Wordless Wednesday

First camping trip with Yuki the Prius, June 2008
Thule Rack with a Thule Box
Ice Bat and Plunko along for a ride

A local's perspective: Palo Alto

This morning, my blurb about Palo Alto was published on the UpTake blog. I enjoyed reminiscing about my hometown, and sharing my favorites. Since I had fun writing it, I thought I would repost it here and create a little meme. If you are reading this and I don't know you, please consider yourself tagged. I would also love to see responses from Erica from Plain Jane Mom, May-Ling, and Naomi from Superdumb Supervillain. And onto the post...

Give 5 adjectives that you would use to describe the “feel” of Palo Alto and its residents:

Educated, mindful, adventurous, youthful, eclectic.

What is your favorite neighborhood of Palo Alto:

I am partial to the College Terrace area of Palo Alto, located just south of Stanford University. All the streets are named after famous colleges and universities, the homes are a mix of sweet bungalows and artfully designed family homes, and the proximity to Stanford ensures a good mix of college types, young professionals and families.

Which cuisine do you think Palo Alto does best? What is the runner-up?

Palo Alto is chock-a-block of restaurants for every taste - On California Ave, don’t miss La Bodeguita del Medio for Cuban-inspired cuisine, Bistro Elan for classic French, and the Counter, for classic American burgers, your way. On University Ave, Three Seasons for Vietnamese, Mediterranean at Evvia, Junoon for Indo-fusion, La Strada for Italian, and scads of hip places such as Pluto’s, Pasta?, and Miyake’s. Why limit ourselves to one cuisine, let’s embrace them all!

What is the best free thing to do?

I love the 10-week evening jazz series at Stanford Shopping Center on Thursdays during the summer. Bring a picnic dinner, a beach chair and enjoy the lovely music.

What is your favorite type of entertainment?

Anything outdoors. Window shopping on California Avenue, walking “The Dish” in the Stanford Foothills, roller blading through the neighborhoods.

List the best family friendly activity:

The myriad of parks in Palo Alto are enough to keep the average family busy for weeks. Our favorite is Johnson Park on Everett, between Kipling and Cowper, with a mini-rock wall, cement slide (bring your cardboard box) and slide and sand for everyone. The community garden in the back corner gives it a comfortable, neighborly feel.

What spot would you send a couple, looking for a romantic weekend?

Ok, romance for us means eating lots of great food, exploring places on foot and finding the hidden gems of a city. I recommend booking a room at the centrally-located Garden Court Hotel and heading to Vino Locale for Friday night dinner, with local wines and slow food, before the Friday-night Art Walk. Quick Saturday breakfast at Coupa Cafe (spicy hot chocolate and pastries), before heading out to explore the Farmer’s Market behind the post office. Take a break in the afternoon with a couple’s massage and soaking tub at Watercourse Way Bathhouse Spa. Dinner at Tamarine (sit in the bar and people watch), a movie at the Stanford Theater, end with dessert at Gelato Classico. Go back to hotel, collapse. Order breakfast in….

Describe a perfect day…one that captures what your area/city is all about. In 3 sentences or less.

I would start with a family bike ride over to Stanford University, stopping for a free visit to Cantor Museum and a picnic lunch on the Oval, with the required frisbee-throwing and people watching. My kids might throw in a visit to Hoover Tower or a splash in the Claw Fountain at White Plaza. And finish with a casual dinner at the Palo Alto Creamery before heading back home.

Tell us about a place that you love to go, whether it is in the guidebooks or not.

I love to take our kids to the Palo Alto Junior Museum and Zoo, where I used to go as a youngster. Wonderful hands on activities and a small zoo with a bobcat!

P.S. Don't forget to tag some of your friends!

Car Travel Bingo: Los Angeles Edition

On our recent driving trip to Southern California, we packed a travel bingo game for the kids, you know, the kind where you have a grid with items that you are supposed to look for and check off. We played it on the way home and DH and I were amused by some of the squares - Water Tower, Tractor, Cow and Tollgate. These things seemed more at home in the wilds of Iowa, not necessarily relevant to the very urban 405 freeway in Los Angeles. We have developed our own version of the Car Travel Bingo Game and present it here:


Have we missed anything? Enjoy your next trip down 405!

Must post, so tired...

Another long day today, the last of our mini vacation. We woke up in Carlsbad after staying the night at the West Inn & Suites, a hotel I would highly recommend. From the moment we checked in, we were treated like their most important guests. The staff at the front desk were helpful and friendly, the free shuttle to Legoland was convenient, and even the restaurant next door was great. DH and I really felt as though this company understands customer service and they hire employees who get it too. Our stay was excellent and we will recommend this hotel to anyone who will listen!

