Guerneville

Our last summer adventure took us to Guerneville, a town on the Russian River.  We had invited Enzo's mom & dad to help us use our members' dinners at a winery - we'll never manage more than once a year - and we decided to make a long weekend of it.  So we found a roomy house on AirBnB, packed up the bikes and swim gear, and left the city!

Despite booking the dinner, the taxi, the house, and the sitter months to weeks in advance, it was the usual fiasco.  We left later than planned, hit terrible traffic, took a bad redirection from our navigation app, and then, while we were still on the road, 25 minutes before she was due, the sitter called to say she'd mistakenly double booked and couldn't get to us for at least an hour.  I spent the next 25 minutes trying to reach the service, explaining to everyone this was a once-a-year thing, that there was a set seating time so an hour late wouldn't work, could they find a replacement, etc, etc; but no dice.

Poor Daddy took one for the team and volunteered to stay with the kids.  I'd post a picture of the live ones from NC & VA we were seated with, but we all look terrible so I won't.

The next day, we tried to have a better day.  And we did!

We spent nearly the whole day at the Coppola pool.  The water was (finally! it was kind of cold last time) the perfect temperature, so even wimpy Mommy was able to stay in and play.

There was lots of splashing and crashing -

- Snacks! -

- and no one was reprimanded by a lifeguard or had a bathroom emergency or vomited in the pool (although Adrienne felt a little bit like she might, after our winey wine club dinner).

The grown ups enjoyed checking out the film memorabilia - I finally made a point of exploring further than the bathroom or tasting bar - and the kids chilled out in the reading tent and put on a brief show in the Godfather bandshell.

We explored Guerneville a little, too.  It's a former logging town turned post WWII resort town turned post-commercial-air-travel Gay Weekend Getaway turned...I don't know what.  My fellow Michiganders will understand when I say it's got a kind of "up north" feel, but it's not that simple.  It's close to wine country, but a little more, ahem, financially accessible. Spending the day floating down the river drinking beer in a rental canoe and getting returned to your hotel/RV/campsite in a shuttle van is a thing here, but so are $3 artisanal biscuits and expensive road bikes.  Perhaps the town is best personified by this pink fiberglass elephant with dead meth-head yellow eyes.

Also, they have mini-golf.

And a handful of fun restaurants and bars, which the grown-ups checked out Saturday night, when we had our complimentary sitter as a consolation prize for the whole screwed-up-your-once-a-year-thing incident.

The place we stayed was great, with a big fenced yard full of fruit trees, and quiet roads for biking. (We actually biked to town for mini-golf, but I was too busy screeching at everyone to stay safe and stay in the bike lane to take pictures.)  We even had a fire pit, and had sparklers and s'mores one night.

Kids, molten marshmallows, dark, and sparky sticks are not the easiest combo, but they seemed to enjoy it.

Despite the hiccups, it was a great way to spend our next-to-last weekend of summer break - 

Yay, Guerneville!

There (MI) and Back Again

A quick drive back to Chicago and a short flight later, we arrived in Michigan.  It's not the greatest picture of the kids - I'm not sure what's up with that leg kick - but mostly I wanted to include the awesome carpet that Bishop International continues to rock.  Sure, at PDX, everyone goes all Portlandia on it and makes it some social media thing, but here in the Midwest, it just goes about its weird teal business, cushioning the steps and luggage wheels of all Flint arrivals.

There were more summer activities  - bike riding, of course:

Chasing, catching, and inspecting fireflies - Grandpa Marshall even got in on the fun -

Super Soaker battles - especially exotic for Brennan & Lucie, since a running joke in drought-stricken California is that the state is instituting water gun buy-back programs.

Going to tennis class at Gangi's club -

Playing Tarzan and swinging from willow tree out back -

- and just listening to the crickets and watching the lake.

After a few days came the hard part - Mommy & Daddy going back home.  Last summer, the kids went first and we followed later, which seemed to make everyone happier.  I guess it's more exciting to go off on an Adventure with Gangi and get collected by your parents at the end.  Lesson learned.

While the kids enjoyed 2 weeks in Michigan, I was home for a week and then left again, heading south to Florida with a short stopover in Atlanta.  I spent a week learning about animal behavior problems and wondering why, of all places I could go without my family, I wound up in Orlando.

After a few lonely Sunsets Over SeaWorld, I made my way back West - and Brennan, Lucie, and Gangi had beat me back by a day.  The kids had a bonus week of grandma-time and no camp or school.

We took Gangi to Off the Grid, so she didn't miss her chance to sit on the ground while the two smallest and most mobile members of our party monopolized the furniture.

We finally took Gangi to Muir Woods - although we should have done it previously, parking in the summer is CRAZY.

It was a great trip, with fun new things and old favorites, and plenty of grandparent time.  We're already talking about next summer!

And we have one last little fun trip to come, a bit closer to home -