This year, we chose to go to Los Angeles for spring break. This was the year we wanted to take the kids to the Disney parks in California. Plus LA is a huge, diverse city and we’d have fun exploring. Also, we figured the weather would be pretty and flights would be relatively inexpensive.

The famed Hollywood sign

Sean searched daily for flights for the week we wanted to be out there, but rarely came up with anything even remotely affordable. We hunted. We fussed about the cost. We tried to make several alternate spring break plans. Finally, after a TON of looking, he managed to catch a brief moment where a direct flight was offered for our return trip at an affordable rate. Hooray!

The catch was that we’d have to leave the Friday before spring break and return the Monday after spring break. I’m not crazy about taking the kids out of school for vacation, but the pandemic knocked loose a few of my firmer rules on that front. Then at some point, that lovely return trip got replaced with a trip that connected in Houston instead and arrived home much later. On a school night, no less. Our original flight still existed, though now it was on a smaller aircraft and only offered at a premium price. I won’t deny feeling a little bait-and-switched on this one. Thanks, United.

Our flight to Los Angeles was uneventful. We had a longish layover in El Paso, during which we had a bit of lunch and the kids played with their screens. I walked back and forth through the tiny airport, looking out the windows at the mountains and stretching my legs. The second leg to LA arrived on time around 2:50, but at that massively large airport, we did a lot of taxi-ing. It was around 3:11 when we were off the plane, then about 3:30 before luggage from our flight started popping out at the luggage return. We weren’t in our rental car and driving till around 4:30, right at rush hour. It was gray and rainy, but we did see a pretty owl perched in the parking lot, much to the kids’ delight.

Maya made an origami bird out of a napkin while waiting for her chicken dinner.

By the time we made it to our North Hollywood hotel, our time-zone-confused selves were ravenous, so we unloaded our stuff and headed out to a place called Humble Bird to have Nashville hot chicken. One of the co-owners, Brandon, let us know that there were many, many hot chicken joints in LA, but that he and his compatriots had made pilgrimages to actual Nashville. He was patient with our tired brains working through their very direct menu, and he was tolerant of our children’s shenanigans. The kids had a bucket of chicken nugs ordered at a mild level of spice, and the grownups sprung for the “sando” at a medium level of spice. While our wait was lengthy (we were warned up front), the food was delightful. Chicken was perfectly crispy and zingy (even after a night in the hotel fridge). The sauce, pickles, and slaw accompanied the heat nicely. And the kids were able to start their vacation with chicken nuggets, so they were happy.

Day 1 – WB Studio Tour, Hollywood Boulevard

I woke up first at 4:30 Pacific time. By 5:30, I couldn’t stand it any longer, so I got up to have a shower … where I discovered we had no water! Hotel staff offered to move us to a different room, but I tested it out – also no water! Morning bathroom visits were needed, and they advised us to come downstairs to use the downstairs one – no water! Yeah, they agreed, something was affecting the whole building.

Warner Brothers Studio Tour

After a hotel breakfast sans coffee (no water!), we headed out for our first big activity – a Warner Brothers Studio tour! They tell you to allow about three hours for the tour. One hour is a guided backlot tour; the rest is self-guided. We started our tour off in what WB calls their Storytellers Showcase. It’s kind of a lobby area and museum where you can occupy yourself until your scheduled tour time. The exhibits were interesting, if a little hard to absorb with our children bouncing about. Sean motioned me over to check out what became probably my favorite thing in the area – the Warners’ address book. The book was opened to a page that showed Dali, Salvador and DeMille, Cecil B, and Disney, Walt. Some contact list!

How’s that for a contact list

At our tour time, we were guided into a little theater to watch a short film giving a bit of history on Warner Brothers Studios. After that, we all boarded our little trams for the first portion of the tour. We were shown backlots – large exterior sets, streetscapes and storefronts and housefronts and sound stages – and also enclosed studios of varying sizes that contain ever changing sets with tighter control for sound and light than a backlot set would allow for. We saw the couch and fountain from the Friends intro (sadly, it was rainy and muddy, so we couldn’t go sit on said couch and take photos). We went past the facade for The Alibi from Shameless.

Couch and fountain from the intro to Friends

One of the things I found interesting is that for the set houses, they might have a different sort of facade on each side of the structure. The interior will be decorated and redecorated   to suit whatever needs to be filmed.

The sound stages were neat too. We walked through stage 25, where Big Bang Theory was filmed. Stage 25 appears to be largely used for sitcoms, so there’s bright overhead lighting and bleachers for a live studio audience, separated from the filming area by “camera alley.”

We didn’t get to go into it, but one of my favorite factoids from the day revolved around Stage 16. Evidently, this stage started life at regular size but when something larger was required, its roof was raised in the air using hundreds of hand jacks positioned around the building. In the end, the building was augmented to be 98 feet tall and houses a 2 million gallon water tank. Scenes from “The Goonies” were filmed there. I wish we had been able to see inside.

I’m in Sheldon’s spot

After our backlot tour, we were dropped off at what I think is the “Stage 48: Script To Screen” part of the tour. Here we got to see some of the sets. We hung out at Central Perk, the coffee shop from Friends and we got to visit Leonard and Sheldon’s apartment from Big Bang Theory.

Dabbing with Dobby

We were able to play with motion capture technology that allowed the kids to see Dobby the house elf move as they moved. They seemed to get a huge kick out of making Dobby dab. We entered a scene that showed us the forced perspective setup that might have let Hagrid appear so much larger than the rest of the humans do in some of the Harry Potter sets.

Maya on a broomstick on the quidditch pitch

They also were able to experience green screen technology. Ian got to drive Batman’s motorcycle. The a big fan blew his hair and a director told him how to move and when. Maya flew a broomstick in front of a green screen, again following a director’s cues about when to wave her wand and in what direction. Later the detail was added in. We have both still images and videos of them on their broomstick and motorcycle.

The Lasso of Truth (it would light up if you grabbed it)

After this, we were shuttled back to the area we started in. Back in this area, we were able to see a set of exhibits called Action and Magic Made Here. In this area, we got to see tons and tons of movie costumes and props, especially from the DC comics movies. Maya and Ian tested out Wonder Woman’s lasso of truth. Ian posed with Aquaman’s trident. Sean and I wondered as we wandered – do the size of these costumes reflect the size of the actors who inhabited them? Another thing we were fascinated at were the differences between the actual costume colors and how they appeared in their film or television shows. One of Daenerys’s outfits from Game of Thrones looked vastly different in person than on video.

Maya’s being sorted (Ravenclaw)

Also in this area were lots of lots of exhibits revolving around Harry Potter and Fantastic Beasts. Ian and Maya could learn proper dueling technique with their wands. They could try their hand and potions making. They could check out Harry’s cupboard under the stairs. It was a lot of fun. We ended our time there with an obligatory photo holding an Oscar award; we were all surprised at how heavy it was. Once we had finished seeing all the things, it was time to wander through the gift shop and then leave. The kids each elected to spend their saved allowance money on wands.

Bob’s Big Boy

Since it was in the Burbank area, we decided to have lunch at Bob’s Big Boy. After a relatively short 30 minute wait, we were seated and orders taken promptly. The food was good and the atmosphere was fun. Sean and I had burgers of course, Maya had fried shrimp, and Ian had (you’ll never guess) chicken fingers! The kids got ice cream for dessert, so they were thrilled.

After this, it was time to head into the belly of the beast – Hollywood Boulevard. Our driving in Los Angeles thus far had been … interesting. I can’t tell if they’re more aggressive or maybe a bit lackadaisical, but if they wanted to change lanes, it was happening whether you were leaving them room or not. At one point, I hear Sean mutter under his breath, “The balls on these people …” Jury’s out on whether he was expressing irritation or admiration.

We encountered an absolute ton of traffic and weirdly blocked roads as we approached Hollywood Blvd. We tried rerouting a little and finally Sean looked at me and said, “When are the Oscars?” Yeah, that would be the very next day. Part of Hollywood Blvd was completely blocked to accommodate the Oscars, which are held at the Dolby Theater. Whoops.

Inside at Amoeba

When we originally headed toward Hollywood Blvd, our intention was to try to buy tour tickets to see the inside of the TCL Chinese Theater. With our difficult driving conditions, we wound up not having enough time, so we decided to just see what we could see on our own instead. We started with a visit to Amoeba Music. This is a huge, warehouse-like record store that on our own, Sean and I might have spent more time at. With our kids in tow and with the massive crowds, it was more stressful than enjoyable and after browsing through records and books and posters galore, we decided to cut our visit a bit short and move on.

Inside the Funko store

To make up for the record store visit, we took the kids to the Funko Hollywood store. I personally give zero shits about Funko, but Sean and the kids love those things. The store itself was surprisingly fun – lots of large Funko-esque sculptures of unlikely characters inhabit the huge space. The kids were delighted. Sean was happy to add a Funko Oswald to his collection.

Inside the Funko store

After we were all Funko-ed out, we decided to brave a walk through the throngs to get a gander at the TCL Chinese Theater. They had a weird, circuitous detour tunnel for pedestrians so we could get from one side of Dolby to the other without seeing any of the Oscar brouhaha. We did manage to get a brief glimpse into an area adorned with large golden Oscar statues as we traversed our tunnel.

TCL Chinese Theatre

As we walked along Hollywood Blvd, it was fun to see the Walk of Fame stars. There are stars for all kinds of things: film, TV, music, stage. Some people will have multiple stars for these different areas. RuPaul’s star was decorated, of course.

Samuel L Jackson

TCL Chinese Theater was neat looking from the outside. It was fun to look through some of the imprints left by the stars over the decades. Everything was enormously crowded, and we were starting to feel the strain a bit, so we retreated to the Ghirardelli store for some hot chocolate for a little rest before heading to the car, snapping a few quick photos or the Capitol Records building and making our way back to the hotel.

Capitol Records building

Day 2 – Downtown Los Angeles

Today we had running water at our hotel – hooray! Man were we ready for some showers. We skipped hotel breakfast today in favor of heading to the Grand Central Market for Woods vacation doughnuts at The Donut Man. They specialize in doughnuts topped with strawberries or peaches as the season allowed, but unsurprisingly, I was the only one who wanted actual fruit content in my doughnut.

Donut Man breakfast at the LA Grand Central Market

We had intended to visit the Bradbury Building across the street, but it didn’t open till 10a, and we had places to be, so we decided to visit it a little later on. Back in February, I had reserved a timed entry to the Yayoi Kusama’s exhibit at The Broad, “Infinity Mirrored Room – The Souls of Millions of Light Years Away,” which is housed in The Broad, a really spectacular contemporary art museum.

The Broad (left) and Walt Disney Concert Hall (right)

You’re allowed 60 seconds in this room with mirrored walls and floor and ceiling and thousands of lights. It’s dark, it’s quiet, and if you allow it, your mind can almost be fooled into believing you’re standing on a dark peninsula completely surrounded by lights and your own reflection. It’s oddly haunting, even with the nagging worry that our 8- and 10-year old wouldn’t follow the rules. I left the room with goosebumps lingering on the back of my neck.

One of Yayoi Kusama’s Infiniti Rooms – This one is called, “The Souls of Millions of Light Years Away”

The rest of the museum was wonderful as well. The kids were able to do a scavenger hunt. Some of the items they had to find were “artwork from another country” and “artwork that you would make” and “artwork that makes you sad.” It was an interesting experience for them.

“Campbell’s Soup Can (Clam Chowder – Manhattan Style)” and “Small Torn Campbell’s Soup Can,” both by Andy Warhol

Sean and I enjoyed it because there was such a lovely and intriguing variety of art. Unless you pay for a special exhibit, the cost to visit is zero. The cost to see The Souls of Millions of Light Years Away is zero (you just have to pay attention and reserve ahead). Because we went on a Sunday morning, street parking was readily available for free.

“Balloon Dog (Blue)” by Jeff Koons

While we were there, we also wandered by and took photos of The Broad’s neighbor, the Walt Disney Concert Hall. It is another curved surface masterpiece from Frank Gehry, a neat augment to The Broad’s own interesting structure.

The Bradbury Building – scenes from Blade Runner were filmed here

After all this, we headed back to take a look at the Bradbury Building. It’s a really beautiful building in its own right, sporting some gorgeous intricate ironwork and a multistory sunlight-filled interior courtyard. We wanted to see it because it was a filming location for the original Blade Runner movie. The kids didn’t really understand and kind of shuffled about while Sean and I oooo-ed and aahh-ed at the pretty architecture.

LA’s Chinatown

Then we drove into the Chinatown area. As the day wore on, parking was becoming more and more difficult, so we wound up driving around a bit to find a place and then walking a bit to get where we wanted to go. Chinatown was kind of neat. Ian wound up buying a little $5 wooden samurai sword that he was absolutely delighted with but that didn’t even make it to the end of our vacation before it broke. There’s a really neat dragon gate as you enter Chinatown, but we only ever saw it briefly from the car, so we didn’t get a photo.

We were thinking we’d try a couple places for lunch and Sean and I would split entrees so we didn’t get overfull. We went to Phillipe The Original first because we figured the kids were more likely to find something they’d like there. Sean and I split a French Dip pastrami one-because yum and two-because they’re allegedly the creators of said sandwich. Ian wound up eating a deli ham sandwich and loving it. And Maya had a gigantic PB&J. Happy everyone!