We apparently over did our day yesterday at Legoland, as Little A went to bed last night with a high fever and no interest in dinner. We thought today might be a recovery day, with she and I staying in the hotel while DH and The Big Guy went back to Legoland. But, at 7:30am this morning, Little A pops out of bed and announces "Mommy, I feel better, I can go to Legoland!". Needless to say, this surprised and amazed us, the speed with which children heal and recover is always astonishing. We headed off to Legoland for a couple hours and then hit the road for home.

On the drive home tonight, we brainstormed many things I could blog about tonight, but none are coming immediately to mind, so I leave you with this picture we snapped on the way down (with my cell phone) of a dog on the back of a truck - what you cannot see is the way that the dog was moving around, up and down and barking at cars. I thought it was illegal to transport your dog that way in California, but I might be wrong....

Rest stops along the way

Rest Stop,
originally uploaded by goGUgo.

Today was a big day - the kids got out of school at 12:15pm and by 12:45pm we were on the road, bound for San Diego. Nine hours later, we pull into Pacific Beach, our home for the next 3 nights. We plan to visit Sea World, Legoland and UCSD, our alma mater. Plus, visits to the beach and Rubio's will make it a complete trip.

I am exhausted after the drive, and with 25 whole minutes left in the day, I offer you this picture of a rest stop off Interstate 5. Don't we all need rest stops along the way?

Pulling my kids out of school to travel: Would you?

True confession time - when my son was first born, I made several vows:

• I will not allow my kids to use pacifiers.
• I will not allow my kids to leave the house with runny noses.
• I will not pull my kids out of school to travel.
  

and on, and on. Well, as it turns out, my husband does not feel the same way, and slowly, I am beginning to see the benefits of missing school to travel with our family. The Wall Street Journal Online posted an interesting piece about pulling your kids out of school to travel. I was especially intrigued with the comments about additional work for the teachers and some state's decisions to limit the amount of absences from school. And while I certainly would not advocate pulling them out all the time, I think we have done ok with our trips so far. Also, I think the decision is up to us, based on what we know about our children, how they are doing in school, and what the pros/cons will be for missing school. For example, we decided to leave a day early for our winter holiday trip in December. My son pointed out that he missed an all important, in-class viewing of "Polar Express". In January, we plan to pull both kids out of school for a trip to visit my great aunt, who will be turning 93. And in March, we will leave for spring break 2 days early, which will allow us to see the Louvre, the London Bridge and take the Eurostar through the Chunnel. So far, I am not worried about my kids in class educational experiences, as I think the experiences we will have together as a family, traveling to new places, will be education in itself.

What do you think? Would you take your kids out of school to travel? Why or why not?

Cross-posted at Kango

Chocolate, Parisian-style

We are going to Paris next year, I can hardly wait! I told my French friend Thierry about my trip today, and he asked what our plans were. I told him I had nothing much in mind, except, that every day I would eat a chocolate croissant. He thought this was a fine plan and sent me a couple suggestions:

Clotilde Dusoulier from Chocolate & Zucchini wrote about L'Etoile d'Or. Her account made me breathless with anticipation. Can you imagine a shop keeper in France inviting you to come back any time and stay as long as you want? I only hope that is true when I show up with my 5 and 7 year olds!

Thierry also sent two recommendations for shops with lovely confections and cakes and pastries. Laduree has beautiful Millefeuille and Saint Honore cakes. These are the kind that I would definitely want to squirrel away from my kids and eat alone! Lenotre seems to be in several different culinary arenas - bakeries and confectioneries, gourmet stores, prepared foods, champagne and wine, etc. The website is all in French, but they include pictures which helps a lot. Yumm, salivating already!

Romantic Wine Tasting: A family outing in San Luis Obispo

My husband and I both enjoy wine, and before the kids came along, we used to spend many a relaxing afternoon at wineries in the nearby Santa Cruz Mountains, picnicking and sipping class California wines. Along came the kids, and somehow this did not see practical anymore. We had new afternoon plans, which mostly involved naps, scheduled feedings and lots of play time. Wine tasting seemed like it was to go the way of our golf games....

