Pacific Coast Drive
Another day during Grandads visit we decided to take the mini van again and drive down the coast road to the south and take in a few smaller towns along the way. Its a beautiful highway, travelling right along the coast which is predominently cliffs and surf areas with a lot of small rural towns and fruit farming areas.
We stopped off at several places and beaches and bought fresh organic strawberries at the farm for the kids (which were consumed in about 5 minutes!)
The first stop was a place called "Half Moon Bay" which was recommended to us by several colleagues. A very nice fishing village with some small restaurants, a harbour and a nice long beach which proved very difficult to drag the kids away from. The "steep rocky entrance" to the beach was particularly amusing from a spectators point of view - watching Gary and Grandad traverse it to the sand! We have this on video and may need to post a clip here - or to "You've Been Framed"!!!
Six Flags
Six Flags is an American theme park and animal park, sort of a cross between Alton Towers and Sea World. We hired a mini van to take teh tribe over there for the day which just happened to be the first day of opening too, so it was PACKED with school trips! Still, once we got in it was "nicely busy", we took Grandad on one of the roller coasters and I never heard so much girly screaming in all my life! Haha!!!! We watched the dolphins, sharks, killer whale show, rode the train and a load of rides and had an awesome day. And it was HOT - almost 100 degrees!!!
A day at the ranch...
Skywalker Ranch to be precise. We took the boys up for a look around the ranch and a meal in the restaurant where most of the food is freshly grown and farmed on the premesis. Yummy it was! Kyle made his mark on Mr Lucas mind you - screaming the (normally quiet) place down and being told off by "those upstairs" as there was a meeting going on that he seriously interrupted - presumably with the big boss himself! Geordies huh? We make just can't keep our gobs shut!!!!! :)
Larkspur
We've documented Larkspur here in prior posts so no point going into a lot of detail but its one of our favorite areas in our immediate viscinity - a ferry terminal into the city with lots of shops and restaurants. And most importantly my favourite bar - a micro brewery and restaurant along the lines of a much nicer "Firkin" pub, with outdoor seating and live music most weekends. We went along there and introduced the guys to the delights of California micro brew ale. YUM!!!
Grandad in America
Yeah for some reason after 60+ years on the planet, and 4+ years of us in North America, the authorities finally saw fit to let Grandad into the country! :)
He and his friend Gary flew over in late April for 3 weeks of California sun (and boy was it sunny!). We still don't know how the poor plane made it :)
Heres a couple of random shots at home - the kids REALLY loved haing them here, as did we for a bit of freedom and time together!!! Seriously though, it was AWESOME to have them here - not a bit of truble and in fact a lot of help to us. Thanks guys, it was a really fun 3 weeks!
Indiana Jones preview screening
Well as most of you know I work for Mr. Lucas and we had the privilege of a pre-screening party for the theatrical release of "Indiana Jones and the Kingdom of the Crystal Skull" last month.
What an awesome day! The company hired out theatres across the Bay Area and we went along with our families to see the movie (which is excellent BTW - go see it!!!) and then attended a themed party in the city afterwards. Lunch was provided and best of all there were loads of props from the movie on display which was extremely cool!
Heres a picture I just couldn't resist taking (note the sign behind Natalie, absolutely NOTHING to do with her being of Russian persuasion I assure you :) )
And another I just had to have - notice the reference to the first movie nestled away in the crate? Awesome stuff!!!
And finally a nice view of the city from the roof of the car park :)
"Back In Time"
Things have been hectic recently (what else is new?) so time to take a trip back and re-cap the last few months since our last semi-regular posts! Starting with - you guessed it, ANOTHER BIRTHDAY! Woohoo! Yes, we really can't get enough of them! This time it was on my only "holiday Monday" in recent memory, in the exclusive "Mill Valley", right at the top of a mountain, in a very posh area, which was absolutely bleedin' freezing! Of course, when we left our place it was really hot so we went in light shirts. Big mistake!!! Everyone else was suitably wrapped, and obviously used to the delightful "micro climate" of Mill Valley :)
Anyway this time it was the birthday of James (who is a girl... weird huh?) and was themed around "The Wizard Of Oz" which prompted about a week of toture from Karina to obtain and watch the movie. A parents jobs are never done.....
Graduation Day
Yesterday was Karinas graduation day - she officially completed Pre-Kindergarden and is moving to Kindergarden in late August. What a lovely day! The kids put on a play all about "Space" which was the school project they worked on for the last few months. We were such proud parents!
Karina and her friend Sophie played the part of the planet "Venus" and were first on stage - and she performed admirably (Grandad will be proud!). She remembered her lines, spoke loud and clear and always had that infectious smile on her face!
Afterwards there was a party with food and messy space-cake (no - not THAT kind of space cake!!) but it is sad to see her growing up and graduationg - our little girl is getting big :( She's going to miss all her friends - they are all scattering around the area to different schools, I guess thats part of growing up in a big city.
How beautiful does she look? Like we say - we're very proud parents!
Toilet training starts
Well its come to that dreaded time - toilet training! We have pull up pants, a potty (which Kyle prefers to use as a convenient step to access previously inaccessible areas) and a toilet seat. Still he prefers to use his hands :)
Another day during Grandads visit we decided to take the mini van again and drive down the coast road to the south and take in a few smaller towns along the way. Its a beautiful highway, travelling right along the coast which is predominently cliffs and surf areas with a lot of small rural towns and fruit farming areas. We stopped off at several places and beaches and bought fresh organic strawberries at the farm for the kids (which were consumed in about 5 minutes!)
The first stop was a place called "Half Moon Bay" which was recommended to us by several colleagues. A very nice fishing village with some small restaurants, a harbour and a nice long beach which proved very difficult to drag the kids away from. The "steep rocky entrance" to the beach was particularly amusing from a spectators point of view - watching Gary and Grandad traverse it to the sand! We have this on video and may need to post a clip here - or to "You've Been Framed"!!!
