DeLanceys Go to Gilroy Gardens

I've wanted to take the kids to Gilroy Gardens, which is a horticulturally themed amusement park targeting younger children, for a while now.  Even before Logan was born, I wanted to take RJ.  Over Independence Day weekend, we finally sucked up the expensive admission fee and went.  I think it was worth the money, especially since RJ and I got passes so we can go anytime during the season.

Perhaps I should review it on yelp.com too, but I thought this place was awesome.  We started in the temporary dinosaur exhibit, which had animatronic dinosaurs as well as bones and an excavation area.  RJ was a little fearful of the animatronic dinosaurs, but really liked the bones.

RJ insisted on riding the duck/swan paddle boats first despite the loooooong line.  I think we waited for close to an hour (or at least it seemed like it), and while I'll admit that there was some whining, he made a choice to stick it out to get to ride in a "Mr. Mallard" boat, which really impressed me.  We got through the line with periodic counting of all the people in front of us (the line was a big curve around the edge of the pond, which lent itself REALLY well to counting all the people in front of us) and playing I Spy, which was fun because a topiary surrounded the pond where we were waiting.  Then we finally got on our boat and RJ enjoyed being chauffeured around the pond since he could not reach the peddles (It was a good leg work out for me!).


We chose to partake in the Independence Day BBQ picnic instead of eating at the normal park vendors, and it was a good choice - BBQ chicken, hot dogs, potato salad, watermelon, rolls, ice cream, all you can eat.  After lunch we cooled off in the spray area, but Logan lured us away from the refreshing spray (it was a hot day) because he wanted to ride the race cars and the firetrucks.  He is starting to have his own preferences for activities, which is a sign that he is really no longer a baby!  Then we rode the train around the park when we realized that Logan needed a nap!

RJ and I rode the roller coaster through the redwood grove twice (with no lines!) while Lance walked Logan around in the stroller in an attempt for a nap.  The nap worked until RJ woke him up after the roller coasters.  Clearly he didn't want Logan to miss out on walking through the waterfalls or the pinnacles maze or the water spray area, or any of the other rides!

Logan was a trooper though and despite his short nap, rallied for the rest of the day, enjoying the rest of the rides like the round boats, classic cars, and the apple & worm.  I wish we had gotten to visit more of the gardens while there, but I will definitely take the kids back one of our free Fridays.  I can't wait to go during the week when the lines might be a little shorter!  More pictures here.

For the Love of Sully Bop

The "Lances" (as we are affectionately referred to by our dear friend Sully) were fortunate to get a visit from Sully in early June.

We picked Sully up from the airport on a Saturday morning and even though we had a plan for the day, had to abandon it because the weather was unseasonably wet and cold, which was unfortunate.  The plan was to go to our CSA farm in Watsonville (Live Earth Farms) for the U-pick strawberry event, and then head down to Santa Cruz for some fun on the Boardwalk and Beach.  Neither would be exceptionally fun in the constant rain and cold, so we decided to try the Aquarium of the Bay at Fisherman's Wharf in San Francisco instead.  RJ has been learning about the Ocean, so it was a nice field trip for him as well as being a fun indoor activity for the rest of us.

Then we had some lunch at the Sea Lion Cafe, which is on Super-Tourist-y Pier 39, but we all enjoyed watching the Sea Lions knock each other off the rafts as we ate.  After lunch, we decided to take RJ to the USS Pampanito, which is a World War II submarine docked at Pier 45.  RJ, despite his interest in submarines (we have had a homemade cardboard submarine in our living room for MONTHS) did his usual "I don't want to go in" fit after getting our tickets, but once we assured him that we wouldn't be diving in the submarine, he tentatively got on with us and by the end of the tour, he WANTED it to go under for real.  RJ even enjoyed talking to the volunteers on the sub, although I was a bit disappointed that he didn't have any insightful questions since normally he can't stop asking questions.

On Sunday, Lance was sick again and while our plan had been for Sully, Lance, and RJ to go to a SF Giants game, while I took Logan to the Bay Area Discovery Museum (Logan + 3 hours of bleachers = NOT FUN), Sully and I decided that Lance needed rest and we should go into the city and meet up with his friend Cory and his wife, Morgan instead.  So we headed to Japantown and Sully and I took the kids to Benihana to watch the chefs cook in front of us.  While RJ was initially a little scared (what else is new?), he ended up really liking our chef after he made him an steaming onion volcano that turned into a steam train!  There was also a playground just down the street (Hamilton Recreation Center playground) that was really nice.  The kids got to run around while Sully got to catch up with Cory and Morgan before we headed back to the Japantown mall for some crepes with ice cream!