Then, last summer, we realized we could bring it back, albeit with a slightly different twist. Driving north from Santa Barbara, lunch time hit us just as we were nearing Templeton, a wine-rich enclave south of Paso Robles. We knew from past research that Turley Wines, a long-time favorite which we often see at auction fundraisers, was located in Templeton and a quick call to the winery confirmed that they have a picnic area. A stop at the Trader Joes in Atascadero and we arrived at the winery ready to eat, figuring we could picnic with the kids while tasting wine on the side. And it turned out just that way - we nabbed a table outside and the women behind the wine counter were incredibly accommodating, allowing us to come in to get the next taste. The kids were accommodating too, eating lunch, playing around the picnic area and generally behaving themselves. Success!

While planning our southern California road trip this summer, we decided to spend a night in San Luis Obispo and taste wine in the nearby Edna Valley. Based on the success of last year's experiment, we decided to try for 3 wineries, with a lunch stop in the middle. After consulting the San Luis Obispo Vintners, we decided to stop at Claiborne & Churchill, Tangent Winery, and Tolosa Winery. We knew that Tangent had a picnic site, so we planned to eat lunch there. We began our day at Claiborne & Churchill and set our kids up on a table outside. To occupy the kids, we had brought a couple craft kits, which they jumped into, allowing us to taste the first of 5 wines they were pouring that morning. So far, so good, although the wind had picked up, making it a little hard to work on the craft projects and as a result, the kids were a little restless.

After leaving C&C, we stopped at the nearby Old Edna Townsite to load up on lunch items at the Fialas Deli, where they kindly made an off-menu PB&J for our kids and the husband and I selected from several of their pre-made sandwiches. It was a big weekend for the Townsite, as they were hosting a local honey tasting, as well as an animal rescue fair. The kids loved that, checking out the cats and dogs ready for adoption. We two parents had to be strong, otherwise, we were going to be coming home with a new fur-child!

Onto Tangent Winery, our planned lunch stop. The outdoor eating area was great, the kids were hungry and dived into lunch, while we began our wine tasting program. At the next table, two past-the-age-of-small-children couples unpacked a gorgeous picnic with local cheeses, breads, and fruit. In between bites of my sandwich, I looked longingly over to their organized, calm table. About half way into lunch (on about our second of five wines) the kids decided they were done with lunch and got up to run around. I tried to encourage them to come back and finish lunch, but they were ready to burn off their excess energy. While the husband and I tried to hurry through the wine tasting, I tried to come up with some games to keep the kids occupied (and ideally quiet!). Nothing was working and I was finding myself using my loud mommy voice, something that can be embarrassing in public and even more so at a winery. Sensing that this was not going to get any better, I encouraged the husband to finish the wines, and perhaps procure something in a bottle to-go for later. We packed up our picnic and our kids and got the heck out of dodge.

Sensing that another winery was not going to be appreciated by the kids, the husband and I regrouped and decided to abandon the next stop (sadly, as perhaps we had saved the best for last!). We high-tailed it to a park in downtown San Luis Obispo where the kids spent the next two hours sliding, swinging and climbing.

Strategy for next time: Leave the kids at home, or maybe just one winery and present it as a picnic opportunity to the kids!

Treasure Hunting in Lahaina, Hawaii

For my birthday this year, I received a Garmin eTrex Legend personal navigator, better known as a GPS device. I asked this for this little wonder, so our family could engage in something called GeoCaching. After a few test runs around our neighborhood, we were ready to take it on vacation, and what better place than the beautiful island of Maui!

Our family loves to travel, but with two kids age 5 and 7, spending long days looking at tourist spots is not going to cut it. And in Maui, too much time on the beach turns us all into lobsters. A mid-day treasure hunt would allow us to learn more about a locale, at the same time providing my kids an outlet for their boundless energy.

Consulting Geocaching.com, an online repository for hidden caches, I downloaded a plan to find a cache in downtown Lahaina. This was not far from where we were staying in Kaanapali, and a quick ride on the West Maui Shopping shuttle put us right behind the movie theater on Front Street, a good starting point for our search.

I already knew from reading the other reports about the cache, that it was hidden close to the Banyan Tree on Front Street. That tree alone is worth a trip to Lahaina - the tree was planted in 1873 and is currently 60 feet high and takes up about 2/3 of a acre at Banyan Tree Park. After snapping the required photo of kids next to one of the huge trunks, we moved away from under the tree (the signal was not able to make it through the canopy) and got a line on our treasure.