Los Angeles City Hall

Then, after a little kerfuffle to find actual cash, we managed to work our way into the LAX-C area to try some delicious Tom Yum Goong and some delicious but maybe not my thing Taro Cake. Ian seemed to like the soup and Maya sort of liked the taro cake. All in all, I thought it was fun. After a jaunt through the neighboring asian grocery store just for fun, we again hopped in the car and drove by LA’s giant city hall. There’s an open yard area nearby, so we let the kids run out a bit of energy.

The famed book tunnel at The Last Bookstore

After this, we loaded up and drove to The Last Bookstore, which may be the most aesthetically interesting bookstore I’ve ever visited. I’m hoping to do this often enough that not only do our kids not find it weird that we visit bookstores and record stores when we go to new cities, I hope that it becomes one of their own vacation objectives as they grow up too.

Book art

This place was a brilliant mash-up of art, books, and sheer atmosphere. The kids were legit creepified by the horror section (because it was legit creepy). There was a book tunnel! The children’s section had a stuffed tiger (named Blake! maybe he was really a tyger) that would earn you a prize if you found it. And then your job was to hide it well for the next kid to find. There was book-art and art-art and even just books to look through! I will admit, I wasn’t in a rush to return to reality after we were through.

Sean swung by Ramirez Liquor and found a couple new rums to add to his collection. Then we drove over to Griffith Observatory to see if we could work that into day. The mists / fog had settled in around the mountains, the kids had fallen asleep in the car, and the observatory was bonkers crowded, so we decided instead of have an early dinner at Leo’s Taco Truck. SO GOOD. The kids loved their tacos de pollo. Sean and I were smitten with the asada and the al pastor. Their sauces were solid.

Leo’s Taco Truck

Maya had been haggling for churros all day long, so she was thrilled to spot a nearby truck selling those too. Plus we enjoyed our tacos so much, we ordered a second round (to be fair, they were small).

After all that, we made it back to the hotel in time for the kids to enjoy the heated pool (which closed at 8) for a little while. It was a cool night – I’m impressed that Ian could hang. He explained to another group of people who commented that the pool didn’t feel *that* heated that the trick was to get out of the pool and let the air make you really cold. Then when you got back in the pool, it would feel warm. They didn’t appear to buy it.

We did some laundry and watched a bit of the Oscars so the kids would have a tie in to yesterday’s visit to Hollywood Blvd and the heavy statues we held at Warner Brothers. And then we all got some rest before our next big vacation day.

Day 3 – Knott’s Berry Farm

The kids love, love, LOVE amusement parks by this point. And Sean, given his roller coaster love, has long wanted to visit Knott’s Berry Farm. From my reading, I learned that apparently this place started as a hope-and-dream berry farm that first grew into a restaurant and berry farm and just kept expanding and expanding from there. Berry farm, restaurant, and curiosities. Berry farm, restaurant, and old west town. Berry farm, restaurant, old west town, and … rides.

Knott’s Berry Farm

We were fortunate to be there during their annual Boysenberry Festival. We figured the kids would be picky about what they ate, so we only included the special Boysenberry food add-on in our adult tickets. This got us each three tastings of boysenberry items created for the festival. Let’s see if I can remember them all: Boysenberry Blondie, Sushi Burrito with Spicy Crab Surimi, Avocado, Lettuce, Crispy Onions, Sesame & Unagi Sauce and Boysenberry Sweet Chili Dipping Sauce, Boysenberry BBQ Beef Tips over Parmesan Grits with Green Onions, Beef Barbacoa over Mac & Cheese with a Boysenberry Chipotle Crema, Boysenberry Sausage on a Hoagie with Boysenberry Mustard, and Boysenberry pie. We bought the kids some boysenberry dippin’ dots (which were really good) and later on some boysenberry desserts as well. Everything was really good, and I’m glad for the experience.

We got there right at opening (10a) and after cute photos on entering, we made the classic amusement park blunder of rushing right for the big, popular ride at the front of the park. I have been struggling with some lower back issues, so I was a little wary of roller coasters, but I was especially worried about the wooden ones, which can sometimes rather beat the hell out of their riders. Sean and the kids lined up for GhostRider. I hung out with them in line for probably 45 minutes. Then I went to wander around while they rode the actual ride.

Ghost Rider

Sean agreed to let the kids ride together, which may have been a mistake on the first ride of the day on a fairly aggressive coaster. Ian might have preferred parental support on the first go. After all, they hadn’t been on a coaster since the previous summer. The ride photos afterward tell the story. Sean’s half turned around, looking worried. Ian is head down, probably scared. Maya is riding along, happy as a clam.

Sean did tell me after they got off that it was probably the smoothest wooden coaster he’s ever been on, and that I’d probably have handled it fine. Apparently over the first 17 years of the coaster’s operation, it had gotten rougher and rougher. Then in 2015 they replaced and reprofiled the track, adding banked turns and air time hills. They also removed the mid-course break run and replaced the trains. All equating to fun wooden roller coaster thrills without the body torment that many of them inflict.

We did Coast Rider next – a wild mouse style roller coaster. We didn’t pay for fast pass at this park because it would have more than doubled our ticket price. Instead, we accepted that we’d have to wait in line. And that would have been fine, if the wait times had been at all accurate. Ghost Rider had been posted at 45 minutes; I think it was closer to an hour. Little Coast Rider had been posted at 30 minutes; we waited 45. With a park that would only be open from 10a-8p, we could feel our time for fun thrill rides slip-slip-slipping away.

Maya and Ian sharing some boysenberry Dippin’ Dots

We begrudgingly took the time to actually keep everyone fed. I know and even sort of accept that you get kind of gouged on food at amusement parks, but we paid literally $12 *per slice* of pizza for the kids for lunch. I couldn’t believe it.

After our little lunch, we got in line to ride Sidewinder. This would be a new one for us – the individual cars spin about as your train moves along the track. This one was the worst one for wait time of our whole day. Posted wait time was 60 minutes. Actual was more like 90 minutes. So frustrating! At least the ride itself was fun.

Ian and Mom on Pony Express

We hit a small stroke of luck after that. Ian wasn’t tall enough to ride Silver Bullet, so he and I got in line for the Pony Express – a launch coaster whose ride vehicle is shaped like a horse and you kind of ride it like a motorcycle (or horse). Sean and Maya hustled over to Silver Bullet to take advantage of a posted 5 minute wait. They managed to ride it twice while Ian and I waited (posted wait 45 minutes; actual 60 minutes).

Maya and Dad on Silver Bullet

Maya was so excited about Silver Bullet that she wanted to ride with me as well. Since its wait was still so short (like 15 minutes), Sean took Ian to get his face painted while Maya and I rode the coaster. It was awesome. It’s a dangling coaster, so you have the pleasure of zero pressure on your tired feet. Plus its ride dynamics were great. Such a fun ride. Maya will tell you it was her favorite in the park.

Ian got his face painted while Maya took me to ride Silver Bullet

After another snack / meal (the kids got chicken, which Knott’s Berry Farm has been known for since they were just a humble berry farm with a restaurant), we got in line for a fairly tame coaster called Jaguar. It’s posted time was 60 minutes, but it’s actual wait time was only 15 minutes – hooray!

I think Maya has a boysenberry blondie

Here’s where we had that one last boysenberry dessert while we waited in line to ride GhostRider again, so I could have a turn and because everyone seemed to love it so much. The line was long, no sense denying it. We met a nice family in line whose son and our kids chatted on and on about Pokemon and Minecraft. It was so nice to have some entertainment!

Sean, Maya, and Ian were absolutely correct – GhostRider is a wonderful ride. The neat structure and biiiiig hills were fun, and it was fairly smooth for a wooden coaster. Plus we got to ride it at night, which was a pretty fun experience. Honestly the wild mouse was rougher on me than this one was. Ian will tell you that GhostRider was his favorite.

Maya liked the Ghost Town sign

We stopped by the gift shop on the way out, where Ian acquired another plush snake for his collection – this one (we think) is a California rattlesnake who he has named Pearl. Pearl likes to curl *and* she rattles. Ian loves her.

Day 4 – Venice Beach, Getty Center, LACMA Lights 

Today, we did our best to persevere despite the weather. Apparently the lower California area has been beset again and again by a weather pattern called an atmospheric river. According to the NOAA, an atmospheric river is “a flowing column of condensed water vapor in the atmosphere responsible for producing significant levels of rain and snow.” According to the local news, that’s the weather pattern we had to thank for the rain we enjoyed over portions of our visit to the area.

We attempted first take in the scenic Mulholland Drive loop, but found nothing but thick mist at our first stop at a scenic overlook. We hear we were looking out into a canyon, but we’d never have known it. We bailed.

Venice Beach in the rain

This was to be our Venice Beach and Santa Monica day. We looked to rearrange our days, but unless we gave up a Disney day (which we would never do), we were stuck rearranging outdoor activities into a variety of days where rain was predicted. So we stuck it out.

After a horrible search for parking at the Venice Beach area (apparently half the side street were street-sweepered on Tuesdays, and the other half were full of the people who presumably had moved their cars to avoid the street sweepers), we donned our ponchos and headed beach-ward.

The kids still tried to have fun, despite the weather

Venice Beach was almost completely devoid of people. The renowned skate park was empty. Muscle Beach was a ghost town. It turns out Venice Beach isn’t much fun without a swath of California society to watch. We did our best to wander through the rain and look around at the famed Venice Canals. It was neat to see, no doubt, and we saw a few ducks wandering around too, which bird-lover Maya enjoyed. Eventually we gave up and went for lunch.

Lunch from the Win-dow was delicious

We went to a place called The Win-dow for a meal of chicken sandwiches and smash burgers. Sean had placed the order from his phone and then I tromped through puddles to pick it up so we could eat it in our parked car (they had covered outdoor seating, but it all just seemed very wet). The food was excellent – would recommend.

View of Los Angeles from The Getty Center

We decided to book some quick timed entry tickets for The Getty Center. This is a sprawling art museum surrounded by lovely gardens from which you’re supposed to have lovely views of the surrounding area. Admission is free, but we had to pay handsomely to park. Once parked, we took a tram up the hillside to the actual museum. The ride was quite pretty, but I expect it would have been breathtaking without the thick coating of mist / fog.

It was raining pretty solidly by this time, so we didn’t even try to spend time outside in the gardens, choosing instead to examine the exhibits inside. Just like at The Broad, there was a sort of scavenger hunt offered for the kids at this museum as well, but we decided to just wander a bit instead, since we knew we weren’t going to cover all the interior exhibits and weren’t going outside really at all.

“Irises” by Vincent van Gogh

The Getty Center has an extensive collection and I feel confident we didn’t do it justice. We did get to see “Irises” by Vincent Van Gogh, which was neat. I thought the kids would recognize it, but they didn’t. They enjoyed the sculpture area more. Ian in particular seemed downright flummoxed at the sculptures of fauns we’d run into. They have horns! And tails! What are they? I reminded him that he was a gifted reader at this point and the way to learn more was to read the titles and commentary on the art they were seeing. I don’t think it worked though.

We also let them see all the nude sculptures. I think they mostly found it funny, but we did our best as engineer and software developer to explain why a naked body might be considered art.

Damon’s Steakhouse

The waterlogged Woodses decided to trek back to the hotel for some dry clothes and a little rest. We had thought to drive back to Santa Monica Pier toward evening so we could visit the boardwalk when the rides were all lit up, but the weather was relentless, so we gave up on that idea. Instead, we decided we’d just have a relaxed dinner at Damon’s Steak House.

Sean, rum aficionado that he is, loves tiki bars and tiki cocktails and tiki culture. We had made a list of old-school places to possibly visit while in Los Angeles (Tiki Ti, Tiki No, Tonga Hut, etc). But all those places seemed like just bars and we weren’t too sure our kids would be welcome there. Damon’s Steak House was also on that list and as they were a full-on restaurant, the whole family could comfortably go.

Steakhouse meets tiki bar

We loved it. The decor was very tiki centric – dark and kitschy without being creepy or cheap. The kids had fun watching the fish tank and seeing what all the light fixtures were decorated with. Our server was wonderful and very, very patient with our lunatic children. The drinks were really good (though we appear to have discovered that we don’t like Chi Chi cocktails in general). And the food was great. The salad, dressed table-side was a nice start. I have never had better garlic bread. Sean’s steak was on point and my fish and chips suited my craving for comfort and simplicity. The kids all found things to eat and they liked their mocktails. It was a pleasant respite in a day full of false starts and crummy weather.

Urban Lights at LACMA

After Damon’s, we drove over to the LACMA (Los Angeles County Museum of Art) to take a few photos of the Urban Light sculpture outside. The sculpture, installed in 2008, makes use of 202 street lamps that would have been in use on Southern California in the 1920s and 1930s. The kids had fun bouncing around among the lights and taking photos.

Day 5 – Wayfarer’s Chapel, Aquarium of the Pacific 

We had to check out of our North Hollywood hotel today. The night before, we had packed everything up, dirty clothes in one suitcase, clean in the other with plans to do another load of laundry that evening at the next hotel. We skipped hotel breakfast this morning in favor of hitting Steve’s Charburger in Torrance on our way toward Long Beach. We had heard that was the place to get California’s famed breakfast burritos.