On Monday, I had a dentist appointment in Redwood City.  You might start to see a pattern forming here because we had a plan that got changed, AGAIN.  We were planning on going to the dentist and then seeing Lance for lunch at DreamWorks, and then doing something else fun on the Peninsula before meeting Lance for dinner.  Unfortunately, Lance was still spiking fevers and was not up to going to work.  So, he stayed home and Sully bravely watched RJ and Logan in the waiting room while I got a cleaning.  He even supervised while RJ got his mini-appointment to prepare him for his first real appointment in July!  Sully deserves some sort of BEST.FRIEND.EVER award here, since he seemed to expertly entertain our two children whilst on vacation.  We ate some lunch at Max's in Redwood City, and then took the kids to the Shoreline Park in Mountain View before heading back to Lance.

Tuesday was a very low key day.  Lance went back to work, but I took RJ to preschool and Sully and I hung out mostly at home in Tracy.  We did take Logan to Lincoln Park and walked around the downtown area before having Lunch at El Castillo Cafe.  Then we spent Logan's nap time playing Beatles Rock Band.  Well, first we had to fix the TV because it stopped working for some weird reason - we weren't getting sound and picture together.  It eventually resolved itself though, so we could have some fun while both children were otherwise occupied! When Logan woke up, we went to pick up RJ and he was thrilled that Sully came to see his preschool!

I don't think I've made it clear thus far that both children idolize Sully.  He barely got a moment to breath because they both want to play with him and talk to him constantly - he was even a good sport and sat through the entire drawn out nighttime routine...even making up a story when Lance was sick in bed the one night! Anyway, RJ was elated that Sully came to pick him up and he couldn't wait to show Sully the sea creatures and dinosaurs that he drew and cut out.  My personal favorite is the one that looks kind of like the cock and balls that Grundle liked to draw everywhere in college.  Ah...memories.

On Wednesday, Lance stayed home again and Sully and I met up with our friend Niru for lunch in Oakland at Zachary's Pizza.  Niru, Sully, and I did KDR buggy together in college.  This was awesome because I haven't seen Niru since 2003, even though she's been living in San Francisco for over a year now!  I think we totally have to get together more often now that we're both out here. After lunch our plans were thwarted once again since the Tilden Park steam trains don't open during the week until mid-June, which I did not know.  This is also true of the Carousel.  We were able to take the kids to Little Farm to see the animals, but I once again forgot to bring vegetables to feed the animals.  RJ was able to pick up scraps left by other children and was perfectly happy to feed that animals with that.  We were meeting Cory at La Penca Azul (VERY Yummy!) in Alameda for dinner, so we ended up hanging out at the Berkeley Aquatic Park Playground and then watched the Kiteboarders out in the bay off the coast of Alameda before dinner.

We were sad to see Sully go on Thursday morning, especially RJ, who started trying to convince Sully to move to California on Wednesday and continued to push the issue by asking me to text Sully his words.  It sucked that Lance was sick for most of his visit and didn't get to spend much time with him, but we were glad that the kids and I had a spectacular time with Sully.  He truly took what would've been a crappy week with Lance being sick and me being on solo kid duty, and made it into an awesome week!  Thanks Sully for all your help with the kids and for coming out to see us!  We miss you!

For more pictures of Sully's visit, visit our Picasa Album

September 2010 - Pictures

Here are our pictures from September prior to our end of the month visitors.

To sum up the month we started it off at the Scottish Games, where RJ really enjoyed watching the Scottish dancers. He also loved watching Erika and Rich volunteer. Ethan even had his own staff onesie and kilt!


The rest of the month completed the transportation theme and we got RJ in parent-child swim lessons, which could've been better, but they were a start. Most of this set includes pictures of play dates and co-ops and the kids playing outside.

August 2010 Photos

Here are our photos from August. We mostly focused on the Transportation Theme for RJ, so there are lots of pictures of him doing a variety of activities and exploring transportation, including a whole bunch of him exploring public transportation in San Francisco.


We also have some cute pictures from Daisy's Birthday Party at Chuck E. Cheese.


And some cute pictures of Logan and our co-ops and play dates.

Note: in this collection you will find several random pictures of our neighborhood or the inside of our stroller - these are RJ's contribution from his tourist game during our transportation theme.

