Archive for September, 2011
Behind the Scenes of the Festival Part 1
Tuesday, September 27th, 2011
These ladies are amazing!
i heart my in-laws!
Print Traffic
Print Traffic
Volunteer Orientation
Just ONE box...
Just one box...
Volunteer Orientation Part 1
The projectors have arrived!
Sharks!
Tuesday, September 27th, 2011
On Sunday, Page and I visited Poppy in San Francisco and went to the Aquarium to see some real sharks.
I think the girls are still a bit young for science. They still had fun. Especially playing on the moving walkways, with exit signs and speakers to grab, and cages to climb on. Page especially liked the touch pools. The Bat Rays in the touch pools were unlike anything I’d seen before. Except trained dolphins. They were very much like trained dolphins. Unfortunately I couldn’t get a good picture of them playing to the crowd.
After the Aquarium, we escaped Las Turistas and had lunch at a fancy restaurant on the Embarcadero. Poppy and Page sat next to each other in high chairs and passed food to each other. Poppy would pass pieces of broccoli to Page, and in return, Page would pass sloppy bits of Dungeness Crab Cakes back to her. We tipped well (for Aussies).
Following lunch, it was back to the Tuscan Inn for a bit of playtime.
I hope we get to see more of Poppy. The weekend was brilliant for Page. She had someone her own age to play with and to look up to. Both girls definitely learned off each other, and played together so well.
Poppy pops in
Sunday, September 25th, 2011
Anita and Brucey joined us for a barbie in Palo Alto while they were in San Francisco on their way to Vegas. AND for Page to play with, they brought along their daughter Poppy, who is 6 weeks older than Page. Poppy is the first second cousin on the Gibson side that Page has met.
We cooked up some Wild Salmon, roast peppers, eggplant, potatoes and mushrooms, and Alex made a green salad from produce from the Saturday Farmer’s Market.
Page was been able to walk for a month, but has not been too confident about it. That is, until she saw Poppy walking. Nothing like a little bit of healthy competition to get her walking everywhere.
Page was gracious enough to share her toys with Poppy. It is so nice to see them making friends and grinning at each other.
Post in which Page goes spelunking and other feats of derring-do
Monday, September 12th, 2011
To the east of the agricultural Salinas valley is half of an ancient volcano known as the Pinnacles. The other half of the volcano stayed down in LA when the San Andreas fault started doing it’s thing millions of years ago. It was to the Pinnacles that Page and I journeyed for a weekend of hiking, climbing, ornithology, astronomy, spelunking and getting out of Momma’s hair.
We first explored the Bear Gulch caves. Page’s young eyes helped me navigate through the pitch-black caves after he forgot to bring a light. Just letting her walk in front of me saved be from plenty of shin bangs and any falls down bottomless pits. We followed them up by the Balcony caves on the Sunday. This time I brought a headlamp, which was fortunate because those caves were much more sketchy.
Page was very happy that caves are full of rocks. And rocks make loud noises when you bang them together.
Climbing is for nerds, but Page seemed to be interested.
Camping with Page is fun, and mostly easy, though there do come times when it’s very difficult to look after her and keep your camp stove from exploding in a ball of flame.
What you think Page is like
What Page is really like
We both missed Alex. There is something special about watching the full moon rise over a valley’s rim, but it would have been much sweeter if there had been three of us.
Bacchanalia
Tuesday, September 6th, 2011
A small craft warning, eighty-year old skipper. What could go possibly wrong?
Nothing.
We left Page in the capable hands of Jim and Lori who took her bird-watching, so we were free to spend a few hours on Lake Michigan with the Gendelmans on their yacht “Bacchanale”.
It was a very relaxing sail for both of us. We let the experienced crew do all the winching and work on the foredeck while we sat in the cockpit, taking it easy and eating grapes in true Bacchanalia.