Maya and Ian were able to get big plates of bacon and eggs, which is happy for them. Sean and I decided to split a breakfast burrito (those things are huge). Everything was good – really good. But I’m gonna be honest here – I think I personally prefer the breakfast tacos I get around here. Maybe it’s just what I’m used to. I did like the pickled pepper stuff that we got to dump liberally onto our burrito as we ate it. So much yum.

Wayfarer’s Chapel

From there, we drove on to Wayfarer’s Chapel. Again, I betcha that drive near the coast was gorgeous, but aside from an occasional hazy glimpse of some waves crashing amongst craggy rocks, we saw none of it for the seemingly ever-present mist. Wayfarer’s itself was a stunner too, though again, it would have been nicer to see without a shroud of mist. The chapel was designed by Lloyd Wright, who happens to be Frank Lloyd Wright’s son.

Wayfarer’s Chapel

Next we were bound for Aquarium of the Pacific. Bird flu closed some of the exhibits. The weather pushed us to opt out of a whale-watching cruise. But nonetheless, the aquarium was fun.

Touching jellyfish! Apparently their stings were too small to impact human skin

The kids (and maybe the grown ups as well) got to touch rays and horseshoe craps and jellyfish. We got to see puffins and sea lions and harbor seals. There was a giant Pacific octopus for Maya and lots of weird frogs for Ian. And there were so, so many colorful fish!

Giant Japanese Spider Crab

Our breakfast was wearing off, so we wandered over to a nearby taco truck – Pepe’s Red Tacos – to have birria tacos. Another solid taco truck experience!

So much color!

We had wanted to visit the Queen Mary as well while we were in Long Beach. Visitation had been shut down with the onset of COVID, and other than a small trial run, it seems to have not restarted yet when we were there (update: tours are now bookable – hooray for a future visit someday). Queen Mary started life in 1936 as a fancy ocean liner, carrying celebrities and notables. Then she was transformed into a trooper carrying vessel during World War II. After WWII, she was again transformed back into a passenger vessel till her docking in 1967. We drove around a bit and looked at the ship – it is immense – but since we couldn’t really visit, we packed it in and headed to Anaheim instead.

Lego sculptures seen on our walk to Trader Sam’s

The driving force behind our trip to LA was of course the two Disney parks located there.  We started our Disney adventure a little bit on this first night. We had booked a reservation for that evening at Trader Sam’s Enchanted Tiki Bar. They wound up being about a half hour late seating us (which was frustrating because 1 – we were hungry and 2 – we needed to get back to knock out some laundry before our upcoming big Disney days.

Trader Sam’s Enchanted Tiki Bar

All was forgiven though once we were seated. The vibe was relaxed, fun, even borderline silly. The bar is based around The Jungle Cruise attraction. Its decor was as kooky tropical as you’d expect from a tiki bar. But Disney pushed it a little further. Depending on what drinks were ordered, different theatrics would occur in the bar. A volcano might erupt on the LED window. A storm may be brewing, complete with a dash of rain. An order for the Uh-Oa! gets some chanting. We weren’t at the bar, so we didn’t experience it firsthand, but Sean tells me that if you order the right drink, you’ll find your barstool lowering itself as you imbibe.

Tangaroa Cooler

The drinks were top notch. I had the Tangaroa Cooler – a gin based drink, and Sean had the HippopotoMai-Tai. The kids tried a couple of the “No-Booze Brews.” Between the two of them, we got to try all three of the nonalcoholic drinks: Skipper Sipper, Schweitzer Falls, and Polynesian Punch. The food was really good too. I had their Poke Bowl. Sean and Ian tried out the Tonkotsu Ramen. And Maya had …………. chicken fingers. Sean ended his evening with a Zambezi Sour, which was made with bourbon! We sprung for the souvenir mugs that our first two drinks came in. These are not cheap plastic junk – these are real mugs. So much fun!

HippopotoMai-Tai

We rolled back into the hotel later than intended, but I planned to power through it to get our laundry done. Alas, the hotel had other plans. Apparently laundry isn’t allowed after 10p, and just to make sure no one breaks any rules, they don’t allow access to the laundry room after 10 either. And that’s the story of how I was hand washing socks and underwear in a hotel sink. Wheeeee.

Day 6 – Disney California Adventure

Dr. Pym’s Giant Pretzels

Day 7 – Disneyland

The Happiest Post on Earth

Day 8 – Disney California Adventure, Huntington 

No Capes!

After spending the morning at Disney California Adventure, we collected our car from the hotel parking lot and headed northward to Pasadena to visit The Huntington. This massive area encompasses sprawling botanical gardens, a huge library, and an art museum besides. After having spent the previous two days plus the entire morning visiting Disney, we our stamina was limited, but we intended to soldier on.

Rainbow tunnel at the Children’s Garden at the Huntington

We started out our visit letting the kids run a bit in the Children’s Garden. There were fun tunnels of vegetation to run through, and they played with misters and tried to “catch the water” from intermittently spurting fountains.

Cinderella’s carriage

After they had run their sillies out a bit, we wandered inside to see the special traveling exhibit, “Inspiring Walt Disney: The Animation of French Decorative Arts.” It was an oddly wide-ranging exhibit, difficult to summarize. I particularly enjoyed the portions of the exhibit focusing on bringing inanimate objects to life and giving them character. The candelabra, teapot, and tea cup from Beauty and the Beast are obvious examples. But also, the flying carpet from Aladdin, who didn’t speak and so had only gestures and actions to indicate mood and to communicate. I also liked that they spotlighted the emergence of some talented (and for the time “barrier-breaking”) female artists, Mary Blair (of It’s a Small World fame) prominent among them.

Giving personality to a flying carpet

Ever the Disney historian, Sean wound up purchasing a book, also titled, “Inspiring Walt Disney: The Animation of French Decorative Arts” that essentially catalogs all that the exhibit has to offer.

Moon gate

After all this art, the kids needed to be outside again. We explored the Chinese Garden next. Maya, who’s studying a bit of Mandarin language and Chinese culture as a standard part of 4th grade at her elementary school, gave us the low down on the animals at the entryway and on the moon gates that we encountered. The day was pretty and not hot, so it was lovely to be outside. The gardens, despite being busy, still managed to be serene from time to time.

So serene, even with the crowds

We next walked through the Japanese Garden where we got to see the cherry blossoms. Again, we managed to find tiny slices of serenity here and there. Koi and turtles near the bridge. Uniquely sculptured trees. Gentle herby scents. It was nice.

We were all feeling a little worn down, but we decided we needed to at least visit the library before leaving, and I’m so glad we did! I could have spent an hour wandering through and reading the information on the manuscripts on display.

Gutenberg Bible

There was a Gutenberg Bible! But what was better still is that it was shown in context to earlier hand-written and illuminated texts. The notion that moveable type and printing presses would make it such that books could be available to more than just the very rich was presented.

Cedar Waxwing – as prepared by John James Audubon

Maya, our bird lover, was delighted to discover a full-size Audubon’s Birds of America, turned to one of her favorites, a cedar waxwing. The book had to be so large because Audubon wanted to render each bird at its actual size.

Mazesoba before mixing

At long last, it was time to leave the Huntington and head out to find dinner. We already had a place in mind. Sean had been watching a few videos to suss out where we might try to eat while we were there. One “must-do” on our list was Menya Hanabi. This is a “dry ramen” meaning there is no broth. Instead a bowl of noodles arrives at your table decked out with piles of minced and very flavorful pork, green onions, ajitama eggs, and a raw egg yolk, among other things. Sean observed that at the other tables, the patrons were furiously mixing their noodles up with all the goods, so we did likewise (except I gave Ian my sheets of nori / dried seaweed since he’ll actually eat those).

Those noodles were incredible. We opted for the spicy version and while I was sniffling a bit through my dinner, I’m so glad we did. Delicious! The texture was pleasantly creamy, a lovely contrast to the bright green onions and piquant spice. We ate ourselves stupidly full. Then at the end they offered us some white rice to soak up the liquid that had settled to the bottom of the bowl. We sadly had to pass – neither of us could eat another ounce!

After this we headed all the way to our last hotel, which we strategically chose near the airport so we’d have an easy time of it on our travel day. Finally I had access to a washer and dryer! We could have some clean clothes for the next couple days. The funny bit to me was that if I wanted the clothes only medium dry, the cost was as posted at the door. If I wanted them extra dry, well, that cost an extra quarter.

Day 9 – Mulholland Drive, Walt Disney Concert Hall, Griffith Observatory 

The weather was not especially in our favor again on our final full day in Los Angeles, but it was clearer than it had been the first time we took a crack at our scenic drive, so we gave it another shot – off to Mulholland Drive!

Hollywood Bowl in the foreground, Los Angeles in the background

I wrote down the names of the various overlooks (Stone Canyon, Barbara A Fine, and Nancy H Pohl were among them), and they were all lovely even with the overcast skies. But my favorite two were the Universal City Overlook (where you could see, among other things, the Hogwarts castle at Universal Studios) and the Jerome C. Daniel Overlook where you could really see the Los Angeles skyline with the Hollywood Bowl in the foreground.

Dino’s Famous Chicken

We dropped in at Dino’s Famous Chicken for lunch after our drive. Ian had dutifully tolerated a whole scenic drive with no access to a bathroom, knowing that he’d get one at our lunch place. And then when we got there – no bathroom! Oh well, at least the chicken was good and I loved the pickled chiles they served alongside.

Walt Disney Concert Hall

Next, we went back to the Walt Disney Concert Hall to partake of a self-guided tour. I know, I know, a tour of a concert hall sounds incredibly dull (our kids wholeheartedly agree), but honestly it was pretty interesting, and it’s such a unique building, it’s hard not to want to know more about its structure and functionality.

At the Griffith Observatory

After our concert hall tour, we did something more to the kids’ liking – we went to the Griffith Observatory. Here, finally, we got a few decent photos of the famed Hollywood sign. The kids, once we arrived, were almost immediately engaged in watching a huge Foucault pendulum. The pendulum is meant to demonstrate the rotation of the earth – it swings in a constant direction while the earth rotates beneath it. This pendulum knocks a peg over about every 7 minutes, I think, and we watched until we got to see one fall.

Waiting … waiting … waiting … at the Foucault pendulum

As we were wandering over to check the schedule for when the Tesla Coil demonstrations were happening, we noticed one was about to start. We warned Maya (who is very noise sensitive) that it might be a little loud. We needn’t have worried though. Both kids handled it all very well, listening semi-patiently as its history and operation were explained to us and then watching as several times the observatory staff member created lightning for us.

Tesla coil

Next we bought tickets for the Signs of Life planetarium show. This is not the planetarium show of my youth. This was high-definition, intense, and immersive. We went to Mars, we traveled through space, we were there for the Big Bang. Honestly, this was rougher on Maya’s sensitive ears than the Tesla Coil. Ian, however, was completely entranced. We may have a little astronaut on our hands.

Ian at the Griffith Observatory

After the show, we wandered out into the jam-packed hallways and were sort of overwhelmed. We found a dark, quiet exhibit off to the side and tried to figure out what we’d like to do next. Luckily, a friendly observatory staff member saw us struggling and came to our assistance. After Ian told her how much he liked the planetarium show, she seemed to know just what to do with us. First, we needed to come with her to check something out.

Rainy at the Griffith Observatory

We followed her out of the building, through the rain and into another part of the building. There, from behind a desk was revealed three interesting objects. One of them was a meteorite – could we guess which one? The meteorite (which none of us thought to photo) was alarmingly heavy and weirdly smooth. Turns out, is was a piece of the meteorite that formed the Barringer Crater out in Arizona some 50,000 years ago.

You can almost imagine Iron Man chilling out in the doughnut hole

We finished our visit by scanning through various exhibits and checking how much we’d weigh on different planets. We didn’t stay long enough to get to use the public telescopes; I think everyone was pretty tired by then. We headed back down to our car and tried (and failed) to find food. In the end we spent a really long time in line to pick up some Randy’s Donuts before grabbing easy takeout on our way back to the hotel, where we proceeded to spend the rest of our short evening cleaning up and packing while the kids vegged out and watched TV.

Day 10 – Heading Home 

I don’t remember the flight home the next day being particularly difficult or eventful. Of course spending the whole day traveling from two time zones away was a little confusing for bodies who had to go to school and work immediately the next day, but we powered through it.

Maya and Ian in Newt Scamander’s briefcase during our Warner Brothers Studio tour

I really enjoyed our Los Angeles trip. If I had had to drive (and park!) instead of Sean, I’m not sure I’d have had as good a time, but he handles that stuff like a pro. The weather wasn’t perfect and consequently, we couldn’t really squeeze in everything we wanted to do and see, but I’m thankful that we had really nice weather for all our amusement park days. We got to see where (and a little bit how) movies are made. Got to see stars on Hollywood Blvd and at the Griffith Observatory. We rode roller coasters and sang It’s a Small World After All. We saw sea creatures, and a giant boat, and artwork both old and new. There was interesting architecture all around us and plenty of delicious and varied food to eat. All in all, we had a nice spring break.

  

Our March was jam-packed with activities. And I took so long trying to write up our mid-month vacation that April is nearly over before I’m posting about March!

Maya on the soccer field

Maya and Ian both started their spring soccer seasons. Maya is on the same team she’s been with for the past two seasons. The coaches are funny and patient and overwhelmingly positive. Maya’s teammates are likewise a good group of kids. We are very fortunate.

