music in the park

this weekend we wrapped up august weekends with style. this happened to be the weekend for the second annual outside lands concert in golden gate park. this year, we determined that the friday line up was the one we most wanted to see, so after a morning of work, we headed up to the city for some music in the park.

since there were screaming deals (relatively speaking for sf) on some of the nicer hotels in the city, and evan needed to be up in the city on saturday, we decided to splurge a little bit and get a hotel room for friday night so we didn't need to make the long drive home after a day at the concert. we got to the city, quickly checked in and dropped off our stuff, and headed to the park (while listening into one last conference call for the day).

we got parking, walked to the park and settled in for our first show. we didn't make the first round of shows, but got there with plenty of time to see what we wanted to. i think our favorite one of the day was silversun pickups. the headliner of the night was pearl jam and that was great too.

the weather in golden gate park, which is typically cool and often foggy during parts or most of the day in august, was gorgeous. it was hot and sunny and very pleasant when the sun went down. besides getting great music, there was a great selection of local food vendors and lots of other families there with kids to help keep greta entertained. the big entertainment factor for her this year was a package of balloons that we blew up throughout the day (and she enjoyed popping).

we headed out back to the hotel just after 9. greta was a rock star (appropriate behavior for a concert...) and hung in there the whole time. she was asleep within 30 seconds of the car starting and didn't wake up at all as we carried her to the hotel and put her to bed.

the next morning, we continued our city "getaway" with a trip to our favorite breakfast spot there, ella's. for the first time ever, we were there before it opened at 8:30. it was perfect because we got one of the first tables. it was just as good as it always has been. from breakfast, after a quick visit to a park, we went our separate ways: evan met his cousin todd and friends to go for a day sailing on the bay, and greta and i headed to the east bay where our friends ann & will moved into their house a few weeks before.

everyone had a great day. greta loved catching up with her friend harriet. they had great fun splashing in the plastic pool that was out on the back porch and then taking the water out to help water the plants. we headed home around naptime and spent the rest of the day catching up from our busy few days.

summertime in tahoe

last weekend, we made our way to tahoe in a bit of a last minute trip. our neighbors and friends, brian & smita, took advantage of the buyers market and found a place to buy and fix up in tahoe. they were going up for the first time since closing and recruited us to help as they brought up the truck full of furniture and supplies.

the traffic up friday night was no better than it is during winter (without storms in the mountains). we got there about 10:30 and were the first to arrive. we'll just say that friday night didn't go according to anyone's plan. we were all a bit tired saturday morning, but quickly found the box with the coffee maker and coffee and recovered our energy. the morning was a flurry of unloading, building furniture and putting things away. the afternoon was a bit quieter as naps were in order for some, a trip to the store for others and a trip to the beach down the road for the balance.

we headed out to the beach after nap. the water was cold, as expected, but greta had fun dipping toes, running around and throwing sand into the water. we headed to a local bar on the lake that we had read about for a pre-dinner visit. it was really great and would have been wonderful at sunset without a kid who was determined to run down the pier to the beach every chance she got.

back to the house for dinner out on the deck. greta went to sleep without much drama and we were set for the evening. we helped pick up and put away more on sunday morning and headed down to south lake, where avis, andy & family happened to be for the morning. we had a great lunch with them and the kids got to catch up. we then headed back to the bay and, despite terrible traffic, managed to make it to san francisco, where evan's aunt and uncle, sue & burt, were visiting cousin todd. we had a great dinner with them before wrapping up our whirlwind day and heading home.

quite the weekend prior to a busy week at work...

a couple weekends at home

the last two weekends have been nice as we have spent them close to home without major plans on the books. last weekend, we made a trip back to "our" beach (as opposed to "janice's" beach back in delaware), and generally got caught up on things.

this weekend, we went up to the city on saturday and cashed in the tickets to the academy of sciences that evan got me for my birthday. greta was very excited. she even lasted a full hour and a half before we decided it was smart to head out. fortunately, it seems like the museum was not as busy as it can get. no lines to get in and we started with the tropical rainforest and had less than a five minute wait to get in there.

the rainforest is in a big, three story bubble that is hot and humid. you start on the ground level and see the floor and water full of fish and even a turtle. you walk up the ramp and on the second level, madagascar is highlighted. up to the third level and you get a peak into the canopy and costa rica is highlighted. the walk between levels winds on the inside of the bubble and you get a view of all the flowers, birds and wonderful butterflies.

