Blue Angels & Sand Castles

It's Columbus Day Weekend! (Or, if you prefer, Indigenous Peoples Day Weekend, which cracked the kids up when I said it, because they thought "indigenous" was a silly made-up word, leading to a steadily devolving conversation about Christopher Columbus, Native Americans, our own European roots, and Small Pox Blankets, which thankfully ended when we arrived at the gym on said day) Around here that means warm days, sunny skies, and figuring out your feelings re: celebrating the military-industrial complex, aka Fleet Week.

Making the most of the lovely weather can involve dinners on the patio at Zazie -

- or biking to Golden Gate Park for ice cream!

I thought a Friday afternoon viewing of the air show from Alta Plaza park sounded manageable - so manageable, in fact, I lost my mind and brought an extra kid.  Luckily, I thought to pack graham crackers and jelly beans, so I was able to negotiate an end to the "let's throw wads of cut grass at each other" game.

When they weren't throwing grass, rolling down the hill, and ingratiating themselves with the owners of friendly dogs, the kids seemed to enjoy the Blue Angels.

Plus, we had to go Friday, because this is how we spent Saturday:

Get up, eat breakfast, and get dressed while Mommy does a quick bike ride up Twin Peaks.  Pop in the car and drive across town to a 9:40am birthday party at Pump it Up.  Realize the party is closer to two hours long, not one.  Grudgingly (Brennan) and not-at-all-grudgingly (Mommy) eat pizza, negotiate for a second piece of cake by eating some fruit (Brennan again, although just as easily could have been Mommy).

Drive back across town.  Mount bike rack we haven't used in 2 months to car.  Load bikes and soccer gear.  Drive to some park we've never heard of in a neighborhood we don't know.  Unload bikes. Watch Brennan's 2 pm game until halftime, when Daddy & Lucie take the car to get to her 3 pm Jellyfish game.

I stay behind to watch the Gorillas fight back from a 2-0 game to a 2-2 tie.  Round 2 of excessive carb intake commences, in the form of post-game snack.  Change shoes and bike to the Outer Sunset Soccer Fields, to catch the last half of the little kids' game.

Lucie typically divides her time playing, sulking, and bugging me to borrow the camera.  She snapped this one of her coach:

Game over and Round 3 of excessive carbs (aka, "snack") finished, we decide if we hustle, we can catch the end of the Sandcastle Contest at Ocean Beach.

 Not only were there tons of cool sand structures to admire and climb on - we ran into friends, too.  Of course they're not to hard to spot, in their distinctive "Grattan Football Club" kits.  Aiden from the Awesome Oppossums joined the goofing in front of Sponge Bob and Patrick.

There was also a tremendous Jabba the Hut tableau, complete with a Han Solo frozen in carbonite, but I was unable to get a photo thanks to the obnoxious 11 year old with a hand trowel who declared it was smashing time.

The kids also begged for dinner at the Beach Chalet, but at that point I desperately wanted a shower and a chair, not necessarily in that order.   Also I didn't see how Brennan could possibly ingest another bite, given his party and soccer snack intake.  So I promised we go another time, soon.