San Francisco, Wednesday

Wednesday, we headed downtown to the Golden Gate Bridge. I won't say a lot; the pictures speak for themselves.

My favorite picture with the purple flowers in the foreground. (It's late; I'm not researching what these are. Maybe later.)

It was another breezy day. Jonas ended up wrapped up in Mike's jacket, in addition to his own jacket. Gavin's coat got the lining added to it before heading out for the day.

The Metlife Blimp was out and about.

Alcatraz

My next favorite shot. I love the contrast of the blue sky and the red metal.

View of downtown from the bridge:

You can see the Bay Bridge in the distance.

Lombard Street :"The Crookedest Street" in America.

It was zig-zagging fun.

We had lunch at Gott's. Then, two tired little boys needed naps. So, we headed back to the car and to the house.

Around 4:30, Dave and I decided to go for a walk. Mike and Letha went with us. Our destination a view of the bay. Mike said he knew a place. We walked up the street, through a park, then through a green belt of sorts. We wondered who owned the land. We had to maneuver through a wet, squishy place. Then we got to the end and the gate was closed. I should have taken a picture of each of us scaling the fence. It was an adventure. Everyone else faired better than I. My khaki pants ended up with a little red stain residue, but it washed right out.

Letha knew a better place. So we went back to the house, took a 5 minute drive to Edgewood Road park. It was a bit after five, so the sun would be setting soon. We were advised by two other hikers that to get to the summit quickly, we needed to go up the "road to hell." Hmm. I always thought hell was down. Turns out, it can be up. We went up a 45 degree incline, then turned and went up some more. My ears popped along the way. I breathed heavily. My mouth filled with lactic acid.

But, we were rewarded with this view at sunset.

Love this picture of Mike and Letha. I wish we'd had them take one of Dave and me. Oh well. We'll have to go back.

Mike is king of the hill.

San Francisco, Day One

Last year between Christmas and New Year, Mike, Letha, and Jonas moved to a southern suburb of San Francisco. With Gavin, work, and just life, it took us until Thanksgiving week to finally go see them. It was our first visit to California, and my first sight of the Pacific Ocean. We arrived after dark Monday night; it was interesting to approach the airport over the bay. We kept sinking lower and lower to the water. I was comforted when I finally saw runway lights and land ahead--even though I knew it had to be there. Gavin was a champ on the flight; he snacked, played with my iPod, and napped. We think that he is beginning to make the connection between airplanes and being in the sky. When we took off this time, he left my lap at the window to go to the safety of Dave's arms closer to the center of the plane.

Jonas was very excited to see Gavin. (Jonas turned 3 in July, so he's about 19 months older than Gavin.) The time change messed with Gavin (or maybe it he didn't mess with it). He was up around 5 or 5:30 each morning. We tried to play quietly until everyone else got up. Bob and Judy were on Eastern time, so they were awake around the same time as Gavin each morning.

The boys enjoyed playing with "choo choo trains" when they had the opportunity. Gavin loved the choo choo's. He purses his lips out extra far when saying "choo." And, on occassion, he got so enamoured with saying it that he might say "choo" seven times before finally saying train. Tuesday, Letha had to go into work. Dave had brought his laptop and work to do, so he opted to go to her office so that he would have no distractions and could get his work completed. The rest of us loaded up and headed to the Pacific Coast. It was in the low 50s and very windy-25 mphs or so. Bob has the wind to his back as he poses along the beach at Pacifica. Judy, Gavin, and I stood at the back of the car so that the wind was broken a bit. Pacifica is home to a Taco Bell just a few yards south of where Bob is standing. It overlooks the ocean, has outdoor restrooms for those on the beach, and a walk up window for beach goers. I took a picture, but I was holding Gavin, so it was blurry. Oh well.
And as cold as it was, there were guys out there surfing.

After touring Pacifica, we headed south to Pescadora to Duarte's Tavern for a delicious lunch of crab melt sandwiches and cream of artichoke soup. Mike picked up an olallieberry pie to take home for dessert that night. (The olallieberry is a cross between a blackberry and another berry.)

After lunch, we went to Pigeon Point Lighthouse to stretch our legs. It didn't seem to be nearly as cold there as it was at Pacifica. However, it was still brisk.

We watched seals in this cove.

Gavin was ready to run off some energy.

Looking back at the coast:

This succulent grows everywhere along the coast. When you look at these pictures, you think you see grass growing, but it's this plant, a type of ice plant that is the kudzu of the west coast, evidently, (I made this discovery in trying to find out what the plant is).

This is the view out past the lighthouse.

We tried to get a picture of GrandBob with the boys; it was funny, to say the least. This is the best picture I was able to get.

Looking back along the coast:

We took a different route home along a winding road through La Honda and Woodside. Just a few miles before we were through the twists and turns, Gavin started wailing. I was getting a bit woozy; Gavin's screams only intensified the feeling. I had to ask Mike to pull over. When I got Gavin out of the carseat he was hot. I think he had just warmed up too much after being outside. Add a twisty road, and we had one unhappy little guy. After a few minutes outside of the car in the cool air, we both felt better for the drive through Woodside. We picked Dave up and headed home.

Back at the house, the boys had a blast playing with the Busy Ball Popper.

And, they played with trains.

Dinner was a delicious stew of Cioppino with fish and mussels. It was tasty to say the least. Mike at lots of mussels.