RJ's Second Birthday

RJ's party was the Sunday before his birthday, but we still did a little, albeit somewhat unorthodox celebrating on his actual birthday.



Our plan was to take him to an indoor play place called Habitot in Berkeley. It had some good reviews from the Berkeley Parents Network and we thought he'd dig it. However, by the time we actually got ourselves out the door, it was nearly time for lunch. So where should one take a two year old for his birthday lunch? The fancy shmansy expensive Chez Panisse Cafe, of course. Toddlers everywhere are clamoring to eat their Nettle Pizza, Soul Food Chicken, or Fancy Lamb and Goat. RJ seemed to enjoy the crayons they gave him and the fact that I had one of his little cars in my purse for him to drive under his bread crust "tunnel". Oh, and he LOVED the beans that came with my dish.



We ended up going because we'd been interested in trying out the place for quite a while - it's the birthplace of California Cuisine, vocal in the organic and locally grown food movement and the chef is world reknown (one of the top 50). The food was absolutely amazing and while we were perhaps dressed a bit too casually (the cafe is more casual than the restaurant so we weren't the only ones in jeans), I think Lance and I should go when we don't have a toddler hanging out with us.



Then it was on to Habitot, where RJ played all afternoon - pretty much through his regular naptime until we finally decided to head home at 3:30 and had to carry him out throwing an "I don't wanna leave" tantrum. My overall opinion of the place was that it is a great place to go with kids who don't normally go to preschool - they had an art area, the water table room, a dramatic play area with tractors and a barn and dress up, another dramatic play area set up as a grocery store, a reading room, and a climbing structure. But since RJ already goes to preschool, it seemed a little redundant with that experience - although he clearly had a blast.



Then on the way home, we hit all of the friday afternoon traffic (yuck), and decided to take the scenic route home that goes through the hills south of the main freeway pass. It's a good thing we did, because as we were driving out of the hills, we started to see smoke. Yeah...the hills by our house were on fire, and when we turned on the news upon getting home, it turns out that they were shutting down the freeway due to poor visibility from the smoke. Our whole neighborhood smelled of smoke (luckily our air conditioning filtered out the air inside our house), but even though over 2100 acres burned and it got close to I-580, which runs about 2 miles south of our house, our neighborhood was not in any danger - the fire would've had to jump a freeway, two aquaducts, and a few roads to get to us. But it was quite an exciting day for RJ's birthday!

Tale of Two Easters: Adult Edition

We got a babysitter so that us adults could head to San Francisco over nap time and have some adult entertainment.

Easter Parade

As we were walking down the street we remark -- are those cows? Are those dancing cows? Are those dancing cows on rollerblades? Then we realize it is either a regular weekend in San Francisco or the Easter parade complete with drag queens (yes you did read the sentence correctly).





Bring Your Own Big Wheels

Big People on Kids Toys going down the steepest/crookedest street in San Francisco IN COSTUME

Since the name of the event is Bring Your Own Big Wheel (which is an annual Easter Sunday event), and I don't keep a big wheel in my back pocket, I unfortunately was unprepared or I would've been in the fray myself, but 40? Schteve? Dave? Dawber? I'd like a souped up Big Wheel that could handle these curves for next year. Or better yet - we should ALL do it!! If a guy on a modified trash can can make it down alive, a souped up long axle big wheel should too. A word to the wise...bring your own helmet too. My favorite wipeout was when the dumb guy carrying his big wheel up the hill got taken out by a heat of big wheels thundering down the hill.

Here is the official video and a collection of pictures.

Mission Bars

What Easter Sunday would be complete without Happy Hour?

Organic Sushi

To finish out the evening, Lance found an organic sushi restaurant in the Mission. They had the largest rolls I've ever seen. Fabulous Easter dinner! It probably makes up for the fact that we ate Turkey on Good Friday...oops.

I think the only thing we missed that was Easter-related in SF was the "Hunky Jesus" contest that we heard about too late!

This Easter was much better than last Easter, which I spent grading papers!

Tale of Two Easters: Family Edition

Lance and I wake up to a smiling toddler in our bed. Thank goodness we have a King Sized Mattress now - RJ actually leaves us with some room to sleep when he gets upset randomly in the middle of the night (it luckily doesn't happen too often).

Easter Baskets

While the quiche was baking Otte (who was adjusting to West Coast time after flying in to see us Saturday) woke up and helped RJ find his Easter Basket. RJ's response to the colorful basket in the pantry = "Wow!" Thank you Grandpa for the Wahl's Orange Chocolate.