Soccer Ian

Ian is trying out a new team. Last season’s team were like a well-oiled machine, and it often seemed like a machine that Ian didn’t fit into very well. This new team I think is working out better. The kids’ experience level is closer to Ian’s and so they’re kind of all developing together.

Ian practices one might a week, Maya two nights a week, and they both have games on the weekends. Between that and their instrument lessons and practice and the after-school groups they’re both involved in (on different days, of course), it seems sometimes we do little more than whatever activities they’re wrapped up in.

Ian – 2nd grade – spring

Maya and Ian had school photos in early March. This time, like during the pandemic times, they took photos outside. I love having their photos out in natural light and again I think they turned out so nicely.

Maya – 4th grade – spring

I have been having some progressively worse pain in my lower back, honestly for the past couple years. Finally, I have gone to see an orthopedist about it, and sure enough, an x-ray showed disc degeneration. The first thing to do is physical therapy and assuming physical therapy doesn’t fix it, then we do an MRI to see what other options there are. So, add to the soccer and the music and the school things a once a week visit at the office for PT and daily 45-50 minute PT sessions at home.

We all breathed a little sigh of relief when it was time to go on our spring break vacation to sunny Los Angeles, California wherein amongst many other things, Sean got to take us to Disneyland and Disney California Adventure! We have possibly too many photos and I certainly spent WAY too many words describing our trip, so that’s all in a separate post, which can be found here (and there are sub-posts within *that* to separate out the Disney madness).

Tolerating our photos, as usual

After vacation, we dove immediately back into our crazy schedule, but we did manage to carve out a little slice of time to go take photos of the kids in the bluebonnets. The wildflowers were absolutely incredible this year. Presumably because we had a decent amount of rain this spring even seeds that laid dormant during last year’s horrible drought managed to germinate. It was quite the showing.

The big deal event in February was a huge ice storm that rolled through our part of Texas. Even after the big snow and ice event in February 2021 that essentially shut down the whole state, I still tend to roll my eyes when the dire news stories predicting winter weather  come up. Call it twenty-some years of local experience. Given this, we had a good chuckle when the kids had a snow day on January 31st for a storm that had been predicted.

Icicles on Maya’s hummingbird lawn decoration

As I recall, they spent the day playing, often outside, because there was no “weather” to be had. Ha, ha, ha – silly Texas. That was Tuesday. By Wednesday morning, the joke was over. We woke up to no power and crashing noises coming from outside. A beautiful, glistening layer of ice had coated all the vegetation and the vehicles. The trees had already been stressed by the severe drought all through this past year; the branches snapped under the weight of the ice. The kids absolutely begged to play outside so they could examine the ice, but of course we wouldn’t let them, instead pointing out the crashing noises and showing them when fresh limbs had fallen.

Our neighbor’s fallen tree

At one point, in our neighbor’s yard, an entire tree fell over. Sean was estimating it was maybe 40-feet tall, and it just crashed under the weight of the ice, root ball pulled up from the ground. Thankfully it fell toward the street, and not toward the houses. It did however attempt to take out a couple of crape myrtles out of the row of them that provides erosion control and some division between the neighbor’s yard and ours. We’re predicting that they’ll survive.

We watched a number of cars turn down our street, and then turn right back around again.

We spent the day consuming food that either required no real preparation or that could be heated up on the camp stove out in the garage. We made sure we had collected up our flashlights and lanterns for the evening, and that sleeping bags were deployed throughout the house for extra warmth. It wasn’t nearly as cold as it had been a couple years ago – maybe 30 degrees F, give or take – but it still got cold in the house.

Cedar Waxwing

One of the highlights of the day was discovering that an absolute flock of cedar waxwings had descended on our icy holly tree, plucking away at its frozen red berries. They are such beautiful birds. Sean tried to sneak out and capture a photograph for Maya the bird-lover, but the birds didn’t make it easy. Regardless, Maya and I stood at the window and watched them for several minutes. She rushed to write notes about it in her Bird Nerd journal.

The view from our front porch on day 2. Believe it or not, it got worse.

On Thursday, we again woke to no power and more crashing sounds. I can’t remember exactly when all the waves of ice and sleet occurred, but the weight on the trees just kept growing and growing. It was both miserable and fascinating to watch as upright trees just kept bending lower and lower. I do not love crape myrtles – they’re pretty but over-planted in our part of the world – but we have a huge one in the back yard that has grown so large that it had become interesting. The silly thing is probably 25-30 feet tall, and its limbs bent all the way over to the ground, many of them breaking off, much to my disappointment.

Big Crape Myrtle bending under ice weight. This is on day one – no limbs had broken yet. On days 2 and 3, many limbs broke under the ice weight – some of them quite large.

The surface roads didn’t seem icy, so we cleared fallen branches from the driveway and Sean carefully wormed his way out between the bent over trees. The goal was to head to Home Depot to see if there were any chainsaws. Clearly we were going to need one. Of course, there were no chainsaws – as is usual, other folks were a bit faster on the uptake than us. But, on his way home, Sean bought hot chicken biscuits and hot coffee. It was amazing! Warm food that hadn’t been cooked in the garage – I’ll take it!

Had to clear brush and angle the car just right to get around the bent trees, but the surface roads were, thankfully, clear.

There wasn’t a whole lot to do, so we spent some time sorting through the contents of  old boxes – some of which possibly hadn’t been looked at since we moved into this house in 2005. The kids kept each other occupied – we wouldn’t let them have their devices till it got dark and we wouldn’t let them outside except on the front porch, so it was maybe a little boring for them.

Somewhere along the line, I was milling around by the back windows just at the right moment to see our neighbor’s very tall, very unhealthy cedar tree crash down and take out a couple sections of our fence. The fence needed replacing anyway, and now I don’t have to worry that their sick tree will fall on any new fence we have put in, but I don’t love having our hand forced. At this time, the fence remains un-replaced, but it’ll need to be dealt with soon.

Ice chunks falling as the temperature warmed a bit.

Later in the day, the temperature had warmed a bit and chunks of ice started falling from the trees, like slow-motion hail. It was weird.

That evening, we cautiously drove out to visit our friends and the warmth and light of their powered house. It felt incredibly odd and a bit dangerous to drive around the suburbs and highways of a largish city when sections of street lights and traffic lights are out and there are piles of limbs and / or bent over trees looming about.

Hanging out with our friends was such a wonderful diversion. They let us charge devices and the kids all played together for a little while. We ate dinner and had drinks and chit-chatted as if the city weren’t in a shambles. It was a welcome break in what had become, after only two days, a tedious pattern of cold and dark and destruction.

The difficulty with these things is not having any idea how long you’ll have to manage. When we originally went dark, the power company thought they might have things restored by sometime Friday. Yuck, but we can deal with that. Somewhere along the line, as more trees and limbs fell on power lines, and the clean-up effort grew and grew, the update from the power company became something akin to: this is bigger than we realized – we’re trying our best.

On Friday – my birthday – limbs were still coming down. If I remember correctly, there had been another wave of ice accumulation overnight. We had one poor tree in the front yard that basically lost all of its limbs – now it’s mostly just trunk and hope. We’ll see what comes of it. Later in the day, as things started to thaw, still more limbs began falling – maybe the ice had been keeping them in place.

Our uncommonly well-behaved children at my birthday dinner.

In sunnier days, I had made myself a dinner reservation for that evening. Generally speaking, I no longer choose places that I specifically want to try out. I instead select places that will result in a minimum amount of grumbling from the kids. It turns out, I’ll choose a no-drama meal over one prepared by a much-loved chef or a novel new restaurant. The meal was, in fact, pleasantly devoid of drama. The food was nice enough. There was a bit of live music. And they had light and heat, which we didn’t yet have at home.

Us uncommonly well-behaved adults at my birthday dinner.

It was a bit sad to again come home to a cold dark house, but on our way, we saw crews out working in our neighborhood in the pitch dark trying to get power restored. I can’t imagine how difficult their jobs were. We settled into our covers and the kids messed with their devices for a while. We had just sent them to bed, I think, when the power came back on! This was around 10:20p, and other than a flicker here and there, it stayed on!

I later learned that while we might envy those that never lost power and didn’t have to hang out in the dark and didn’t have to throw out spoiled food and run around town to keep devices charged, we were luckier than many. Some people were without power for as much as 10-12 days, with slow restorations happening throughout that period. There’s been a big kerfuffle with many of the city’s residents and elected officials decrying the poor management and poor communication during this particular crisis. Maybe that’s true, but I can also say, in 23-24 years of living here, we’ve never seen ice destruction like this – not even close. Whole trees are down – how does vegetation management around power lines account for whole trees falling over? No estimate for when electricity will be restored – I’m not sure how they could do that except case by case, there were so many lines down. I’m not sure there’s a villain here.

Our hard-working kids in front of the giant brush pile from Arborgeddon. And we by far didn’t have the worst of it.

They’re calling this event Arborgeddon for the sheer destruction that’s been rained down on these poor trees. I’ve heard it said now multiple times, “It’s tough to be an oak in Texas.” We borrowed a chainsaw and pruning saw from a friend and spent literally all day Sunday dealing with fallen and dangling and broken branches. The kids did an excellent job helping us, and it still took all day, and the entire front of our yard is piled up with stacked limbs. On February 6th, I opened a ticket with the city for brush collection. I read a recent news story that the city hoped to have all the brush picked up by the end of April.

Valentina! Maybe the kids’ favorite part of Corteo.

Quite a while ago, Sean had purchased tickets to see the Cirque du Soleil show Corteo when it came through Austin. Thankfully, luckily, the ice was mostly behind us at this point, and we were able to attend the show. The show was, as always, amazing. The music is performed live while you watch, and we had fun pointing that out to the kids. The performers and set pieces are incredible. The kids were particularly taken by Valentina, a small person who floated among the crowd dangling from giant balloons. She bounced through the crowd and people would raise their hands and push her skyward so she could make her way all the way up the auditorium and back down to the stage. Ian was disappointed that he didn’t personally get to help Valentina stay aloft.

More Corteo

Later that day, we threw out our spoiled food and restocked the fridge. We were astonished to find that daffodils, who’s buds had appeared to freeze solid during the storm, were thawed and opening! Amidst all the broken branches and dead plant life, bright yellow blooms glowed.

That Monday, after a very strange week, we all went back to work and school! And then our schedule proceeded to fill up (or more accurately, the kids’ schedules filled up). The week of the 7th, the kids both started once per week after school basketball. The week of the 13th, both kids started their soccer practices for the season – Ian once a week, Maya twice a week. Both kids have signed up for after school music programs – Maya a music memory club, Ian a performance group – these both meet once a week on different days. This is all in addition to the weekly instrument lessons they’ve been doing for years. The weekends will start filling with soccer games for two different kids. It was never our intention to over schedule our lives like this, but somehow it happened anyway.

Ian’s Valentine’s Day box

The weekend before Valentines day, the kids spent time writing out valentines for their classmates and decorating “mailboxes” for the cards. Ian’s featured a cute dog, and Maya’s was, incredibly, an octopus! She will never throw that box away – it will move into her first house with her.

Maya’s Valentine’s Day box.

Maya and Ian were also delighted to have received kid-sized, Pokemon-themed fleece blankets – perfect for snuggling up on the couch and playing with iPads.

Through a variety of HEB coupons here and there, we wound up having a couple varieties of dipping chocolate in the cabinet. I had already tried out the new cookie press I received for Christmas and made little heart-shaped butter cookies for us. Then we upped the ante by dipping those little guys in chocolate. We also tried out pretzels and potato chips, all to delightful effect. This worked so well, we went traditional and bought some strawberries and tried those out too.

The new mural at Davis

The kids’ elementary school recently installed a new mosaic mural. The artist they commissioned is Ryah Christensen, and she involved the kids in making the various tiles and things they used to create the piece. Maya made a small fish. I asked Ian what he made and he kind of shrugged and said he worked on some kelp.

Maya’s fish

Thankfully the mural still features an octopus, but unfortunately, Maya didn’t get to work on that part. There are several hundred kids at school – they can’t possibly all get the part they want – but it’s incredibly neat that they were able to participate in the mural’s creation. That mural is amazing!

We took the kids to the Drafthouse to watch Ant-Man and the Wasp: Quantumania I think the weekend after it came out, and they LOVED it. It was not a great movie, but it was a lot of fun and the kids had full-on belly laughs going more than once.

Maya’s dragon is guarding our yard from wayward armadillos

Toward the end of the month, while Sean and Ian were at a group guitar lesson, Maya and I went and bought some pepper, cucumber, and tomatillo plants for our little container garden in the back yard. Spring has already sprung her in Central Texas – gotta give the plants a fighting chance to establish a good root system before the hell-like summer starts (late April / early May probably). While we were at it, we moved Maya’s cool stone dragon to the outdoors so he could keep an eye on things. With any luck, he’ll scare away the armadillos – unlikely, but it’s fun to imagine anyway.

January was a delightfully quiet month. As most probably do after the holidays, we really needed it. We found homes more or less for all the Christmas gifts. We worked on art projects. We worked on 2023 vacation planning, which is always fun. In short, we took a breath.

Maya painting her new stone dragon. We need to find a home for him in the yard.

