Safari

As I mentioned last post, my plans for a final Summer Adventure did not quite come to pass - one of these days, I'm going to learn a lesson called "Stop Wasting Time Making Sure This is the Best Option and Just Book it Already".  So we had to wait a week for Brennan's big birthday surprise:

a visit to Safari West!

For months, he's been asking to go camping, AND he repeatedly tells us the story of how his friend William got to go on safari in Africa.  Having little experience and no equipment, camping seemed fairly out of reach, although not as out of reach as having the time and funds to go to Africa.  And then, a friend at work told me about a end-of-summer trip she was taking with her son to a place in Sonoma with tent cabins and lots of animals...

Here's the kind of camping Daddy & I can handle:

Our "tent" was pitched up on hill, the path marked by what we dubbed "Hyena Rock".

We were a little disappointed to find there was a minimum height for riding on top of the truck - and Lucie didn't quite make it.  We were almost assigned to a guide who felt it was more of a guideline than a rule - but then his group was too big, and we were put in the next batch.

Our "safari" started on foot, touring the aviary and other animal enclosures. I don't know if it was a busy day, the glacial pace of the other family in our group, or general disorganization regarding group assignment & spacing, but a good hour elapsed before we got anywhere near the truck.

Which is a little long for a 3 year old to wander around a small zoo and wait in a dusty outdoor cafe.  Also perhaps a little long for other members of our party.

Daaaa-dy, put down your phone and watch me jump OFF. THIS. ROCK!!!

Lucie did really like the cheetahs, however.

Finally, it was time to go!  Bren was super excited to ride up top with Daddy.  

Oh wait, we've gotta load the other family.  I do admire their bravery, soldiering on despite being afflicted with anvils for feet.

OK, now we're really going, off to the wilds of the Sonoman Serengeti.  With a beer.

At the half-way point, it was time to switch seats & give Anvil Feet Family their turn up top.  But it's OK, because you can see plenty inside the truck, too - including Bren's wiggly front tooth.

I'm not sure which was their favorite part - riding over the big bumps, or this little baby zebra -

Nearly 2 dusty hours later, our safari was over.  Time to relax on the veranda, enjoy the sunset, listen to the animals, and wait for Denys Finch Hatton to whisk me away in his biplane.

Or, go out to dinner in Santa Rosa with the kids.  You know, whichever comes first.

We even had a bonus antelope sighting on the way to the car!

In case anyone was worried about us going without the comforts of home, we made sure to have plenty of:

1. S'mores ingredients

2. Fuel for Daddy's new German creme brulee torch (how else to safely roast marshmallows on the veranda

3. Wine

4. iPads

Eventually, we all drifted off to sleep, and slept so deeply we missed the biggest earthquake in the area in 25 years.  In our defense, the epicenter was in Napa, and we were in neighboring Sonoma; also see above re: big day on Safari, wine, etc.  My first clue that something was wrong was my phone pinging with a bunch of texts and voicemails at 6:50 am when some atmospheric shift suddenly allowed it to connect with the world outside Safari West.

Overall, it was interesting - certainly not the usual weekend.  Also, we've been using the top seat height requirement as an incentive to get Lucie to walk, by telling her that's what will make her grow.  She regularly announces she's going to walk to a destination so she will be big enough to ride up top at "the safari place".  I feel a little bit bad that she's convinced the only way she will grow is to walk to and from school, playground, etc;  on the other hand, she's getting rather heavy to carry or piggy-back up the San Francisco hills.  

And, bonus, Safari West is pretty close to Healdsburg.  So why not enjoy a bit more summer, and restock on important supplies?  (The usual suspects below - Jimtown Store, Preston, Michel Schlumberger)

After spending a fair amount of time & money - and scaring friends & family by being off the grid in a natural disaster - to view wildlife, it would be about right that a few days later, this happened: 

(coyote, mid-day, on Presidio Blvd shoulder, driving home from the gym, no kids in the car)

Happy August

Summer vacation was drawing to a close - Brennan had his last 2 weeks of day camp at the Y, and Lucie had a handful of days left with babysitters.  My plans for one last adventure before school starting didn't quite work out, so we made the best of our final days of freedom locally:

Organic soft serve & rainbow sprinkles from the Twirl & Dip truck - always a hit.

Farmer's market apples - best ingested in full recline on the new rug.

Foggy morning playtime at the Bay Area Discovery Musuem, followed by lunch at Brennan's new favorite Sausalito waterfront restaurant, Fish.

