head west, young man
Two weekends ago, we all packed up and went out to Oakland & San Francisco to spend President's Day with Uncle Mike, Aunt Carol, and cousins Adam and Hannah.
Kenny did an excellent job of flying, even though these were his longest flights to date. Since Mike & Carol were already armed with car seats, strollers, and other baby accoutrement, we left all of Kenny's extra baggage at home. Thus, he spent both flights in either Overboard or my arms.
While he did experience some minor crankiness at takeoff and landing both times (and opted not to really nap), he was pretty content to play with his toys, flirt with female passengers and wonder aloud why Southwest Airlines doesn't have any sort of in-flight video entertainment...
Kenny wears his plane bib in honor of his big flight.
After getting into Oakland somewhere around 9am, I was discouraged to discover that the local In 'n' Out Burger doesn't serve breakfast. Sigh.
We made our way back to the house and then later rounded everyone up for a quick romp over at Adam's favorite park. While Adam ran amok playing with the toys that people leave in the park for communal use (how CA, huh?), Overboard and I were bummed to see that Kenny was still a bit too small for the swings. Instead, he amused himself by hanging out in his stroller and grabbing his toes, or attempting to grab his uncle's face.
Kenny and "Unkie Mike" bond
The East Bay Rolnicks
Speaking of things that are very California...afterwards we grabbed lunch at a burrito place where I had a "Prawn Burrito" that was actually pretty tasty. I was incredibly tempted to try the "Lobster & Steak" burrito, but decided not to splurge at the last minute.
Kenny was pretty content to sleep in the stroller or gnaw on a spoon while we ate, and watched in amazement as his cousin Adam slowly devoured a whole burrito on his own.
Back at the homestead, Kenny took great pleasure in exploring the awesome exer-saucer Aunt Carol picked up in his honor. As the "official tester" for his cousin Hannah (who will be in there soon enough), Kenny eagerly swatted at and tried to eat every last dangly object he could grab. Our only fear was that he would get back to Glenview and wonder why his own exer-saucer was the stripped-down model...
"Daddy! This thing ROCKS! Can I have one like this? Please? Pleeeeeeeeeeeeeease?"
Kenny's internal clock was all over the place, so when he finally went down to sleep for the night (after pretty much refusing to take a real nap during the day), he went down hard. Of course, he also woke up screaming around 2:36am.
Now, while at home we're well into "letting him cry it out." That's harder to pull off when you're staying with someone else (and especially when there are two other kids trying to sleep in the rooms next door). Consequently, all of our hard work was set back a few giant leaps, as we gave Kenny a bottle, picked him up, played with him, promised to buy him a pony, and did basically anything we could to get him to stop screaming and go back to sleep. This happened every night we were there, and lucky for us, continued when we got back home.
Mike tried to tell me that this happens to all kids when you travel and usually takes a day or two to straighten out. Yeah. After we got home, it took Kenny almost a week to start sleeping through the night again. Wheeeeeeeeee. But back to the story...
The next day, we went into San Francisco to meet up with Jarrod and Molly and their two boys, Sammy and Solly (who will undoubtedly start their own deli someday). The weather was unreal, as the high was 76! Back home? -206 with the wind chill. I'm just sayin'.
We met the Winters at Embarcadero, then took a trolley ride up the hill into Chinatown. Jarrod led us to this hole-in-the-wall Chinese restaurant for lunch, that for lack of a better word, looked a tad sketchy. However, I may never doubt him again, as the food was unbelievably good and we all ate and ate and ate.
Overboard waits for the trolley
"So, where is this 'San Francisco Treat' I keep hearing about?"
Little Sammy decided to try a dubious gastronomic concoction of his own by gulping down a handful of pepper when no one was looking. This did not go over very well, and eerily reminded me of the first time his daddy tried wasabi while over for dinner at my parent's house when we were in high school. Maybe with less tears. Sammy, that is.
After lunch, we wandered around Chinatown for a bit, hitting a park and a "Chinese new year street festival" Jarrod had heard about. This unfortunately turned out to be a short street with a series of "Carny" games, but Solly was pretty happy when he kept winning little stuffed animals.
Solly gets into the competitive spirit
My favorite moment from the afternoon came while we were in one of the MANY stores in Chinatown that all seem to sell the same crap. Sammy was slumped over in the front part of the double-stroller, when Solly came back and got ready to climb into his seat in the back. Before doing so, he grabbed his dozing little brother by the shoulders and screamed, "WAKE UP!" I think I saw a little gleam in Kenny's eye, as he imagined being able to torment a younger brother or sister like that someday...