Our high level vacation plan for this year was as follows: spring break in Los Angeles, Memorial Day week visiting the kids’ grandparents, Fourth of July week (maybe more than a week) visiting Boston and Maine, and Thanksgiving week in Mexico. Due to a lapse in memory for booking a much-desired excursion, the trip to Maine will need to be postponed till next year. No word yet on what a backfill will be, though we’ve discussed several options for a driving trip.

Ian is gentle enough for Lumos to tolerate from time to time.

The real shake up came around mid to late month. One of Sean’s coworkers had two cats, one of whom became sick with FIC. To reduce the stress on her sick cat, she began searching for a home for her other cat. We are, as always, suckers for a hard luck case. And so we became the caretakers of a fourth cat – Cheech.

Cheech! Big Chungus! Chungus Among Us! Chicharron! Bustopher Jones!

Cheech is a sturdy fellow; he’s clearly not missed many meals. Maya almost immediately took to calling him Big Chungus. I almost immediately took to calling him Chicharron. After being utterly terrified by his radical shift in lifestyle and venue for a couple of days, Cheech decided he wanted attention. He danced around for scratches and pats. He played with the toys his person had left with him.

Two extremely cute things we’ve discovered about Cheech … 1 – He likes to snuggle himself under the bedclothes. Often, we’ll find a lump in our bed, sometimes butted up against one of the other cats who are sitting atop the blankets, and there’s Cheech, snug as a bug. 2 – And this is a good one – dude plays fetch. He’ll wander the house with a toy in his mouth, mrowring for all he’s worth (can’t get out a proper “meow” with a mouth full of toy), and drop said toy by your feet. You chuck it across the house, and he tears off after it, and then, astonishingly, he brings it back and drops it at your feet to do all over again. Velvet used to bring you a string toy so you’d play with her, but never did she play fetch. This is new for us.

Here, little bitty Nox isn’t allowing Cheech to exit the office

Cheech is still settling into the house. I can’t tell if he wants to be friends with the other cats or not. We’re 90% sure he’s not being aggressive, but, as Sean puts it, Cheech has no boundaries and doesn’t pick up on social cues. He wants to check out Lumos’s favorite hiding spots, but he hasn’t picked up on the fact that her hissing means she doesn’t want him there. It’s caused a bit of unrest in the household, but hopefully time will even that out. Cheech has learned that he should be wary of Nox. His fellow black cat is half his size, but she tolerates very little and has made this known often enough that Chicharron seems to have gotten the message.

Disney pin boards and a Hank in a box

And honestly, that’s our January. Resting up from our October, November, and December and welcoming a surprise new cat into our house. Heads up – I’m not sending holiday cards out this year. It just became too much on top of everything else and so I just didn’t do it. If you didn’t get a card, don’t take it as a personal slight. Maybe I’ll get a wild hair and send cards out at some other random time of the year. Maybe not!

We didn’t even spend a week in Disney World this year and December was STILL more busy than I can even begin to describe. I feel like we packed nearly every minute with one activity or another. And even after making the choice to send out Happy New Year cards instead of Merry Christmas cards, as of today, I still haven’t gotten around to it.

Maya had joined an after school choir group, and one of the things they did was some Christmas caroling. This started with a little performance for the Balcones Woods community. Maya and her choir-mates sang through holiday songs from around the world. She seemed to be enjoying the singing, but probably the cookies afterward were her favorite part. They had plans to sing elsewhere, but I think the weather limited them to caroling around their school.

Mrs Claus had to take a selfie

We spent Sean’s actual birthday in Marble Falls, checking out the town and the lights and getting in our visit with Santa Claus. The town was nice enough, but if you aren’t a big shopper, it seemed like there wasn’t much to do. We had lunch at Bear King Brewing and sampled their seasonal Milkyway beer – a chocolate marshmallow stout that the adults really enjoyed. We wandered over to Ms Lollipop’s to tell the kids “no” a lot when they wanted to buy all the random and super-fun looking toys, and to have really delicious ice cream with Santa and Mrs Claus.

Walkway of Lights at Marble Falls

We whiled away the time till dark, and then took a spin around the Walkway of Lights. Partway through, the kids got to see Santa and Mrs. Claus again and had a moment to discuss with them what they might like for Christmas. They also learned that Santa would enjoy chocolate chip cookies this year.

Pedernales Electric Coop lights in Johnson City

We enjoyed the light display well enough, but I did a little looking and it seemed that if we went only 20 minutes out of our way, we could see the Christmas lights and Pedernales Electric Coop in Johnson City “on our way home.” I don’t think anyone regrets this decision. They coat their trees in myriad white and blue lights and the effect is honestly magical. Even our sour-faced kids who just wanted to go home couldn’t help but ooo and aaaah at it. It was very crowded and a little hard to catch decent photos, but that didn’t dampen our collective spirit at all.

Happy birthday, Dad!

The next day we celebrated Sean’s birthday. We baked him his favorite chocolate malt cake, made pot roast (one of his favorites), and presented him with gifts and hugs.

Most of what Maya’s choir group was working on was a performance of a musical called Press Start. The kids had to audition for the parts they got and while Maya didn’t get the role she originally wanted, she did manage to get one of the speaking parts. The musical takes place in the world of video games, perfect for our little screen junky. She wound up being a robot dog called K9, and while she was initially upset about the assignment, she came around pretty quickly and did her best to fill the role. She especially liked the songs, though I think she did a wonderful job delivering her lines as well. She tells us she’d like to participate in more musicals.

K9, the robot dog – I sewed that tail onto the robot costume – life is weird sometimes

Through most of the semester, they’d been having weekly practices, but leading up to performance night, they had a two-hour practice on Saturday followed by nightly one-hour practices after school. It was intense. It paid off though – the kids did great! They performed the show twice at school, once for the younger kids, once for the older kids. And then that evening, they did it again for all the parents. Whew! Everyone worked so hard.

The following weekend, Ian and Maya both had recitals. After the closure of the Monarch Suzuki Academy, they are now at two different music schools, so we went to two separate recitals. Maya’s was at a downtown church. As is her habit, she was really excited till she got there and then the nerves hit her. Plus, because she’s one of the older kids, her performance is toward the end of the recital, so she had plenty of time for the apprehension to build before she finally got to play. Luckily, after a rough initial start, she pulled it together and played beautifully, as always.

Ian’s recital was the next day at a local coffee shop. For the first time ever, he’d be playing on a real stage and he’d have to have a microphone by his guitar so that everyone could hear what he was playing. When it was his turn, Ian also did a wonderful job. His guitar teacher accompanied with him and they stayed beautifully in sync through the performance. But Ian’s favorite part was that microphone. He was so excited.

Ian’s gingerbread treehouse

I had to jet off to Denver for a few days for work the following week. While I was gone, Sean hooked one of his full size guitars up to an amplifier and let Ian play. He was ecstatic – they sent me a video. Ian doesn’t just wanna play – he wants to play LOUD. Also while I was gone, Sean bravely took both the kids to get their COVID boosters – just in time for all the holiday travel!

Maya’s sugar cookie beach house

I know parents who bake lovely gingerbread and build beautiful handmade gingerbread houses out of that. We buy our kits from Target and let the kids do whatever they’re going to do. This year, Ian made a tree house and Maya made this kind of midcentury modern beach house. The kits aren’t expensive. The kids love them. And I don’t have to care if they sit around and dry out because I didn’t spend any time baking their constituent parts. Winning all the way around.

Maya’s pinecone ornaments

We decided to make pine cone ornaments this year for grandparent gifts. Did you know that, if there are no pinecones near you, you can purchase them from Amazon?? Anyhow, Maya and Ian had fun painting and assembling their various ornaments. Maya has also, after meeting Ryan the wire artist in Key West, has been dabbling in making wire art of her own. She made a few ornaments from wire to give as well.

Ian’s pinecone ornaments

Sean bought the kids cute Christmas doughnuts one weekend, because we needed more sugar like a hole in the head. They were adorable and the kids really liked them and if I didn’t know it before, I definitely know now that I’ve sadly aged out of being able to enjoy doughnuts for breakfast. My body just doesn’t want to deal with the sugar bomb first thing in the morning, I guess.

Ian is epic, no doubt

We celebrated Ian’s 8th birthday at a place called Urban Air. The kids can jump on trampolines, ride zip lines, play in ball pits, and on and on and on. This is exactly Ian’s kind of thing. I was worried attendance would be light since it was right before Christmas, but as the positive RSVPs started rolling in, I started to worry the room wouldn’t hold all the kids!

Snake cake

Ian wanted a snake cake and a reptile themed birthday party. I think this may have weirded out a few participants, but generally the kids seemed to have a lot of fun. Those kids played hard and hopefully slept well for their parents that evening.

We discussed with Trinket, our Elf on the Shelf, who must have passed along word to Santa, that we’d be leaving town to see our families over the holidays and would like to celebrate our Texas Christmas a little early. The kids woke up on the 22nd to a pile of gifts under the tree. Among all the goodies this year, we’re trying out a couple of “experiences, not stuff” options to see how they play out.

It might get loud

Mr Play-it-loud received his very own (not quite full size) electric guitar. Sean has moved an amplifier into his room and now he regularly jacks in and plays Thunderstruck at top volume. He tells us he has to turn it up loud so he can hear the distortion – a pedal or two may be in this kid’s future.

Commence outpouring of printed photos … now!

Maya received a photo printer, which she’s made liberal use of since receiving it. She’s forever asking us to print various photos for her, and we mean to, but never quite seem to get around to it. Now she doesn’t have to wait for us! The next step will be her learning to be a leeeeetle more selective about what she prints.

The kids had a day to play with their new stuff before we had to head out of town. We woke up on the 23rd to a fierce cold. It was a whopping 13 degrees outside, and that just doesn’t happen that often in central Texas.

We had a weird travel holiday. Months ago – last summer, I think – we had booked our flights from Austin to Memphis (to do the three-legged trip we’ve done in the past would have been prohibitively expensive). The trip there had maybe a 1.5 hour layover in Houston. Not long after we booked it, they had to change the second leg of the flight such that we now had a three hour layover and would arrive much later than anticipated in Memphis. We tried to finagle earlier flights, but we never managed it.

Then, a day or two before we were scheduled to fly out, they canceled the first leg of our trip. Sigh. Luckily, there was a later flight from Austin to Houston that would still get us there in time for our connection. This all went smoothly on travel day, believe it or not. Flights weren’t delayed. We made our connection. Got our luggage. All was hunky dory till we walked up to the rental car counter and found that it was dead-assed closed. Evidently they closed at 10p, and it was more like 10:30 or so when we arrived. We waited in line for three other car rental places and all told us they were low on inventory and couldn’t do same day rentals.

Because of our late arrival, we had already booked a hotel in the Memphis area to sleep in that night – thank goodness. We took an Uber to that hotel and first thing in the morning, Sean called our closed rental car place to try to make alternate arrangements. The nice lady set him up with a new reservation which, regrettably, was going to be more expensive. After eating a quick hotel breakfast, we Ubered back to the airport again to fetch our rental car. Sean discovered that this morning’s reservation wasn’t in their system, and at any rate they weren’t honoring same day reservations anyway. Luckily, they still had his original reservation in the system from the night before, so we were able to secure our rental car and at our original rate.

That poor car had been ridden hard. We learned later that it was a black car. This wasn’t at all apparent at the time, coated with dirt and snowmelt sludge as it was. But, our luggage fit in the trunk and there was a full tank of gas, so finally, we were on our way.

Helen and Harry made an Octo-pie

We rolled into Alabama around lunchtime and the kids happily disembarked from our filthy car. They had rolled with the weird travel punches pretty well, but they were clearly relieved to finally be at Lolli and Pop’s house.

Ian and Gumball

We mostly hung out at the house. The kids played with Lolli and Pop’s newly acquired stray, Gumball. And when Gumball got sick of being pestered, the kids played with each other. Sean and I did some last minute shopping and later that evening some last minute wrapping.

Grandparent grandkid pileup

Christmas Day was filled with gift unwrapping and lots of eating and lots of relaxing. Ian had gotten a hoverboard as a gift and so we had to learn how to ride it (he picked up very quickly and now regularly rolls around the house). Maya snuggled with her Minecraft cat neck pillow (it purrs and meows). They both snuck WAY too much Christmas candy, leading to Maya to make some very questionable decisions, “I had too much sugar; I wasn’t thinking clearly!”

Maya and her purring cat pillow

The day after Christmas, we all loaded up and went to watch Avatar: The Way of Water in 3D at the IMAX theater. Despite making about 2 billion visits to the bathroom with the kids, we managed to follow the story well enough. I was left with a similar impression as I had after watching the first film: it’s very pretty to look at but the story is kinda meh. The kids seemed to love it though.

On the 27th, we made the trek up to Friedheim to see Grammy and Grandpa. The weather was warming up and the roads were nice and clear, so the trip was fairly painless. We arrived in early evening and the kids made a mad dash to the downstairs to play. It’s hard to be cooped up in a car all day, even with screen time to entertain you.

We woke up the next morning and set about wrapping all the things – thankfully, everything arrived on time! I won’t tell you how late in the game we made some of those purchases though.

Snow in Missouri!

We also woke up to see that there was still a good bit of snow lingering on the ground. I warned the kids that it had warmed up and the snow would be gone soon, but even at that, they only lasted a few minutes outside before coming back in where it was warm.

After present wrapping and snow playing, we went to visit Uncle Bimps and Aunt Kay. We haven’t seen them in quite a long while, certainly not since they moved away from what I still think of as Grandma’s house, though she’s been dead for 30 years. Their new place is nice, and we had a pleasant, if short, visit before heading back for the big Schmidt Christmas.