We were after a virtual cache, which meant there was no hidden treasure to find, but there was a plaque for us to locate with some significant historical information. We were to find the plaque and email the answer to the question to the cache owner. From Front Street, we headed towards the water, around the side of Banyan Park. On the way, we went past local musicians playing ukuleles, and many island crafters with their wares set up on blankets in the park. As we got closer to the water, we could see the cruise ships out at sea. Our GPS device was telling us we were very close, so we started to look for a plaque. The only one we could find nearby was in front of the lighthouse. And reading the plaque indicated we had found the right place! Our job was to find out how much the Hawaiian caretaker was paid - $20 a year! In addition, we learned that the Lahaina Lighthouse was constructed in 1840 to help navigate the tricky waters through the narrow coral reef. At this point, my kids lost interest and spent the rest of the time climbing on the posts around the lighthouse. However, we decided that all in all, the adventure was pretty successful. The husband and I learned more about our destination and our family had a fun puzzle to solve. As soon as we found it, the kids were asking what our next cache was going to be!

Can you have a beach vacation without the beach?

Even before we had kids, my husband and I agreed that water and sun vacations were our preference. Both of us are swimmers, he was a college water polo player, and we love spending time at the beach and in the water. Therefore, when our son (also our firstborn) was old enough to let us know that he hated the water, we were shocked. What was this going to do to our beach vacations?

The first time we took our kids to Maui in 2004, it was almost a disaster - we spent the first 2/3 of our vacation alternating our time between short visits to the pool and longer excursions to the Maui Ocean Center, as our son would not even go near the real ocean or beach. On the second-to-last-day, we finally coaxed him to the sand area by Black Rock Point on Kaanapali Beach, with promises of ice cream treats and special afternoon videos. And by the last day of our vacation, we got him to sit on the edge of the beach and let the water hit his feet. Progress!

This summer's trip to Maui turned out much better, for two reasons - we had been working hard on swim lessons and water comfort over the last several years, and, our youngest child is a water baby. Since our son is so competitive with his sister, we used that to our advantage!

Our trip this time had a completely different feel and each day was a fun new water adventure for the kids. My daughter led the way with jumping and playing in the ocean; my son soon followed. Next up was learning to snorkel and when my daughter saw a turtle on our first trip out, my son had to one-up her by snorkeling all the way around Black Rock in Kaanapali. And when the kids decided they wanted to learn to boogie board, I was elated. I even promised my son that next time we come to Maui, he can take surf lessons. Hey, maybe we will learn together!

Family activities in Lahaina, Hawaii

Even though Maui is paradise, our family sometimes needs a break from all the sun and sand (and occasional rain!). On our trip this summer, we found some fun things to do in downtown Lahaina:

Spend the afternoon at the movies - Lahaina has two great movie theaters offering current blockbusters, all on Front Street - Front Street Theater and Wharf Theater

Shave Ice on Front Street (don't say shaved ice, or worse yet, snow cones. The term is shave ice!)

Playing at Banyan Tree Park (channel your inner monkey)

Lunch at Bubba Gumps (there is more on the menu than shrimp, but why? My kids love the paddles used to call the server to your table)

Ice Cream at Lappert's Hawaii (wonderful ice cream, including Kona Coffee, Macadamia Nut, Kauai Pie, all served with plenty of Aloha)

Nearby to Lahaina, we also like these child friendly activities:

Maui Ocean Center

'Iao Valley State Park

6 families, 6 tents, 6 kids 6 and under: should camping be this hard?

This past weeked was our annual camping trip to Big Basin. We started out in 2004 with just our 4 friends (no kids) and our family - 8 in total. This year, we are up to 18 people - 12 adults and 6 kids, age 3-6 years old. As we approach the weekend, I am always a little anxious about the details and logistics, but at the end of the weekend I always think about how much fun it has been and how we are definitely doing it again next year.

The thing that makes this trip the hardest is that camping is not as easy as it once was....

When I was a kid, my Mom would take us camping 2 or 3 times during the summer. We would sleep under the stars (yes, I am a California native), no tents for us. We would eat sugar cereals with milk my mom would buy every other day. Dinner was something from our favorite childhood culinary wizard, Chef Boyardee. It was not until I went camping in my early twenties did I realize you could actually have real food camping. You know, fresh food, the kind that needs to be transported in coolers or else it spoils. With my Mom, camping was a more spontaneous and carefree undertaking, requiring no more planning than picking the weekend, throwing the sleeping bags in the trunk and getting the heck out of dodge.

Nowadays, you have to book your campsite 6 months in advance, and at Big Basin Redwoods State Park, that does not even ensure you get a good one - you need to show up right at 2pm check-in to nab a decent site. There are so many folks interested in this trip back in time that I think the campsites are actually getting smaller, in an effort to cram in more wilderness-loving folks. In order to ensure we have all the creature comforts of home, it takes us a station wagon with a rocket box to haul all our crap. Back in the day (am I old enough to say that?), we put everything for 3 weeks of car camping and vacationing into the back of my Mom's Buick Skylark.