The Winters of Turlock
The Rolnicks of Glenview
Another thing we noticed while in town was that Kenny was fascinated by his cousin Adam's blond hair. Like the little old ladies in Italy when I was 10, Kenny would constantly grab at Adam's hair and try to inspect it more closely.
"Yo, Blondie, lemme see that!"
On Sunday, we met up with my buddy Geoff, who I was roommates with while living in Boston. Geoff's been in SF for years now, and I don't think he misses the cold very much. Geoff is a computer programmer, and I once caught him in Boston scribbling zeros and ones in a notebook. To this day, I'm not sure if he was really working on something or just trying to see if he could freak me out.
The tough part about being a computer guru is that you get suckered into fixing everyone else's computers. Like, I dunno, Mike and Carol's wonky home laptop. Of course, for his troubles, Geoff got a nice dinner and a Visa track suit, courtesy of Mike. So that ain't so bad.
If Geoff stops working, Carol gives him the cattle prod.
Overboard's good college friend, Linton and his husband Jeff live just around the hill from Mike and Carol, so they stopped by to say hello as well. Jeff, being a lot more adventurous than either of us, was actually in Chicago this past fall to run the Chicago Marathon. I offered up my logic that I just can't rationalize running 26.2 miles unless someone was chasing me with a chainsaw, or perhaps a large stick. Even then, I think somewhere around Mile 3 I'd just stop and give up. "Make it quick, ok?" I'd say. "I can't feel my legs, so maybe start there."
Linton and Jeff (who stopped running long enough to have this picture taken)
Monday morning, while Adam spent two hours stubbornly engaging in a standoff with his parents over his refusal to blow his nose, Overboard and I put Kenny in the more baby-friendly swing outside the house, much to his delight.
"Faster! Higher! I think I'm gonna hurl!"
We managed to squeeze in one more park visit that afternoon before heading out to the airport and heading home.
The cousins at the park
Overboard and Kenny at the Oakland airport waiting to go home
There were other stories and LOTS more pictures, but I think this post has gone on (and on) enough for now.
Also, while in town, Mike introduced to an awesome Australian band called The Cat Empire. Their song, "Hello," became the theme song of the trip. Check out the song and video:
Kenny did an excellent job of flying, even though these were his longest flights to date. Since Mike & Carol were already armed with car seats, strollers, and other baby accoutrement, we left all of Kenny's extra baggage at home. Thus, he spent both flights in either Overboard or my arms.
While he did experience some minor crankiness at takeoff and landing both times (and opted not to really nap), he was pretty content to play with his toys, flirt with female passengers and wonder aloud why Southwest Airlines doesn't have any sort of in-flight video entertainment...
Kenny wears his plane bib in honor of his big flight.
After getting into Oakland somewhere around 9am, I was discouraged to discover that the local In 'n' Out Burger doesn't serve breakfast. Sigh.
We made our way back to the house and then later rounded everyone up for a quick romp over at Adam's favorite park. While Adam ran amok playing with the toys that people leave in the park for communal use (how CA, huh?), Overboard and I were bummed to see that Kenny was still a bit too small for the swings. Instead, he amused himself by hanging out in his stroller and grabbing his toes, or attempting to grab his uncle's face.
Kenny and "Unkie Mike" bond
The East Bay Rolnicks
Speaking of things that are very California...afterwards we grabbed lunch at a burrito place where I had a "Prawn Burrito" that was actually pretty tasty. I was incredibly tempted to try the "Lobster & Steak" burrito, but decided not to splurge at the last minute.
Kenny was pretty content to sleep in the stroller or gnaw on a spoon while we ate, and watched in amazement as his cousin Adam slowly devoured a whole burrito on his own.
Back at the homestead, Kenny took great pleasure in exploring the awesome exer-saucer Aunt Carol picked up in his honor. As the "official tester" for his cousin Hannah (who will be in there soon enough), Kenny eagerly swatted at and tried to eat every last dangly object he could grab. Our only fear was that he would get back to Glenview and wonder why his own exer-saucer was the stripped-down model...
"Daddy! This thing ROCKS! Can I have one like this? Please? Pleeeeeeeeeeeeeease?"
Kenny's internal clock was all over the place, so when he finally went down to sleep for the night (after pretty much refusing to take a real nap during the day), he went down hard. Of course, he also woke up screaming around 2:36am.