It’s hard work getting them to pose for photos when there are presents lingering nearby

Carol always sets out a huge array of finger foods, and now she supplements with soup and sandwiches from Subway. We all basically linger in the kitchen and eat all afternoon with brief stops for photographs, gift unwrapping, and game playing. There were mountains of gifts under that tree. The grownups do a gift exchange, but none of us can resist buying for all the nieces and nephews. I won’t say it was total chaos, but it was all I could do to keep track of which gifts belonged to Maya and which to Ian.

Imos!

The next day, we drove up to Cape to eat at Imos (which Sean and I love) and see about trying the kids out on bowling. The pizza and toasted ravioli were lovely, as always, but the dang bowling alley was hopping! We’d be an hour or two waiting around to maybe get a lane. We abandoned this plan and headed back to the house for more playing and lounging.

It was during this time in Missouri that Sean and I started paying enough attention to the news to realize that Southwest Airlines was having an epic holiday travel meltdown. Thousands of flights were canceled, luggage and passengers stranded all over the place. It was horrible. We had a flight scheduled for the 31st with Southwest, and were honestly sweating it a little by this point. After our travel shenanigans coming into Memphis and decided to reserve a one-way car rental from Memphis to Austin, just in case our flight did wind up getting canceled. It would suck, but at least we’d be able to get home. And after our earlier adventures, we knew darn well that same-day car rentals would likely be unavailable.

Getting festive at The Bayou

We got some more relaxing in. Got all our various gifts shipped to Austin. Managed to have a fantastic dinner at a place called The Bayou. And got alllllllll of our stuff packed up and ready to go. We’d have to wake up early on the 31st to make the drive back to Memphis in time to catch our flight to Austin.

Everything went smoothly. Our drive was uneventful. Our flight wasn’t canceled and managed to be delayed only a little. We rolled into Austin and collected our luggage and got back to our car with a minimum of fuss and after a crazy week at the end of a crazy month, finally made it home. We all agreed that we didn’t feel one little bit like making ourselves stay awake till midnight, and so it was that by probably 10:30, the entire house was dead asleep.

Before Halloween, I had had the bright idea that we needed spooky cookies with sugar eyeballs. Sugar eyeballs were purchased and then sat unused as October was frittered away with activity after fun activity. And that’s the story of how we had Guy Fawkes Day spooky eyeball cookies instead! (Remember, remember, the 5th of November.)

Candy eyeballs are awesome

The kids finished out their soccer seasons and at least Ian got to celebrate with an end-of-season meet up at Hat Creek Burgers. Maya’s last game was pretty amazing. The team played really well together, and Maya herself was more focused and involved than her norm. It was a lot of fun to watch.

Maya is holding the team’s mascot, the Octo-corgi

We tried to make a fancy punch that needed oleo-saccharum as an ingredient. Making the oleo-saccharum worked as advertised, and the punch was tasty, though I’m not sure it was entirely worth the fuss. We have this hot gin punch that I honestly prefer (thank you, Holly), and it’s delicious hot or cold, so I’m inclined to make it instead.

First soccer season!

I did try to use my mini bundt pan to make large citrus ice cubes for floating in the punch bowl. The were pretty to look at and didn’t inordinately dilute the punch, so I think we’ll call it a win.

The kids are endlessly entertained by the notion that the squirrels are better gardeners than I am. Those creatures stay very busy planting corn and sunflowers from the bird feeders all over the yard. This year they even used my flower pots, and to show for it, I had a bold and lovely yellow sunflower towering over one of them. Well done, squirrels!

Petting the bunny at Dolphinfest

The kids had their annual Dolphinfest carnival around the middle of the month. This year we delighted in the fact that we could send the kids off to play on their own and just report back periodically. It was awesome. Sean and I could just kind of linger around and chitchat while the kids used their tickets however they chose. Maya’s preference was to play a softball toss game where she knocked over targets and got to choose a stuffed animal from the prize wall. Ian seemed to prefer the various bouncy houses that he could run and jump and slide in. There was even a small petting zoo at the carnival this year! Ian was sad there were no reptiles there.

Happy 10th birthday!

This year marks the post-COVID return of birthday parties. Maya’s birthday party was the day after Dolphinfest. She and her classmates gathered up at Pinballz arcade and played games, ate pizza, and drank soda to their hearts’ content. I was caught entirely off guard at how much fourth graders eat … and fast! We should almost certainly have ordered more pizza than we did. Either way, Maya loved her party and seems thrilled that so many of her classmates came to celebrate with her.

This girl is happy w her giant plate of shrimp

We had Maya’s birthday dinner on the 18th. She wanted to have fried shrimp at Pappadeaux, and so that’s what we did.

The very next day, we flew to Salt Lake City for our Moab vacation.This is one of the many things that we had to cancel in 2020, and I’m sad we put it off for so long. What a great trip!  As has become our habit, I’ve written a whole separate post on this vacation so I could yammer on for as long as I wanted and not belabor this post with those details.

Move over Clark Griswold – no windows were broken when we cut the rope to release the branches

We flew back into town on the 25th and right away on the 26th, we went out to find this year’s Christmas tree. They tell you not to fall in love with a house when you’re house hunting. They should tell you the same thing about Christmas trees. We went home with the biggest tree we’ve ever purchased – I think it was in the 10-11′ tall category. You should have seen the two of us trying to wrangle it into the house! It is lovely and glorious, and probably we won’t do that ever again. I shudder to think what it’s gonna be like getting the tree out of the house when its all dried out after the holidays.

We gotta stop meeting like this

And then Ian, who had just managed to survive a week’s worth of hikes in the Utah high desert unscathed, managed to cut his head open at school at the end of the month. Apparently there was a collision with another kid during recess that culminated in Ian’s head smacking into a piece of playground equipment. We went to an urgent care place instead of the children’s ER we had taken him to last time, and this was probably a mistake. They glued a wound that maybe ought to have been sutured, and they weren’t really able to manage his pain and anxiety very well. Lesson learned. The Dermabond stuff came off after only a couple days and what had been described to us as a 1 cm laceration was really more like a 1-inch laceration, and could have been longer. The cut was right along his hairline, and now you really even don’t see that it’s there unless you’re looking for it.

So there you go – that was November. I’m finally writing this as we’re right up against Christmas, so I’m *sure* I have all my details straight.

Remember how we were going to go with our “bubble family” to Moab to hike and hang out at the end of a shitty 2020. And with hospitals being full and beyond with suffering COVID patients at the time, we felt it would be irresponsible to travel and hike, even in an isolated way, and so like nearly everything else that year, the trip got canceled. Well, this year we finally got to go.

Loving each other for warmth – Balanced Rock in Arches NP.

The kids get a full week off for Thanksgiving, so we flew to Salt Lake City and drove nearly four hours from there to Moab, UT. It was afternoon when we landed, but the sun sets pretty early there this time of year, so we experienced most of the scenic drive between the two cities in the dark. After a stop in Provo for dinner at J’Dawgs and a bracing cold pit stop en route, we finally rolled into Moab just shy of 10 o’clock, Mountain Standard Time.

A word about our hotel. We stayed at a Homewood Suites right in town. It was nothing fancy but it suited our needs almost perfectly. They started serving a hot breakfast at 6:00. They had an indoor pool. Our fairly large room featured a small kitchen, and the kids got to sleep in bunk beds. Also, there was a really nice doughnut shop across the street, and the main part of town was an easy walk away.

Arches National Park was maybe a 10-12 minute drive away from us, so that’s where we started our adventure the next day. Maya is in fourth grade this year, so we took advantage of the Every Kid Outdoors program. I had filled out the form and procured a paper pass while we were still in Austin. At the entrance to Arches, we traded it for a nice plastic pass that Maya can wear on a lanyard.

We started slow with a quick walk to Balanced Rock. It was a brisk 18 degrees F out at the time, and the kids weren’t super impressed with that part. As soon as we were near the rock, Ian went perpendicular to the trail and started scampering around in the sandstone. Being a not-quite-eight-year-old, Ian has no sense of his own mortality, so we discussed the balance between independence and caution. Probably it leaked out of his brain almost faster than it was going in.

Double Arch

We drove out to a series of trails leading to Double Arch, the North and South Windows, and Turret Arch. Here Ian’s impulse to bulldoze ahead of his grown-ups was a little more dangerous. He has an independent streak about a mile wide and he’s really nimble, but those things can get him into positions he can’t easily get out of. Also, he learned that if you climb up something, you also have to climb back down, and believe it or not, down is often scarier. Add to that that his listening parts aren’t always 100% functional, and you have a recipe for a stressful hike.

We spent long enough here that we needed a snack before carrying on, but then we made our way to the easy Sand Dune Arch hike. Even with all the people, this one was almost peaceful. You wander in the shadow of big sandstone fins, and the arch seems almost tucked away and hidden.

Sand Dune Arch

Our snacks were sustaining us, so we chose to head out to see Landscape Arch, the longest arch in North America. The park service’s website tells me that it has a light opening of 306 feet and that the arch is only 6 feet in diameter at its narrowest. In the 90s, a 60-foot-long chunk dropped from the underside of the arch. I read repeatedly in guidebooks for hikes, if you hear loud cracking sounds, get away from the rocks. Noted.

Landscape Arch

By the end of this hike, we were ravenous. There are no services within the park itself, so we drove back into Moab for late lunch / early dinner. We ate at Antica Forma, where we found friendly service and a delicious array of Italian food. Sean and the kids even sprung for dessert.

We ended our day with a walk through Park Avenue. Here, after a decent down stairs, we walked through a valley with sandstone formations towering over us on either side. The sun was setting and the colors, when not in shadow, were warm reddish-brown in the golden light. I think it was along this hike that Maya started deploying what became the signature commentary on this trip. I looked at here at one point and told her she was flirting with disaster. I explained what I meant and then she chuckled and said that no, she was twerking with disaster. She and Ian must have said it to each other a hundred times over the next few days, and they were rarely incorrect.

Sunrise – Turret Arch taken through the North Window

The next day we woke up and headed immediately out the door to catch sunrise. The kids and I puttered around at Double Arch again, while Sean enjoyed a kid-free scramble through the boulders to get sunrise shots of Turret Arch through the North Window opening. When Sean’s in his element, he doesn’t really feel time passing, and so by the time he was done, the kids were cold and grumbling about boredom and hunger. We headed back into town for a late breakfast. Then we loaded up our snacks and water and cameras and headed to the Arches visitor center to check in for our big deal hike of the trip – Fiery Furnace.

There are only two ways to see Fiery Furnace – either via a ranger-led hike or by applying for a permit for a self-guided hike. This is a maze-like hike without any real “trail” through a land of sandstone fins, canyons, and boulders. There’s nothing to guide you but a series of difficult-to-spot arrows, and every piece of literature you encounter will warn you how easy it is to get lost. No maps are provided. Given all this, our original plan had been to take the ranger-guided hike. Alas, that was no longer an option in November.

These are the arrows meant to guide you along one possible route through the Fiery Furnace

I am a trail-hiker, through and through. I’m fine with a difficult trail, a long trail, a stupidly large elevation change, whatever. But I want a trail or series of rock cairns to follow. Even with all this, given the natural beauty we were sure to enjoy and the interesting challenge the hike presented, we eventually decided to give it a go, and I secured our reservation for a permit.

At the Arches visitor’s center, we learned how fragile the environment was. That we must avoid trampling any cryptobiotic crust by staying on rocks or sandy washes. The kids learned, to their delight, about poop bags (no pit toilets in Fiery Furnace, except at the trailhead). The ranger encouraged us, wherever we saw a sign that read, “Dead end,” to follow the path back beyond it because more often than not, it lead to interesting things.

The scenery did not suck

As an added measure of insurance that we’d make it to the end of the trail, we had also purchased an independently produced guide. We both had it loaded on our phones and could kind of match up rock formations and settings from time to time to feel confident we were on a path that would eventually get us through the hike. We have friends who went through without a ranger or a guide, and they did just fine. For us though, I’m glad to have had the comfort of a reference, albeit unofficial, for the hike.

Fiery Furnace hike

We did still explore many of those “dead end” paths – the kids took particular delight in going past the signs. One of the park rules is that no one under 5 is allowed on this hike. I’m completely impressed with any 5 year old that manages this. With our 10 and not quite 8 year old, it was challenging. There were squeezes, scrambles, and crawl-throughs. We sometimes had to jump across gaps between rocks, and you could really tell Maya was hesitant about these. There was at least one point where we kind of walked wedged between two cliff walls – hands on one side, feet on the other. Had it been me and Sean, I think it would have just been physically hard. Making sure the kids got through, from time to time, was a wee bit nerve-wracking. All that said, I’m so glad we went. I’ve never been on a hike quite like it and the scenery was incredible. Plus we’re all really proud of the things we managed to do.

We made it through the Fiery Furnace!

After that crazy hike, four tired and hungry Woodses headed directly to Moab Brewery in our sweaty clothes and red-dusty boots for early dinner. There were giant pretzels, beer cheese, fish and chips, house made root beer, actual beer and a whole lot of talking about our day. My only advice: don’t order the kid-size cheese pizza. Everything we ate was delicious and well-made … except that pizza. Thankfully Ian liked the fried fish in Sean’s and my dishes, so between fried fish and baked pretzel, little dude loaded up.