Then we sent Otte looking for his Easter basket. This was actually more entertaining than RJ looking for his Easter basket, particularly because Otte, who was still up when I was hiding it the night before and was TOLD where it was, thought that I had hid it in the dryer and went on a wild goose chase in the laundry room, when it was really in the sewing cabinet in the living room. We should probably give him some slack though since he WAS pretty tired!

Egg Decorating

RJ and Daddy colored a few eggs too. RJ's hands kept ending up in the dye, but he had fun. Then Daddy had fun putting the few pieces of (unsalvagable) burnt bacon in the dye to "see what would happen". (Yeah, nothing really happened except that the yellow turned brown).



Brunch

We all sat down to a big breakfast (Quiche, Sausage, and Belgian Waffles with Strawberries and Whipped Cream), got showered and took RJ to the park on a beautiful Easter Sunday morning in sunny Tracy, CA.

RJ Goes to the Garlic Festival...

Do you know where your garlic comes from? Probably China actually, but you may be lucky enough to get some of the good domestic Gilroy,CA garlic.

The garlic festival attracts a 100,000+ crowd to the southern-most stop on Caltrain. It is a 90 minute drive from our place, and I kid you not, from more than 4 miles away up the highway, ac on, windows closed you could smell the garlic.The area's top chefs show up for the cooking competition that even airs on Food Network. We sampled garlic bread, garlic calamari, garlic pesto pasta, garlic pepper steak sandwich, garlic sausage sandwich, garlic marinated mushrooms, garlic chicken stir fry, garlic shrimp scampi, and of course topped it off with garlic ice cream. It sounds scary, but even RJ enjoyed it:

Vampires beware.

RJ Goes to Santa Cruz

We headed down to Santa Cruz to see the beach and the boardwalk and all the rumored "crazy people" that live there. On Friday (July 18) we arrived and got the lay of the land and found a good taqueria for dinner (Thank You Yelp!). RJ was enthralled with the parrot painted on the window there.

On Saturday we hit the main tourist spots.

We started at the Mystery Spot, where the laws of physics check themselves at the entrance gate. I would show you pictures of RJ standing at a slant but, no lie, our camera refused to work while we were at the Mystery Spot. Zoinks.

Moments upon leaving, the camera magically started working again, so that you can enjoy some pictures of the foggy morning at Natural Bridges State Park.

Then we met up with some of the local color in the form of the Kempos (also known as Laura Rosensteel and her hubby Jesse). See what we mean about Santa Cruz attracting "Crazy People"

[Okay the scary part is that I realized that this picture (from Sophomore year Spring Break in Cancun) will be a decade old come Spring Break season...man we're all old now. ]

Laura was still in shock and disbelief that we have a kid. While walking downtown we also were approached by a shabbily dressed gentleman selling a book and childcare. We'll keep that in mind for next time.

We had a very very very yummy lunch at Chocolate, which was just as scrumptious as a restaurant named Chocolate should be! Three cheers for the Chocolate Orgy platter.

Then we hit the boardwalk and let RJ get his feet in the Pacific for the first time, and headed home.

Besens, Bubbles, and Bop, Oh My!

Akin to the drought that California is experiencing, we have also experienced a drought of a different kind: A drought of visitors! And then on July 12, like the old adage, when it rains, it pours, we had a house guest and other friends visiting the area!

Bop

Mr. David Sullivan is a man of many names. Others might call him Dave, but we typically call him Sully or Sully-Bot, or sometimes just Bot. RJ caught on and his name for Sully is now "Bop".

When "Bop" was here, we visited Alum Rock park near San Jose, where the most recent felt earthquake (Oct 30, 2007) was epicentered. Here "Bop" taught RJ to play football.


