one beautiful afternoon on the beach, then went up to the hostel for a big dinner together, and then back to the beach at 9:30 for a bonfire and stars and smores. Gorgeous.

The next morning we found out that the local raccoons had a blowout party on our cars during the night. They didn’t get any snacks, but it looked like they’d had a terrific time just prowling around on the roofs and sliding down the windshields. I don’t have good photos of the evidence, but maybe you can see the prints in this shot (if you can look past the sun spots and tree reflections and even my hand & camera, that is):

That morning we took a two mile hike down to the beach – a beautiful, relaxing walk on another sunny day. A seal swam in to check out the kids playing in the surf, and we managed in an overnight to feel like we’d been away for a week. Tom loved this sign in the parking area at the beach:

Nice shot, Tom!

When I was a kid in Needham, we used to take swimming lessons at Rosemary Pool. There’s a lot to be said for this pool; it’s big, it has a sandy ‘beach’ all along the shallow end and it’s nestled at the base of a small hillside, on the edge of a lake. You can bring your dinner and sit up at picnic tables or on lovely grassy terraces and look out over the pool and lake as the afternoon slips away. There’s even a concession where we used to occasionally get candy, like those ufo-shaped lollipops that were the same consistency as smarties – do you remember those?

Well it turns out that my sister and my cousin bring their kids to Rosemary pool now, and it’s just like the old days. In fact it’s EXACTLY like the old days. The pool is the same color blue, the lifeguards still sit in their chairs and twirl their whistles the way they used to, the metal dock makes the same sound when people walk on it, sand inevitably makes its way into the shallow end and grits under your toes the way it always did. At the end of each hour, a lifeguard drones into a megaphone, “It is now time for a 15 minute rest period. All swimmers under the age of 18 please clear the pool.” They haven’t even changed one word of the announcement in over thirty years.

Our first morning in Needham, we got to accompany the cousins to their swim lesson, and as it turns out, there’s just this one other thing that hasn’t changed since we were kids – that pool is still f-f-f-freezing c-c-c-cold. Now it all comes back to me… the blue lips and chattering teeth and ice blocks bobbing past as you shiver and pray for the lesson to please, please end already.

Doesn’t that look fun?! Yay! You can see how they lift their hands so no part of them touches the water until it absolutely has to. We stood there watching them shiver and couldn’t help reliving the misery. My cousin made a crack that she’d waited her whole life to be on this side of the equation, but we sure felt for them as they shook away. They got some serious consolation when they got out though.

Plus, they’ll surely have character – not to mention the hope for the day that they’ll be the parents on the beach!

Back again. I had full intentions of posting while we were away, but with the travel and change in routine, I just lost all momentum to keep things up here. At the end of each busy day I convinced myself that just brushing my teeth before bed was an accomplishment. (Which it IS.)

We sure had fun though. I’m having a bit of a ‘bird by bird’ moment here, puzzling how to wrap the trip up nicely without writing a novel, so for today I’ll just say how relaxed and grateful we all are after being with our relatives and friends, swimming in the Atlantic, working out our skee ball arms and playing in the sand. It’s not surprising that our kids loved every minute and will now spend the next 50 weeks counting down to next year’s visit.

The countdown has been officially noted for a couple of weeks, with Hot Wheels making the announcement at some point each day.

“12 days till we go to Boston!”

“11 days till we go to Boston!”

and so on, as is the nature of a countdown. Yesterday he popped out of bed at 6 and dashed into the kitchen with a big grin and said in a rush, “2daystillwegotoBoston!!” He then climbed up onto one of our kitchen stools. Tom asked him what he’d like for breakfast. He sat. Thought. Then gave himself a little shake, climbed down, and went back to bed.

Now it’s officially 0 days till we go to Boston! And I’ve got to try and catch some sleep, as I’ll be up in about five hours. Wahoo!!! Man your stations, everybody, INCOMING!

Hope everyone here in the States had a happy 4th of July! With any luck you had your share of fireworks, fire trucks and marching bands. With drum majors. We hit the parade in Larkspur, which is one town north of ours, and it was good fun. Of course, it’s a little different out here. Our marching band was extremely well turned out, with a perfectly sharp, stern drum major and terrific sound. They had the most phenomenal baton twirler out front who was thrilling and precise; the baton flew forever and never hit the pavement. So, you say? We had that. What’s the big deal? Well I’m going to go out on a limb and venture that your baton twirler was not an effervescent man in his 50s. Just a guess.