That pretzel didn’t know what hit it.

We had promised the kids pool time, and so after dinner, that’s were we went. I don’t know where they came up with energy for swimming – I could barely manage to sit upright in a chair to watch them, but they played in the hotel pool for about an hour that evening. I believe they both slept soundly that night though.

The next day, we were finally going to spend a little time at Canyonlands National Park. The closest entrance to Moab is to the Island in the Sky district, so that’s where we went. There are several different districts in the park, none of which are really connected by any roads, and while we wanted to come back another day and visit the Needles district, we simply ran out of time and energy on this vacation.

Carefully peeking through Mesa Arch at Canyonlands NP

“Island in the Sky” is a poetic description of the mesa you’re on, sitting sometimes a thousand feet or more above the surrounding area. Every corner you turn provides some new and breathtaking vista. After stopping by the visitors center and getting the kids passport books stamped (this is a new thing for this trip – we had never fooled with it in the past, but for whatever reason, this time it took the kids’ interest), we headed to the very popular Mesa Arch trail. The kids liked this trail because there were patches of snow right along the path, so they could mess with it a little bit.

We had been in Arches for a couple of days and were well versed in the “no climbing on arches” rule, so it was astonishing to see people lined up along the top of Mesa Arch having their photo taken. Sure enough as we got closer, there was the big sign forbidding people from climbing on the arch. We puttered around here for a while, scrambling around on the rocks, poking at the snow. Ian had been dealing with a loose tooth and every so often would spend a moment fidgeting with it and complaining.

Quick tooth extraction between hikes.

As we made our way back to the car, he went to work wiggling it back and forth, back and forth. As we were sitting in the car after the hike, he finally managed to extract it. There was a bit of blood, but having that pesky tooth out of his mouth was clearly a relief. And we even managed to keep track of it through the rest of our trip so that we could tuck it safely under his Austin pillow for the tooth fairy to find.

Maya’s definitely not a ham. And Sean definitely doesn’t encourage her.

Next we went to the Grand View hike, and the views all along it were indeed grand. The hike is generally flat, but you’re hiking along the top of an incredibly tall and breathtaking cliff. The kids drove us bonkers running up to the edge to look down, heedless of the potential for self destruction. Sean is not a huge fan of heights, so this was particularly stressful for him. He did carefully walk out to a few non-Sean-sanctioned edges and outcroppings to confront his apprehensions head on.

Conquering his fear!

I have no particular issue with heights, but I felt I had to be mindful of not giving the kids too much license for mayhem along the sheer drop-off to the lovely canyon-scarred land below. We were routinely graced with the caw-caw of ravens as we hiked. At the very end when we were nearly back to the car, one raven even went so far as to place himself in the bright sunshine and pose artfully so Sean could photograph him from several fetching angles.

Raven’s fancy

We thought we might hike up Whale Rock after that, however, all of us were still feeling the Fiery Furnace hike in our legs. Even the kids claimed they were too tired, so we drove up to it and observed that yes, indeed it does look whale-like, and then we headed on out of the park.

Rather than add on that last hike, we decided to drive out and see Dead Horse Point State Park instead. This is what I think of as that quintessential Colorado River winding through the sandstone overlook, and I had read that it was nicer at sunset than sunrise, so we saved it for later in the day. I may be wrong, but I think the scenery would have fared better  in morning or even midday light. It was beautiful, to be sure. But more of it was in shadow than I was hoping for. Also, as mentioned, we were all pretty beat, so we didn’t wander far along the trails and whatnot surrounding the area. I’d love to visit again and actually spend some time wandering the trails in the area.

Dead Horse Point

After this, we drove back into town and had Moab Diner for dinner. It was … fine. The kids say they really liked their food. For my part, I felt like we got the clipped, we’re-a-diner-we-gotta-move-quick level of service when there were only a very few occupied tables.

That evening, I availed myself of the hotel’s coin-op washers and dryers to get a midweek load of clothes through. This was our trade off – we packed a bit less so we could wash partway through. And really, we each only brought one good set of hiking layers, so freshening them up partway through was really nice.

Not before we have our coffee, Mom

After a good night’s sleep, we got up early to plow through breakfast and make our way out to Capitol Reef National Park. This was maybe a 2.5 hour drive from Moab, if I’m remembering correctly. We waxed and waned on doing this vs driving down to the Needles district of Canyonlands, but ultimately this won out because … there’s an arch here that you can walk across and we figured the kids would get a kick out of that.

The drive out to the park was predictably beautiful. We wondered endlessly how they decide while parcel of amazing rock formations and beautiful scenery they elect to designate as federal land and which they don’t. We headed straight to the visitor’s center for a passport stamp and a pit stop before heading to the trailhead.

Grand Wash trail

There were two hikes we were considering in Capitol Reef. Cassidy Arch was number one, and if we had time and energy, we’d like to try Hickman Bridge as well. The Cassidy Arch hike starts with a small jaunt down the Grand Wash Trail. This trail is flat and fairly easy and to be honest, the walk through the wash with the canyon walls rising up is absolutely gorgeous … and possibly that was our trouble. Maybe we were so busy looking around, we failed to notice the giant sign for the Cassidy Arch turn off. We essentially walked the whole Grand Wash Trail.

I mean, how could we have missed this sign??

We hoofed it back to the car for a light lunch (read here “glorified snack”) of cheese, crackers, salami, olives, and chocolate before heading right back the way we came, and this time taking the left turn to start our intended hike.

Along the Cassidy Arch trail

The path to Cassidy Arch is a mountain hike. You’re basically heading uphill the whole way, and oh my goodness, was Maya not impressed. We decided that she’s powered by sass and salami and let me tell you, by then she was all outta salami. With the rock cairns guiding us along the route, finding the arch wasn’t too hard. We rested and took turns having our photo taken on it. First I went to make sure everything was ok. I reported back that while you were on the arch, you didn’t really even realize it, so wide and sturdy was its top (which is, I’m sure, why you’re allowed on it).

The kids tried to show me how to dab, but I was hilariously not getting it.

Then I took the kids out there to have their photo taken. They tried to teach me how to dab (they mean the dancing kind of dabbing, just in case there’s any ambiguity for anyone here). There’s photographic evidence that I wasn’t picking up what they were laying down, but honestly that’s almost funnier to me. Non-cool mom being non-cool.

Sean on Cassidy Arch

And finally Sean braved the heights of the arch to have his photo taken as well. After a decent rest, we headed back down. Luckily, down was so much easier and faster that Maya was (mostly) able to keep her sass in check. Once we got back to the car, we decided to drive around the park a bit instead of attempting to squeeze in another hike. As mentioned before, the sun sets early in this part of Utah in November.

Pizzaaaaaaaaaaa

After the long drive back into Moab, we had dinner at Canyon Pizza Co. This was good, solid pizza – one of my favorite meals of the trip. The kids and Sean bought a pint of ice cream to share back at the hotel, and I don’t remember doing much else before we sacked out for the night. Except … it occurred to Sean and I that we should make a plan for Thanksgiving dinner. We had a few no-reservations-allowed ideas, but none of them seemed like things the kids would be into. Eventually we found a thanksgiving buffet at The Cowboy Grill at the Red Cliffs Lodge and managed to secure reservations for a 3 pm meal.

These 12 should have only been 4. They were so good though.

On Thanksgiving morning, we walked across the street and bought a dozen doughnuts from Doughbird. For the record a family of four, at absolute most, needs only one Doughbird doughnut apiece, but we didn’t know that till we ate one. They are really, really spectacular doughnuts and oh my are they filling.

Next, we went out to hike the Delicate Arch trail. It was bright and early when we headed into the park, and at that time, there was only a single car in front of us at the entrance gate – by the time we left at around 11:00, the line was about 42 cars deep, by the kids’ count. Delicate Arch is also sometimes called license plate arch since it’s featured prominently on Utah’s license tags. What isn’t clear from the metal plates is how huge that arch actually is. The NPS website tells me that Delicate Arch has a light opening that is 46 feet high and 32 feet wide, which makes it the largest free-standing arch in the park.

More climbing – those poor, mistreated children.

The trail isn’t easy. We had to do a fair amount of climbing, and when the cold breeze hit us, it took our breath away. There were a few ice patches here and there, but if you aren’t an elementary school kid, they’re easy to avoid. If you *are* an elementary school kid, you will be magnetically drawn to the icy spots, and your brain will encourage you to chisel it with rocks and pretend to ice skate in your hiking boots.

Once we finally got to the arch, it was semi-crowded, but we really didn’t have to wait too long to get our photos under the arch. A nice local family volunteered to photograph us and I feel they did an excellent job. After sitting and having a much-deserved snack, we headed back down. The kids were on fire by this point. Maya and Ian struck off like little darts, weaving well ahead of their grown-ups. Once we couldn’t see them anymore, Sean caught up with them and we regrouped. The walk back though was quite fast.

Woodses at Delicate Arch

We all went back to the hotel to get cleaned up for our Thanksgiving feast. The drive out to that made me wish we had spent a little more time driving around – it was along highway 128, which I believe is considered a scenic byway. The part we drove wound its way along the river and it was absolutely gorgeous. The restaurant was nice enough. Service was perfect, and there was such a good variety of proteins and sides around that the kids could find plenty of things they wanted to eat, even outside the dessert table. Did it compare in quality to a home cooked meal? Probably not. But it was pretty decent for a buffet meal, everyone could find things they wanted to eat, and I didn’t have to clean up afterward.

We let our food digest for a while and started packing up some of our things for the return trip. We took the kids down to have one last long swim in the pool. And once it got dark, we all bundled up and headed back into Arches to the Balanced Rock area to hang out and look at the night sky. This is considered a “dark sky” area, with minimal light pollution.

Night sky at Balanced Rock.

When we looked up, after letting our eyes adjust, the sky was visibly full of stars. We could see the haze of the Milky Way. If we knew more about astronomy, I’ve no doubt we could have picked out planets and constellations. This is not something we get to see in Austin, and for a few precious minutes the kids were entranced. Eventually the cold got to them though and they were begging to go back to the warmth of the car. Sean stayed out a few minutes longer attempting to capture some photos, but we think the wind may have hindered his ability to focus well.

The next day was really nothing but travel. We had a long drive back to Salt Lake City, which, as predicted, was beautiful in the daylight. On the drive in, it would have wow-ed up, getting steadily more interesting as we made our way southward. But after our deep five-day soak in the rugged landscape around Moab, it was hard to get too wound up. Don’t get me wrong, it was still lovely to look at.

Utah state highway sign

I had been trying to work out what Utah’s state highway signs actually were off and on for most of the trip. Igloos didn’t make sense. They didn’t quite look like yurts. I figured it couldn’t possibly be a malformed boob. Finally I looked it up: it’s a beehive, meant to be an image of industriousness, productivity, and self-sufficiency. Now you don’t have to wonder.

I really loved this vacation. And while our kids may have complained about all the hiking, I think they loved it too. They learned what they were capable of. I’m going to pretend that certain members of the family learned the value of a little caution. And of course, hopefully they will remember some of the amazing things they saw. We of course didn’t get to do everything we wanted to do; I think we could easily go again for the same amount of time, repeat nothing, and stay well occupied. But the things we did were incredible, and allowed us to pleasantly disengage from our day to day lives for a while.

October was a marked improvement over September. Sure we were running around all crazy between soccer and music and after school choir lessons. But everyone was healthy! And there were fun things to look forward to! And eventually the weather cooled off a bit!

Ian – 2nd grade – age 7

Early in the month, the kids had school photos. I was liking the whole outdoor photos thing that COVID had inspired the past couple of year. Sadly, they were moved indoors this year (I’m sure it’s a much more controlled environment), but the kids’ photos still turned out really well.

Maya – 4th grade – Age 9

Alamo Drafthouse, our go-to movie theater, often has fun events for the holidays. This year, for Halloween, they were offering a Beetlejuice movie party. They show the movie and  provide fun props, and their normally stringent “no talking” rules are relaxed to encourage audience participation. I LOVE that movie, and I truly felt like the kids were old enough to enjoy it.

On our way in, we were outfitted with some rubbery eyeballs, a shrimp keychain, a cool sand worm sticker, and a Miss Argentina sash. We ordered delicious food. We had fun clapping and shouting along with our audience members as favorite movie characters made their first appearance in the film. The kids found Beetlejuice’s antics funny, and I thought they were going to die laughing at the wild Day-O performance.

We had the kids seated at one table and us at an adjacent table since that’s how the food sharing worked out. Partway through the movie, we changed around so that each kid would be sitting by a grown up, since Ian was left off by himself with only Maya for comfort. In this configuration, we made it nearly to the end of the movie, but the scene where our two main characters suddenly age rapidly and start to look sort of skeletal and creepy turned out to be a little much for Ian. I tried explaining to him how the movie ended, to let him know the bad thing would be undone, but ultimately he decided he’d had enough. He and I headed out of the theater and took a walk around the parking lot instead. Parenting fail? Maybe, but I choose to think of it as adaptive parenting.