when we got to the top, we loaded into an elevator (making sure there weren't any butterflies on our clothes or bags), and dropped into the lower level, where we got a bottoms up view of the fish and turtle in the sunken rainforest as we walked through the glass hallway underneath the fish and turtle we had seen from above. we continued through to the big aquarium. the coral and fish were wonderful, and while greta did enjoy sitting at the very bottom of the wall of glass and pointing to a few fish, we knew we'd seen the first sign that she would not make it too much farther when she discovered and became fixated on the water fountain by the restrooms. everything is new and cool to a 2 & 1/2 year old.

fortunately, we still had the touch pool in front of us. she did great gently touching star fish and a purple prickly thing whose name escapes me at the moment. she then became fascinated with the eco friendly hand driers located by the touch pool, so we had to get the hands wet and dry them no less than 5 times. we moved on and had time to catch a few more interactive displays, a rocking bench, and a glimpse at the albino alligator. we then moved on to peanut butter and jelly. all the excitement had been enough for greta and we bid adieu to the museum and moved onto the killer playground in golden gate park.

this was our first visit to the playground and it was spectacular, complete with a concrete slide built into the side of the hill with cardboard peices at the bottom to ride down on. we hit those, the swings and a few of the regular slides before wrapping up with a ride on the carosel (one of greta's favorite fun thing these days). we got in the car, picked up lunch for evan and i on the road, and headed back down. greta didn't even make it through lunch pick up before passing out for a nap.

today was more low key and focused on getting things done around the house. unfortunately, while we were home, we were forced inside most of the time due to the amount of smoke in the air from the big fire, which is probably about 10 miles away from us. it made for a really unique sunset, but we will be happy when it is out and the smoke dissapates.

east coast swing

about a week and a half after evan's parents left california, it was our turn to make the cross country trip out to the east coast. we had a dual purpose in heading that way. the first weekend was the wedding of evan's second cousin in charlottesville, va, and we added onto that the week visiting my aunt and uncle's house near the delaware coast, wrapping up in baltimore with a few red sox games.

we headed to baltimore on thursday, and while our flight was delayed by weather for about 45 minutes, greta was a rockstar and chose to wait until we were in the baltimore airport to have a good (although relatively short) meltdown. we headed to my aunt janice and uncle steve's house about 15 minutes away and were greeted by them as well as my parents, who had flown in earlier in the week, and evan's parents, who decided to make baltimore their stop on the drive from new york to virginia. we all had dinner and caught up.

the next morning we headed to charlottesville for the wedding. evan's brother & sister-in-law and their family were there as well as his aunt, uncle, cousin and family. it was a great weekend to not only catch up with family and give greta a chance to play with her cousins hannah and riley, but also, to celebrate the happy couple and share this moment in their journey. we were able to join them for a lovely rehearsal dinner as well as a beautiful wedding. the wedding was at a local country club that reminded me why the "southern" east coast is such a unique area. old stately houses, beautiful architecture and decor and lovely surroundings with rolling hills melding into mountains in the distance. it was a wonderful wedding and weekend.

that sunday we said goodbye to evan's family and got in the car for a drive up to the delaware shore, where my aunt janice and uncle steve have a house at the beach. my parents and janice and steve were already there and we got ready for a week of beach and pool. on tuesday, we were joined by my brother and family as they were able to snag good tickets and time off to come at the same time. greta had a great time with her cousins austin and chase and it was wonderful to have some time to catch up with ross & april.

the beach was great fun with the kiddos. a bit different from our west coast beach at santa cruz in that the water was actually warm enough for us to comfortably swim in. greta loved running into the water and was quite adventurous, and as usual, showed little to no fear. we had to keep especially close with all the waves. she also loved playing in the sand. she was particular about not getting sand around her eyes and mouth, but other than that, was covered head to toe in sand each day we spent at the beach.

we ventured to bethany beach since the shuttle from janice & steve's went there, but one evening went a bit north to rehobeth beach to eat dinner, visit the boardwalk amusement area and walk around. the kids loved the rides on the boardwalk and it was fun walking on the boardwalk before dinner.

on friday, we bid farewell to the house at the beach and evan, janice, greta and i headed back to baltimore (steve had gone earlier in the day to work). it was nice because it gave us a chance to catch up with my cousin rachel as well over the weekend. we spent friday and saturday night in baltimore since steve had red sox - orioles tickets and we went to the games friday and saturday nights. steve and evan are both life-long red sox fans and were really looking forward to the game. the tickets steve got were phenomenal too as they were about 20 rows up just up the third base line from home plate. before saturday's game evan and i went and met up with duane and devere as well and got to catch up with them and eat before the game. the weather was beautiful, the red sox won and we had a great time both nights (and we missed catching a foul ball by ~2 seats the second night).

we headed back to the west coast sunday morning and readied ourselves to get back to the grind of work. we had a great week off and it was really good to see so much family in such a short period of time.