We also spent two days exploring San Francisco. On the first day, we had Dim Sum and walked around Chinatown, walked through Fisherman's Wharf and Ghiardelli Square, where we enjoyed the free chocolate-peanut butter squares, and then walked back through North Beach where we introduced Sully to the garlic laden delicacies at The Stinking Rose. The second day in SF was not as well choreographed, but both Sully and I got a good workout walking up an inordinate amount of hills as we walked from Fisherman's Wharf where we had lunch at Boudin Sourdough, then up and around Fort Mason, through Marina, and then weaved around the edge of the Presidio and through the Richmond District until we ended up in Golden Gate Park. This was quite the walk - about 8 miles of weaving and going uphill and then downhill. Then we had an adventure taking RJ on his first muni bus. RJ met lots of interesting people, including one amputee who was friendly with him. Unfortunately, when the amputee was getting off the bus, at the time we were thinking of getting off the bus, he bumped this fat guy standing there. I had stood up with RJ just after the amputee passed us and I was standing behind the fat guy, who shoved the amputee, who shoved back and luckily RJ and I stayed in an upright position despite the shoving match right in front of us! Apparently I haven't lost my sense of balance! Then RJ and Sully got their first cable car ride back to Fisherman's Wharf to pick up the car so that we could pick up Lance at work.

This is Sully and RJ at Fort Mason:


On one of the other days, I took Sully and RJ to Berkeley, where we went up Indian Rock, had lunch at Barney's Burgers (which is similar, but not as good as, Mr. Bartley's in Harvard Square). In fact, the onion rings at Barney's were actually pretty sucky, which was a downer if you're expecting Mr. Bartley's quality onion rings. We then went to UC Berkeley to check out the tree people, and we missed one of them descending by only a couple of hours!

On Sully's last day, we took a morning drive to Half Moon Bay where it was freezing cold even while wearing jeans and hoodies (the San Francisco Bay area uniform). Despite the frigid temps (it was probably like 55 degrees), hot blooded "Bop" refused to wear a sweatshirt. RJ had some fun blowing bubbles, which is his new favorite thing to do and say.

We then met up with Lance for (free) lunch at DreamWorks before driving "Bop" to the airport. Thanks for visiting Sully-Bop! We miss you already.

Bubbles

RJ has always liked bubbles, but for some reason this week his love of bubbles prompted him to speak the word bubbles pretty much non-stop. He also made the connection between the bubbles bottle (both the green and blue bottles!) and the bubbles that can be made from the stuff inside said bottle. This is no baby-talk word either. It comes out clear as a bell! So everywhere we went, RJ kept asking for bubbles. In the car, at the beach, in the stroller, etc. Clearly the word of the week was, "bubbles".


Besens


Adam Besen is one of Lance's fraternity brothers who lives in Colorado with his wife, Erica, and his 15 month old daughter, Audrey. He brought his family into town on a semi-annual business trip to Google's main campus in Mountain View. The arrived on the same day as Sully and we all met up for dinner that night. As you can see here, RJ and Audrey were fast friends, and they have a similar penchant for KDR's "Princeton Orange" in their stroller fashion.
By the next day, they were hugging in Chinatown!

Click here for more pictures of our fun-filled week!

RJ Goes to Rock City

We live less than an hour away from Mount Diablo State Park, which is home to a 3,849 ft. summit. We have been saying that we'd go see it as it is claimed to be a great view of the bay area on a clear day. One way or another, something always seemed to get in our way of going, despite it's closeness. But last weekend with the weather being so nice, we FINALLY ventured out with RJ in tow.


We drove up to Rock City, with plans for continuing on to the summit after lunch. But we decided to stay in Rock City and explore after realizing that the summit was farther away than we thought.

So we have yet to see the spectacular view, although even from Rock City's lower elevation, we got some pretty pictures AND RJ got introduced to one of Momma's favorite pastimes! Rock climbing classes, here we come!

Cowboys, Gorillas and Hippies...Oh My!

We don't plan on becoming hermits once the baby arrives, but we thought we'd have a fun weekend in the California sun just in case we find ourselves busy for awhile.

On Saturday, we went to the Livermore Rodeo. Yes, in addition to being known for wine and nuclear weapons, Livermore has a very well attended annual rodeo event. Of course, we didn't actually go *in* to the rodeo since we're not rodeo people and couldn't justify the $12/person plus $8/car -- but we did see the (free) parade in downtown Livermore.



We rolled out of bed at an early hour on Sunday to go to Golden Gate Park. We didn't spend much time in the park but we did take a little stroll (err waddle) and saw the gorillas. There is a 7K race that raises money for African Gorillas, and all the runners get a gorilla costume with their registration fee. But in San Francisco it is not enough to *just* wear a gorilla costume. No, you need a costume for your costume. Anyway, it was an interesting spectacle - we might just have to do this one ourselves next year!

Finally, for some social interaction we went to Erin Medlin's appartment for her mimosa and "baked" goods brunch prior to the Haight/Ashbury Street Fair. It is the 40th anniversary of the summer of love for those keeping score. One particular highlight of this hippie scene was a local PTA tent pictured here. It might be hard to see, but yes, that is an elmo-adorned bra wearing, scantily clad woman manning the PTA's "big red yarn ball of love".