Maya and Ian on their way into the symphony

As part of Maya’s curriculum at her new music school, she’s required to see some live musical performances throughout the year. To that end, we decided to go see the Austin Symphony’s children’s Halloween concert. We all got dressed up – the kids in their costumes, and Sean and I in holiday appropriate clothes – and headed downtown to the Long Center. Before the show, the kids were able to make a few STEM-esque crafts. In between all that, we talked them into tolerating a few photos with the city skyline in the background – in case it isn’t obvious, it was a bit windy that day. Then Sean loaded them up with treats from the concession stand, and we spent a brisk hour watching the Austin Symphony. They performed a variety of pieces, but Maya’s favorites by far were the ones from the Harry Potter movies.

New glasses!

Ian finally got new glasses – our family COVID infection the previous month had put us behind on scheduled human maintenance. He again went with a purple pair, though maybe a bit more subdued and sophisticated this time. So far he hasn’t managed to smash them or lose them <knock on wood>, so I’m content.

We all got our flu shots. For 75% of us, this is a minor inconvenience, a small fear that could easily be rationalized away. For the remaining 25%, this is sheer trauma. (I’ll let you guess who. Rhymes with papaya. And jambalaya.) Maybe it’s not fair that only 25% of us experienced the trauma of that tiny little barely-there injection. I felt some bleed-over angst, and Sean, who had the unenviable task of staying with her till she got her shot certainly felt some. Worst though was probably our intrepid pharmacist. I’m gonna guess that we aren’t welcome back, at least not if we have daughter dearest in tow. She has a strategy for next year though – she will go first so she doesn’t have to see the other three of us get needles stuck in our arms.

The Cat and the Cobra, in pumpkin form

We were able to continue our tradition of having the kids work with our long-time friend and babysitter Anna to draw the designs on their jack-o-lanterns this year. Maya went with a simple but adorable cat. Ian chose a relatively intricate (for us) cobra. Thank goodness Anna drew that one, or it would never have happened. Even as Ian and I were cutting it out, I wasn’t really getting the full picture – not until we went outside and lit it up. I think they both turned out great, and I was pleased that the kids did a fair amount of the carving this year.

Dad had fun at trunk or treat too

The Friday before Halloween, the kids got dressed up and went to the Trunk or Treat in the  two big parking lots af their school. Maya really wanted us to decorate our car – and I think if we hadn’t COVIDed, we would have, so maybe next year. Some of the families really did a great job. There was a Candyland car, a Harry Potter one, another for Willy Wonka, a really cute Encanto themed one. My favorite was probably the P. Scary’s Burger Stand. It’s a plan on local burger chain P. Terry’s, and it was a work of pun-filled art.

Getting ready to trick or treat

And finally, the big day. Actual Halloween. We plied the kids with a perfunctory dinner, so we could pretend they’d had something with a bit of protein before the candy-fest ensued. We have a more or less standard route at this point. We made it probably two thirds of the way through the path before the kids informed us their buckets were overflowing. Our neighborhood doesn’t usually get a ton of trick-or-treaters, and so most people wind up giving candy out by the handful, especially as the evening wears on. We actually stopped by the house and let the kids dump their buckets so we could finish up our route. I cannot believe how much candy we have.

Yay for bouncing back after a rough COVID month, after a rough summer. The kids got to have fun and be carefree. They got to stay up too late and eat a little too much candy and watch a movie that was maybe not 100% age appropriate. We listened to the symphony and played in the yard and carved pumpkins. It’s been a pretty good month. (Also, the photographed chicken can be repeated by following this recipe: Buttermilk-Marinated Roast Chicken.)

September started out nice enough. The late August rain that we so desperately needed turned things from brown to green with a quickness. It’s like all the flowers in the back yard had been waiting that whole hot, dry summer for the chance to do their thing. The birds came back, the lizards never left, the squirrels breathed a sigh of relief.

Maya and her grasshopper.

We have a big hiking trip coming up in November, and at least Sean and I needed to condition ourselves a bit for it. Plus both kids would be playing soccer, and at least Maya is not fond of running. With that in mind, on the Saturday of Labor Day weekend, I got up early and took the kids to the track at their school to run a few laps with me and to them kick the soccer ball back and forth a bit. This all went pretty well, except of course Maya was disinterested in running. They did have a lovely time catching grasshoppers, so that helped.

Then Sunday, we took them all bike riding, and Ian was able to ride on his own! This was a big achievement for him. He’s more cautious than his sister. I have a notion that he actually considers what might happen if he falls or crashes, and that can make a person hesitant. The willingness to ride without Dad right next to him to help steady him took some bravery. But he did it! His pride was evident. Suddenly he was making plans to go on bike rides all over Austin.

So it goes

The Tuesday morning before school, Maya was a little sniffly and had a bit of a cough. As has become our habit in the age of COVID, we gave her a quick at-home test, just to rule it out before we sent her into the school population. To our surprise, the test was positive! We kept both kids home, just to be safe. Ian wasn’t really showing any symptoms, but we figured it was a foregone conclusion that if one of us had it, we all had it. Later that afternoon, Ian had sniffles as well. We tested him, and sure enough, he was positive.

Given quarantine guidelines, this meant a guaranteed week off school for both kids. They seemed mildly put out that I collected a pile of homework for each of them to do while they were home, if they felt well enough.

My co-worker warned me on Tuesday that by that evening I’d feel a tickle in my throat. Sure enough, he was correct. I tested negative still on Wednesday, but on Thursday, I had the faintest positive line on my test. Sean didn’t test positive till Sunday.

Like I said, we assumed we’d all wind up sick, so once the kids were positive but the grown-ups weren’t yet, we collected cold medicines and stocked up on easy groceries. I prepped and cooked a few things while I still felt relatively well to keep us supplied with leftovers. We still do curbside pickup for our groceries, so we were able to keep our likely germ-ridden selves a good distance away from people. Even when I fetched the kids’ homework from school, I had a mask on, and accepted the homework packets outside and at arm’s reach.

Post-soccer game ice cream

Ian was visibly ill for only a day or two and then he was right back to his regular, energetic self (though he did fall asleep suspiciously early for a little while, so could be his body was still recovering a bit). Maya’s congestion and cough lingered a short while, but she seemed to be over it in a few days. Sean and I were out for the count for a good 3 or 4 days, fever, extreme fatigue, achy joints. Sean had the horrible headache to boot.

The recovery was so slow for me and Sean. For a while, our energy levels were frustratingly low. I bet it was a good two weeks of slow improvement before we were back to normal. The cough lasted longer. Even now, more than a month later, we’re both still dealing with some lingering crud.

Once the kids were well, we did manage to get them to all their music lessons, soccer practices, and soccer games. Ian and Maya got to go to a couple of friends’ birthday parties, which hasn’t really happened in a couple of years.

Maya joined an after-school music program, offered by one of the school music teachers. She tried out for a particular part, and while she didn’t get that one, she did get another that she eventually decided she was ok with. She is more excited about this musical than I’ve seen her about much of anything lately, so I’m glad she has the chance to participate.

Silly lilies think it’s fall

Our yard has been kind of fun. Right away in early September the oxblood lilies came up – also known as schoolhouse lilies, they’re sort of a first sign of fall. I mean, it was hot as heck all September, so I’m not buying it, but they’re pretty anyway.

We have had a couple of really pretty Texas spotted whiptail lizards dart through the back yard. We usually don’t see this particular variety, so it was exciting, particularly for Ian who is very fond of reptiles.

We got to watch the little lesser goldfinches eating every seed they could get their beaks around. They’re tiny birds, and they sort of perch on the main flower stem sideways, often blowing in the breeze as they peck all the seeds out of the salvias and whatnot. I was delighted to see that they apparently like basil seeds as well.

Blue jay!

We almost never have blue jays in our yard, and they definitely do not linger. I know it’s probably common for my Missouri family and friends to see them around, but for us it’s a treat. At the very tail end of not-the-best-month-ever, we had a few days where a couple fo them would zing down for a quick drink of water from one of the back yard birdbaths. Sean finally managed to grab his camera in time to catch a few slightly blurry photos of those beautiful birds.

And that’s it. Ian learned to ride his bike. We were all sick. The kids started their fall soccer season. We saw critters. There’s really not much else to say.

Our early August was mostly about preparation. We’d be going on our trip to Niagara Falls and Toronto during the first full week of the month, and then the kids would be starting school almost immediately thereafter. Prep for vacation. Prep for school. Prep for soccer. Prep for music.

It’s as good a reference point as any, I suppose (as seen at Jerry’s Artarama)

The kids had been doing a lot of work getting their rooms overhauled. We had challenged them to go through piles of old stuff and make hard choices about which things they had to keep and which things could go, and then to organize the things they were keeping. This is particularly hard for Maya, who doesn’t like to let anything go, ever.

They did a good job and so early in the month, we agreed to take them to Jerry’s Artarama, a local art store. Though the store has apparently been around since 1968, none of us had been before. It is immense and overwhelming and clearly populated with folks who have a sense of humor. It took quite a while for the kids to go through the store and make their selections.

One woman overheard Sean and I talking Ian out of buying certain materials for making his very own bow and arrow (because we were certain that his idea wasn’t going to function the way he wanted it to). She came over to talk to me to let me know that I shouldn’t talk my daughter out of wood-working projects – that she herself was a wood-worker and laments that her parents weren’t more supportive. I calmly explained that the long-haired creature in question was, in fact, a boy. I explained we were trying to find a way to make his idea work; not poo-poo it entirely. And then I explained that I was a working electrical engineer and not bound to standard gender roles. I know she meant well and part of me appreciates her standing up for my kid’s interests, but I also know that I felt some satisfaction at having set her straight.

We made sure everyone had fitting clothes, fitting shoes, functioning backpacks, lunch boxes, etc. We made last minute arrangements for our trip. We pack, pack, packed. And then, we went on our vacation to Niagara Falls and Toronto. We arrived in very late from traveling on Saturday night. Had one good day to recover, and then it was back to the grind.

Maya the 4th grader and Ian the 2nd grader

School started right away on August 15th. We weren’t allowed to take the kids to their classrooms. No one really talks about COVID anymore at school, so I’m guessing this is a reaction to the horrific school shooting at Uvalde.

The kids both tell me they really like their teachers, and they seem to have settled into their routines pretty quickly. Ian has Maya’s second grade teacher and is doing really well so far. Maya was pleased that she’s in the same classroom as her best friend Maclin.

Mac and Cheese on the top, Kraft Dinner on the bottom

One night after school started, we decided to test out Canadian Kraft Dinner against United States Mac and Cheese. I’m honestly kind of ambivalent about both of them, so Sean and the kids will need to try to remember what they preferred. Quantities of butter and milk called for varied between the products. The two macaroni dishes ended up looking somewhat different and tasting marginally different. Either way, I’m content to leave it to the rest of the household.

The kids’ music school, Monarch Suzuki, effectively ceased to exist at the end of July, and so they’ve both been transitioning to new music education setups. The spectacular thing is that they’ve both been able to stay with their same teachers from Monarch. With this have come new music lesson schedules. The kids also both wanted to sign up for fall soccer, so we have added soccer practice schedules and will soon be attending weekend games. Maya’s old enough that she’s been transitioned to a traveling league this year.  And Maya has joined an after school music group that will be putting on a musical at the end of the semester. So far, we’ve more or less managed to make all of this work, but it’s been a bit of a juggling act.

Ian McCulloch – lead singer for Echo and the Bunnymen, ill but soldiering on

A week after the kids went back to school, we got to go to a concert. Echo and the Bunnymen, Sean’s favorite band, were supposed to have been at the Cruel World festival we attended last spring, but they failed to show up due to some BS about visas. This time, they had to cancel a couple of tour dates ahead of Austin for “unforeseen circumstances” so we were sweating it right up to the concert date.

Will Sergeant, lead guitarist for Echo and the Bunnymen

Alas, they showed up! And while there were a few stops here and there and what seemed to be a slightly shortened set, the show was great! Their wonderful guitarist in shows past seemed to make a sport of watching his feet, hanging back in the shadows and never looking at the crowd. Not this time. He was engaged and looking at the crowd. He seemed to be completely in his element. He seemed to be having fun. Despite the lead singer’s illness, they sounded great. And at the end, Sean managed to get a set list and a guitar pick! We couldn’t have asked for better.

In the big snow and ice event in winter of 2021, several of our trees took some pretty severe damage. We let it ride for a full year to see what would recover and what was truly dead. After nearly being murdered by a falling limb, we decided to take care of business. It took a day and a half, spread over probably a month or so, but it is now all done. I saved a chunk of one of the larger tree trunks to use as a stand for a new birdbath, recently purchase to replace one that was lost during last winter’s one real freeze.

Nox on amp with bass guitar

The kids had liked the Korean rice dogs we had in Toronto so well, that Sean went looking for a local place that served them – and found one! Oh K-Dog can be found in the H-Mart shopping center. The kids were delighted to have more of the rice dogs. They could sprinkle on their own toppings and try out a variety of self-serve dipping sauces. H-Mart was insanely busy on a Saturday, and I was ready to leave when it was time, but we enjoyed our lunch and got some fun goodies from the grocery store.

With our newly minted Insane Schedule, we haven’t planned a single “fun” thing for September. We will have to see if there’s any weekend room left after two kids’ soccer and music schedules are met. That aside, after a couple of exceedingly weird pandemic years, it definitely feels like a return to normalcy. We vacationed more or less like normal over the summer. The kids went to school like normal (with the addition of heightened security). They’re being invited to birthday parties (which we are now likely to allow them to attend) and hanging out with classmates like normal.