From Failblog

Trip to L.A.

The kids and I drove 400 miles down I-5 this week to visit Santa Monica, L.A., Julia, Brian and Josie.

I-5 looks like this most of the way ... pretty flat, brown and dull.




Santa Monica was lovely, however, with a nice beach and a boardwalk.









Around the other side of Santa Monica bay are the mountains above Malibu.







The kids had lots of fun playing in the sand.








The park in Santa Monica next to the water









Sunset








Beach kids






We had a snack at Yummy Cupcakes. There are no stores that sell just cupcakes in Davis so that was a treat.







Santa Monica has a fun Third Street Promenade, a shopping street with lots of stores, restaurants, and fun fountains.







Josie ... asleep, as usual








Wednesday morning we went to Venice Beach, which was another fun beach.








There were people surfing...









More sand to play in...









Julia came down, and Josie got her first visit to the ocean (although I'm not sure she noticed).









At lunch








Dozing with mama










We like the beach!








Shark! (OK, not really)








They played with tennis balls...







Catch!








And played at the playground by Venice Beach.







On the 3rd Street Promenade we saw the L.A. Breakers, a breakdancing group. They were pretty amazing.








The view across the street from our hotel








Josie woke up a bit the last day we saw her













Bombing back up I-5...






The kids were watching "Back to the Future" in the back seat









Harris Ranch dining room, where we stopped going both up and down.

Birthday party

Owen's birthday party was this evening. We had pizza and cake with 6 friends at a pizza place downtown, and then walked over to central park to play wiffle ball. The boys all had a great time. Owen was very happy with how it went. Too bad it was extremely hot (over 100 today) but by the time we got to the park, around 7:30, it was warm but tolerable.

The boys and I leave for a few days in L.A. on Sunday. Dan gets to stay home and deal with the Legislators.

Important research...

Cats "exploit" owners by purring


We had a pretty quiet weekend. Friday night we took the kids downtown to see a local band out of Davis High School, NIMBY. They were surprisingly good. Saturday we rented "The Adventures of Robin Hood" (1938) featuring Errol Flynn, which had all kinds of swashbuckling and swinging from vines ... fun stuff, although Douglas didn't like the parts where people were just talking. We took some bike rides and did some planning and footwork for Owen's birthday party on this coming Friday evening.

Owen is in a science camp this week, and loved the basketball camp he did last week. He said on Friday he was sad it was over.

Los Gigantes

We went to see the Giants today in San Francisco.


























Randy Johnson was pitching, but he was injured while batting in the fourth inning (as this picture demonstrates) and he ended up leaving the game early.






















Lunch at the ferry building beforehand ... Taylor's Refresher, yum!

Happy Fourth of July

These pictures are from Owen's all-star game on the Fourth.

Welcome Josephine

Josephine Ellen Mays was born yesterday afternoon to Julia and Brian. She weighed 7 lbs, 3 oz and has a full head of wavy brown hair (from what I hear). Mom and baby seemed to be doing fine (if tired) when I talked to Julia yesterday afternoon.

Owen played in the first of two AA-all star games yesterday evening. Their team won. The National League and American League (decided by which part of town you live in) each have two all star teams so Owen's team will be playing the other American League team on Saturday morning, the 4th of July. I hear the other National League team also won last night.

Meanwhile the District 64 tournament is going on. That's the first stepping stone to the Little League world series. Apparently there is a team from Vaca Valley that is likely going to move forward in the 9-10 age group. They crushed one team 31-0 in one of the games, while the Davis team performed only slightly more respectably, holding them to 11-0. Maybe they'll win the state tourney, who knows. I believe whoever wins moves on to the nationals in Pennsylvania.

We wrote our last check to the preschool this morning. Not a bad feeling.