Now, while at home we're well into "letting him cry it out." That's harder to pull off when you're staying with someone else (and especially when there are two other kids trying to sleep in the rooms next door). Consequently, all of our hard work was set back a few giant leaps, as we gave Kenny a bottle, picked him up, played with him, promised to buy him a pony, and did basically anything we could to get him to stop screaming and go back to sleep. This happened every night we were there, and lucky for us, continued when we got back home.
Mike tried to tell me that this happens to all kids when you travel and usually takes a day or two to straighten out. Yeah. After we got home, it took Kenny almost a week to start sleeping through the night again. Wheeeeeeeeee. But back to the story...
The next day, we went into San Francisco to meet up with Jarrod and Molly and their two boys, Sammy and Solly (who will undoubtedly start their own deli someday). The weather was unreal, as the high was 76! Back home? -206 with the wind chill. I'm just sayin'.
We met the Winters at Embarcadero, then took a trolley ride up the hill into Chinatown. Jarrod led us to this hole-in-the-wall Chinese restaurant for lunch, that for lack of a better word, looked a tad sketchy. However, I may never doubt him again, as the food was unbelievably good and we all ate and ate and ate.
Overboard waits for the trolley
"So, where is this 'San Francisco Treat' I keep hearing about?"
Little Sammy decided to try a dubious gastronomic concoction of his own by gulping down a handful of pepper when no one was looking. This did not go over very well, and eerily reminded me of the first time his daddy tried wasabi while over for dinner at my parent's house when we were in high school. Maybe with less tears. Sammy, that is.
After lunch, we wandered around Chinatown for a bit, hitting a park and a "Chinese new year street festival" Jarrod had heard about. This unfortunately turned out to be a short street with a series of "Carny" games, but Solly was pretty happy when he kept winning little stuffed animals.
Solly gets into the competitive spirit
My favorite moment from the afternoon came while we were in one of the MANY stores in Chinatown that all seem to sell the same crap. Sammy was slumped over in the front part of the double-stroller, when Solly came back and got ready to climb into his seat in the back. Before doing so, he grabbed his dozing little brother by the shoulders and screamed, "WAKE UP!" I think I saw a little gleam in Kenny's eye, as he imagined being able to torment a younger brother or sister like that someday...
The Winters of Turlock
The Rolnicks of Glenview
Another thing we noticed while in town was that Kenny was fascinated by his cousin Adam's blond hair. Like the little old ladies in Italy when I was 10, Kenny would constantly grab at Adam's hair and try to inspect it more closely.
"Yo, Blondie, lemme see that!"
On Sunday, we met up with my buddy Geoff, who I was roommates with while living in Boston. Geoff's been in SF for years now, and I don't think he misses the cold very much. Geoff is a computer programmer, and I once caught him in Boston scribbling zeros and ones in a notebook. To this day, I'm not sure if he was really working on something or just trying to see if he could freak me out.
The tough part about being a computer guru is that you get suckered into fixing everyone else's computers. Like, I dunno, Mike and Carol's wonky home laptop. Of course, for his troubles, Geoff got a nice dinner and a Visa track suit, courtesy of Mike. So that ain't so bad.
If Geoff stops working, Carol gives him the cattle prod.
Overboard's good college friend, Linton and his husband Jeff live just around the hill from Mike and Carol, so they stopped by to say hello as well. Jeff, being a lot more adventurous than either of us, was actually in Chicago this past fall to run the Chicago Marathon. I offered up my logic that I just can't rationalize running 26.2 miles unless someone was chasing me with a chainsaw, or perhaps a large stick. Even then, I think somewhere around Mile 3 I'd just stop and give up. "Make it quick, ok?" I'd say. "I can't feel my legs, so maybe start there."
Linton and Jeff (who stopped running long enough to have this picture taken)
Monday morning, while Adam spent two hours stubbornly engaging in a standoff with his parents over his refusal to blow his nose, Overboard and I put Kenny in the more baby-friendly swing outside the house, much to his delight.
"Faster! Higher! I think I'm gonna hurl!"
We managed to squeeze in one more park visit that afternoon before heading out to the airport and heading home.
The cousins at the park
Overboard and Kenny at the Oakland airport waiting to go home
There were other stories and LOTS more pictures, but I think this post has gone on (and on) enough for now.
Also, while in town, Mike introduced to an awesome Australian band called The Cat Empire. Their song, "Hello," became the theme song of the trip. Check out the song and video:
posted by Dr. Overboard and Prof. Evenkeel at 9:27 AM
0 Comments:
Post a Comment
<< Home