(it might be the giant lemonade that's the draw)

Watching me taking pictures all the time may be rubbing off on kids, as they've started asking to use my camera.  Brennan took this one:

I was surprised.  If you don't mind his finger across the bottom the lens, it's one of the better pictures of me in quite some time.

We also journeyed south, when Brennan asked to meet Daddy for lunch. Daddy's feelings didn't seem to be hurt when it turned out this was a round-about way of asking to go to the Lego Store at the Hillsdale Shopping Center, since we already so close.  (We've had other great moments at the Hillsdale, so maybe he just wanted to reminisce)  We topped it off with a visit to a favorite playground in Burlingame, where the kids enjoy the expansive play structures and Mommy enjoys sitting outside in a t-shirt in August the Way God Intended. 

It's always nice to visit the fish at the Academy of Sciences, especially at the 11 am feeding time. Lucie still likes to sit with me on the benches, but Bren prefers to be right up front so he can take part in the presentation.  On this visit, he answered "one thousand and eighteen" when asked how many fish were in the tank.

We tried some new things, in honor of Brennan's 6th birthday.  First, a birthday-eve visit to Pump It Up in San Bruno with his cousin Ian.  Sure, we could have battled the weekend hordes at Pump It Up San Francisco, but if you don't mind a short drive with two boys inserting the word "fart" into every song lyric they hear, you can pretty much have the place to yourself.

They ran and bounced and slid and invited each other to feel how sweaty they got.  I sat on a bench and tried to read Havisham despite the constant roar multiple air blowers.

For the big day itself, we went to the Hiller Aviation Museum in San Carlos - our third trip south of SFO in a week, which has to be a new record for me.  

The kids admired all the planes, explored the cockpit and first class section of a 747, and especially enjoyed the flight simulator.  Mommy declined to join the family for that one, as it looked like the perfect recipe for nausea.  We finished with a birthday dinner at Presidio Social Club and birthday cake at home.

And then all too soon it was Monday August 18th - first day of school:

I think they might have missed the morning walk and gathering on the playground for announcements - at least a little bit.

Summer Adventure #3

We barely had time to catch our breath and/or get sick of fog, and then it was time to head back to SFO bright & early for our flight to DENVER!

We made a long overdue visit to Uncle Gavin and Aunt Amy's new house in Whittier.  They took us to a splash pad, a neighborhood playground, and out for a yummy dinner at Steuben's.

Aunt Amy hooked us up with super-cool sleeping bags and coloring books, and finding/cornering/petting Sydney the Cat was a popular past-time.

We also went to the Children's Museum and made giant bubbles, launched paper tube rockets, made a ball float in jets of air, and kind of got a headache from all the mayhem.  

We also made a visit to our good friends in Boulder.  Audrey & Grace were excited to share their Bouncy Water Slide Thingy.

I think this may be the first time Brennan & Lucie have played outdoors with a garden hose.  Between the postage-stamp sized paved yard, summer fog, and the Great California Drought, breaking out the sprinkler and Slip-n-Slide is not on the agenda any time soon.

Also Boulder has some cool playgrounds:

And when it gets too hot outside, there's a big basement playroom for dressing up and playing hours of hide-and-seek.  (Since I was always the seeker, it may have just felt like hours)

Grace was so good at hide-and-seek, I had to give up and more or less beg her to come out on a few occasions.

Lucie, not so much:

Her brother as well:

John and I tricked Brennan into going on a hike under the guise of showing him Audrey and Gracie's secret hideout.  He's gone out with me & Roux in the Mt. Sutro Open Space and kept up just fine, so I thought he'd do OK.  But it appears that hiking a misty forest trail is not the same as the Rocky Mountain Foothills in July.  Along the way, I was informed that: it was too steep, he didn't like the sliding on the downhill parts, there might be a bear, he didn't like this hike, he wanted to go home, and, by the way, it was too hot.

But....he made it!

The reward for all that hard work?  Planes Fire & Rescue, in 3D.  With popcorn. Much more his speed.

I don't really get the 3D movie thing, but am forced to confess, if you're going to make a 3D film, an animated feature about anthropomorphic airplanes fighting fires in an imaginary national park standing in for Yellowstone or Yosemite is not a bad way to go.

On our last day, I had to go the convention center and get my continuing education hours, since it was what started this whole trip in motion in the first place.  The dads & kids all went to Water World, of which there is no photographic evidence, since iPhone and Water World are two words that probably do not belong in the same sentence.  We do have one picture of the aftermath:

Then it was time to take to the sky and head home - there were 2 more weeks of camp, a birthday, and the first day of school coming up.

We miss our Colorado Family & Friends!  We'll be back as soon as we can -