We got to see our friends who are just home from an amazing stay in Prague – to sum up what I’ve heard, you should buy your tickets today. Their beautiful girl is walking now and such a sweetheart it was hard not to steal her away. We also saw the parade with Susie and Finn, and their little girl is due any day now – I have some serious money on their child being an angel as well. Sometimes you just know.

Yesterday we really kicked off the holiday weekend – buckle your seat belts, because we went to the county fair. I am a major county fair lover – it has everything and then some. We met up with our friends Amy and Peter and their boys and had such a great day.

This year the fair theme was “Cool Green Fun” and an amazing effort was put into keeping the fair environmentally friendly. Solar and biodiesel power for buildings and sound stages, biodegradable or compostable food containers, recycled material exhibitions, electric cars – even the award ribbons were made with environmentally sound materials. It’s great to see such an enormous venue taking big steps towards protecting the environment.

Here’s an event with something for everyone: rides, music, demonstrations, food, quilts, jam, roses, baby pigs, gigantic pigs, dancing, science, bonsai, cows, ice cream, fireworks, tupperware. Tupperware, for crying out loud. A county fair basically says, “Bring us anything – anything at all – and we will judge it for you.” It rocks. Here’s a snapshot:

So let’s see… we have a black silkie that actually belongs to some friends of ours who live just around the corner – they were showing a few of their chickens and their dog a well. Then the ferris wheel. The wall of winning cookies & cakes. Quilts. Cars. Bareback riding exhibition. Darth Vader and a storm trooper. Jam.

Woah there, you’re thinking. Back up… Darth Vader? Well it wouldn’t be Marin without him, frankly. There was a whole section of the exhibit hall dedicated to Star Wars related craft. They did it right, though, with amazing costumes and huge guys inside them – very impressive. It was cracking Amy and me up to watch Darth walk through the hall flanked by two storm troopers – she and I took one look at them and wanted to bolt. The little kids, though, were chasing him like he was a Teletubby. Kids. No sense whatsoever.

There also was an experimental science exhibit called the Wizard’s Challenge – it was fantastic. One truly diabolical item, though – a 20 foot rotating tube with a metal walkway running straight through the middle. You can see a photo of it here. Looks innocent enough, but the second you step inside, the walkway appears to slant a good 45 degrees and you find yourself gripping frantically to the railings to keep from falling. If you look at the picture, the adult looks like he’s walking pretty casually with a water bottle in his hand; that’s because he’s focusing on the walkway to combat the tilting sensation. The boy, on the other hand, is looking up, and hanging onto the railing with both hands, because once you look up your eyes tell you you’re about to fall. It was absolutely insane. I’ve never experienced anything quite like it.

All in all, it was a completely satisfying day.

Hope all you fathers had happy days yesterday! Dad, I hope you had a terrific time with everyone over – wish we could have been there. It sure sounded like a great afternoon.

I think Tom’s day in general could have been better, seeing as he’s still sick, Honey’s still sick, and it was hard to drum up the energy to do much. Although the day had its share of downs, there were some serious ups as well – please see Exhibit A:

Exhibit A

Official World’s Greatest Dad hat, lovingly (if not meticulously) embellished by Hot Wheels. Our local Dad rocked this look with a hot Volcom tshirt and board shorts.

On to Exhibit B:

Exhibit B

Landscapes. The perfect antidote to the flues (flu blues) is a Father’s Day painting session. In these circumstances, the key to success rests entirely in the canvas size to energy level ratio. These little numbers are just a couple inches wide (they’re drying in a shoe box lid). Aren’t they lovely?

Our last exhibit has to do with dessert.

Exhibit C

Strawberry shortcake. My she’s looking swell! (Nothing quite like dating yourself with ad references from the seventies.)

All in all, the day wasn’t a total wash – just close to it. We hoped that Hot Wheels would dodge the virus, but he came down with it last night. We could sense it coming on when he turned himself in for a rest early in the day, saying, “I’m just going to sleep until dinnertime.” Then a little later on, he was standing in the kitchen, trying to form a coherent sentence about lunch, when he suddenly became aware that his bare feet were standing in a patch of light on the floor. He curled himself down onto the warm square and said, “This is awfully nice.” Now these might not necessarily be hints of oncoming sickness – as Mum pointed out on the phone, he might have just been a cat in a previous life. So we’ll add that to his chart.

Now I’m off to don my Nurse Nancy cap and a crisp apron. If you need some soup or a smoothie, you know where to find me.

One last thing – to Dad, and Craig, and Tom, and the many fathers who truly give the title its finest definition – thank you. For the countless stories, the patience, the drawings, the care, the inventiveness, the curiosity, the jokes, the strength, the effort. Nice work.

Goodbye school, helloooooooo summer!

Let the games begin.