After the fair we stopped off in Pleasanton at Stacey's Cafe for a late lunch. I have recently taken up reading Scott Adam's blog. He for those not familiar is the creator of Dilbert and his daily reflections remind me of Dave Barry. Anyway, this was his restaurant that we snacked on some Grilled California Free Range Chicken Sandwiches with Avocado (the menu is quite witty).

(If you click on the pictures, you'll see more pictures from our weekend adventures).

Asparagus Festival

An exciting Saturday out west. First up, we went to Stockton, CA and braved the escaped convict manhunt to check out the Asparagus Festival. Yes, you read that right -- Asparagus. Apparently it grows well enough to celebrate out here.

The highlight was the deep-fried asparagus and the asparaburrito. All in all it was a rather boring festival, and expensive at $10/person and $6 for 5 deep-fried asparagus (but it was yummy!). There was a skate-boarding dog that we couldn't see, and a half pipe where they were doing stunts (professionals, not the dog). If you are into arts and crafts there was a bunch of vendors peddling their asparagus themed wares. There were even margaritas with asparagus stirrers. I guess I'll have to wait until next year to actually sample the "Aspararitas"!

Destination Magazine rates it as one of the 100 best events in the nation but I find that surprising. At the "Farmer's Market" you could buy asparagus for $3/bundle (its cheaper at one of the many roadside stands) and the only other produce were strawberries and cherries (again cheaper out of the back of the truck at the end of our street). It was super crowded, and a very hot day at 91, but thankfully, the port-a-potties were not as scary as anticipated at an asparagus festival. After all, being 32 weeks pregnant and drinking enough water to stay hydrated in the heat, visiting the port-a-potties was unavoidable! I also learned that while 91 is not usually hot for me, being pregnant has apparently lowered my comfortable temperature maximum, so we only stayed a couple of hours, even with taking breaks to eat in the shade.

Under Construction...

My commute sucks, and that's only if I travel at off-peak hours. Fortunately, help is on the way:

After legislative leaders and Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger demanded that the list be changed to favor congestion projects, and more of them, the staff put out a new list Monday with $1.1 billion in Bay Area projects. (http://www.insidebayarea.com/sanmateocountytimes/ci_5329443)

Here's another amusing tidbit:

Transportation officials' carefully organized media event Friday to celebrate progress in highway construction turned into a live demonstration of just how unhappy life is for commuters on Interstate 580.

Caltrans Director Will Kempton, California Transportation Commissioner James Ghielmetti and Alameda County Supervisor Scott Haggerty were to update the media at 2 p.m. under an awning set up next to the eastbound lanes of the interstate, a short distance east of the El Charro Road interchange.

Haggerty, however, didn't get there until close to 3 p.m. after leaving Oakland at 1:45 thanks to the very traffic bottleneck that was to frame the event.

"There is no reason that any taxpaying citizen should have to go though this traffic," Haggerty said to a reporter who had made the same enervating journey with similar results. "Just getting from the 580-680 interchange to here has totally drained me for the rest of the evening."

Haggerty said he could not blame passing motorists who saw the assembly of transportation officials for flipping them "the one-fingered salute." (http://origin.insidebayarea.com/trivalleyherald/localnews/ci_5406547)

Starting to look like spring...

Yay! It is starting to look like spring. The grass is green, the temperature is in the 70s, I'm eating lunch outside at work again. It is amazing how little the weather forecast will vary over the next 7 months or so.

Cravings that I can relate to...

Cheryl hasn't had many over-the-top cravings, though I did find the ring peppers on a hawaiian pizza a bit odd.

This is in part wanting to show all our visitors what California fast food is like, but Cheryl has on a few days like the drunk Berkeley students had an uncontrollable craving for In-N-Out Burgers. Not McDonalds or Burger King, but In-N-Out specifically. We're not big fast-food eaters, and Cheryl especially is not a fast-food burger person, but gardenburgers just don't cut it. The kid must have my tastes.

She's also had cravings for Indian food, homemade chocolate chip cookies, ice cream, chocolate, and mexican food (particularly veggie burritos).

Here's a link to the hidden menu at In-N-Out burger so you can figure out what you want when you visit.

http://www.tiburon-belvedere.com/cgi/home.cgi?c=In_N_Out