As did Dave:

Having access to climb on the stairs was a novelty for Gavin, so we had to keep our eyes on him. Gavin kept his eyes on Jonas. When Jonas likes you, he sniffs your head. Gavin got lots of sniffs. I think it's sweet that Jonas was so excited to see Gavin. Jonas made it his mission to be a host with the most. Whenever Gavin began to pout, Jonas would say, "Don't worry, Gavin. I'll get your monkey." Off Jonas would go to find Gavin's monkey (that we enlisted for this trip). Sometimes the monkey did make things better. Jonas says, "Oh my goodness," so Gavin has been saying it since we got back home. And once or twice today, Gavin said Jonas' name. Sweet boys.

Happy Birthday Miranda!

I am more than a little behind in wishing Miranda a Happy Birthday on the blog. Her birthday was last week. It ended up being pretty low key since it was a schoolnight.

I stopped and picked up some take out at PF Chang's and also some "birthday cake" (cheesecake) from The Cheesecake Factory. Gavin and I sang Happy Birthday to the birthday girl and then we opened some presents. Incidentially, if you are in The Cheesecake Factory in the next month or so, you have to try the Pumpkin Pecan Pie Cheesecake. IT WAS AWESOME!

It's Hard Work Removing Bad Taste

The off again, on again bathroom renovation is back on. My progress has been pretty much non existant for the last 9 months or so. But I told myself that it would be 100% done by Christmas, and that is what I intend to do. This phase consisted of removing the hideous blue floor tile that is in the master bathroom, and replacing with new travertine tiles.

We had gotten a couple quotes from contractors for removing the tile and installing the travertine. The quotes were anywhere from $1200 to $700 for the bathroom tile and the foyer. I was on board with the $700 quote, but that guy ended up being very flaky. So, like any true McLaren would do, I decided to take on the project myself. I knew it would be alot of work, but $700 is alot of money for something that I am perfectly capable of doing. Here is a before picture with Gavin trying on my ear muffs.

This morning I headed to Home Depot to rent a demoltion hammer for removing the old blue tile. This thing was an awesomely manly tool! Keep in mind that manly also equals very heavy....

This thing is the very essence of the phrase "work smarter, not harder". While it wasn't real easy work, I had all of the tile and thinset removed in about five hours. And that was with many breaks for lunch, football, etc. It took me 20 minutes last night to just remove half a tile and thinset by using a hammer and chisel. Yes, it was a super messy process....

All done, and ready for the new tile to be installed.

I am hoping to finish everything up within the next week or so. Although that might be a bit ambitious since I am already pretty sore from bring on the working end of the demolition hammer all day long...I can only imagine how I will feel in a couple days.

TeeeeVeeee

That's how Gavin says TV. It's pretty cute, and he is a big fan of the TV. His favorite show are Mickey Mouse's Clubhouse, Jungle Junction, Little Einsteins, and Bobob (his pronounciation of Spongebob). We try to limit his Spongebob viewing since some of the things in it are a bit over his age level. Football is another favorite. We both swore that today he said "that was a good play...", after a long run during a game.
At times when he wakes up early in the morning and usually on Saturday mornings he is more than content to just sit on the couch with his drink and watch his cartoons. We do limit his TV time. That isn't very hard thing to do since being outside and reading books are his two favorite things.

Trick or Treat 2010

Note: something is wrong with me and technology today. Google's blogger is not loving me. I had to load these pictures one by one. Typically, I load 5 at a time. Grrr. This morning my Scrabble app on my iPod stopped working. I found that I was able to delete it and reinstall it for free--since I had previously purchased it. It still didn't work until I shut down and restarted. So, with that said, I might have written more had I not had to fight with uploading pictures.



Sunday, Gavin and I picked up Lindsey and Dean to head to Glenda's house for the boys' first official trick-or-treat stop. After dressing the not-so itsy bitsy spiders, we had them go to the door. Dean started off then stopped. Gavin raced past him.



At the door, they were greeted by Glenda with their treats: Matchbox cars, a ball, Goldfish, and RitzBitz. GG knows what these boys love.

The spiders posed with their favorite Grapevine "Grandma".

Gavin was very excited about the ball in his treat bag.
Dean looks pretty excited about his ball, too.

An itsy bitsy in a tree . . .

After playing in that costume, Gavin was a bit sweaty.

So, the boys went to the back to relax.

DT: Hey, Gavin. Do you remember when we knocked on the door and GG had those great bags of treats?

G: Yeah. Those cars are going to be so much fun to play with. But first I've got to rest after chasing that ball so much.

DT: Cars. Oh, I forgot about them. I'm outta here; where's my fire truck?

On the drive home, Lindsey and I attempted to talk over the reciprocal squealing from the backseat. As we got a block from their house, Dean said, "Bye bye, Gavin." He knew he was almost home. What a smart boy!

Back at our house, I attempted to have Gavin eat dinner before we headed out to trick-or-treat on the cul-de-sac. Gavin was not hungry. So out we headed.

Our first stop was across the street. Miss Robin was so thoughtful to get a book for Gavin.

We posed with Tinker Bell (aka Addison) before heading down to the next house.

Gavin and I head to ring the bell at our new neighbors' house, Fred and Betty. Gavin scored some pretzels here.

A quick picture with Daddy before heading to the next house.

Climbing the steps at Miss Nancy's house is fun.

After that, we came back home, had some dinner, and started handing out candy to our own trick-or-treaters.

Monday morning, Gavin grabbed his 'bucket' when he came down stairs and started walking around with his trucks. I think he had a good time. I know we are blessed with great friends and neighbors.