When you get there, it seems as though every moment needs to be filled with activities designed to maximize your experience in the wilds - hiking; birdwatching; visiting the nature center; going to the ranger-sponsored campfire. Not many opportunities to contemplate your navel, or poke the fire as one of my friends likes to say. Because meals are so complicated (think French Toast with sausage and fruit or grilled New York strip steaks with homemade baked beans and firepit roasted potatos), so is the clean up, and it seems as though when one clean up is finished, you need to start preparing the next meal. In my desire to channel my inner girl scout, I also bring along Bessie, my 12" Dutch Oven, which is good for all sorts of cooking adventures, including brownies, sweet rolls for breakfast and my now famous oven 'o beans. We extend the day into the night by bringing a battery of batteries to power our flotilla of lanterns. This allows us to play Mexican Train and Speed Scrabble and Backgammon well past lights out. No moment goes wasted.

Even the s'mores are more complicated - used to be that you would whip out a coat hanger, do some fancy bending, cram on a marshmallow, burn it, and then squeeze it between two graham crackers pre-loaded with Hershey's. Now, we strive to find the best chocolate - 62% is good, 70% is better - buy organic graham crackers and homemade marshmallows. We buy special roasting sticks and we don't actually let the kids touch them, too dangerous. All of this works out to be the most complicated two day adventure ever.

So, why do I do this, you might ask? Wouldn't it be easier and less complicated to put the tent in the backyard? Couldn't I get the same feeling by staying in a hotel or experimenting on the BBQ at home? Using my pop-psychology degree, I have lots of thoughts on why I do this - I like to expose my kids to new things; I like to challenge myself (and some of my friends) to get out of our comfort zones; I like to plan large, logistically complicated activities; and I like to camp. I like to sleep in tents; I like the smell of camping, the fire mixed in with the redwoods; I like all the dust and dirt and showering in community showers that take quarters; I like cooking over the camp stoves and organizing the kitchen boxes, trying to anticipate everything we might need. Mostly, I like to go on these adventures to remind myself of adventures taken with my Mom, as I know these are the kind of trips my kids will remember long after I am gone. Hope when that time comes, they will remember these adventures as spontaneous and carefree too....

Frequent Flyer Miles and the reality of our trip to Hawaii

We have been thinking about our trip to Hawaii since we returned from our last one in 2004. My dad has a time-share in Maui and we get to use it every 3 years (my siblings get it the alternating years). Our next turn in 2007. To make this trip possible, we are using frequent flyer miles that my husband and I have been hording like kids with ice cream cones. We have enough saved for 4 super saver tickets!

The trick with frequent flyer (FF) tickets is that you book them 330 days before your trip. You figure out what that day is and then you start calling around 12midnight Eastern. They don't have many tickets - the last time we tried this, the family before us got all the 7 allocated seats. We no longer mess around.

Husband called the airline about 4 weeks ago to confirm the date that we could start calling for tickets. It was July 16th. Since we were not sure when they would be released, we started calling at 9pm.

When you call, as you are waiting to talk to someone on the phone, you get the message that you could save $15 by booking the tickets on-line. What they don't tell you is that the on-line system is not programmed to allow this to happen, thereby ensuring that you need to talk to a live customer service agent to make it happen. $60 for 4 tickets to Hawaii is not bad, I rationalize.

At 9pm, the person on the other end nicely told us that the flights were not yet in the system. But, did we realize that we could not actually book our return at the same time, because they can only hold the seats for 3 days and our return is going to be 14 days after we leave. Huh? I suggested we call back and get someone better on the phone.

At 10:15pm we call again, the tickets are still not ready, but the person was way more helpful, and said it would not be a problem to book the return flights.

Husband goes to bed (I had a 2hour nap in the afternoon, I was not tired). 11pm, I call again, still no seats available, but the person on the other end is very helpful and I wish the seats were available because I think she would be nice to work with.

1:30am - Husband gets out of bed to go potty and decides to call again - gets through - I hear a lot of "yes, yes, 4 seats, yes, June 13th, yes, yes"...sounded good to me. The whole conversation took 8 minutes, felt like forever. He gets back in bed, we do a little high-five and go back to sleep.

When I talked with him this morning, he said he had the best, most helpful person on the phone who confirmed that we just need to call back in 2 weeks to confirm the return portion of our trip.

So, now I can begin the dance of joy over our trip to Hawaii in 2007!!