Memorial Day Weekend (2)

Sunday began with brunch at Kay and Dave's, a favorite casual Mexican food joint in Brentwood, CA.

As we got ready to leave brunch, we noticed that the parking lot across from the eatery was hosting a petting zoo and pony rides. Monroe's first experience with pony rides at the Santa Monica Sunday Main Street Farmer's Market about 3 months ago was NOT a success (unless there was a crying competition, in which case she blew the other kids out of the water!) Right away after her upsetting experience with the ponies, I told her that on her next pony ride she wouldn't cry because she'd know what to expect. Apparently she took this deeply to heart because as soon as she saw the ponies at Brentwood Country Mart she proclaimed that as a "big girl" she was all ready for a tear-free ride. And she was right!

A petting zoo was included with our pony ride fee.

After the cowboy adventures, we visited Sweet Rose Creamery and sampled fresh mint ice cream made with farmer's market mint and small shavings of dark chocolate. MMmmmm..

Finally, Eben and I took the chance to go out on a date while Grandma Nikki and Monroe spent some quality time together!

Memorial Day Weekend (1)

We were lucky enough to host Grandma Nikki in our Memorial Day weekend stay-cation this year!

I got Saturday off to a proper start with coffee tasting at Santa Monica Rare Coffee and Tea, a local spot specializing in unique single-estate coffees. I love to take Veronica here because she has a taste for light and medium roast coffees, and good coffee designed to be roasted with a lighter hand is often difficult to find in today's espresso era.

I sampled a South American coffee with a moderate amount of bitterness and a bit of a chocolate-y taste.
Veronica had a Mexican single-estate coffee with the least bitterness of any cup of coffee I've ever tried. The creamy brew had an amazing caramel flavor. MMMMMmmmmmm.

Saturday afternoon we went sailing with some great friends. It was Veronica's first time out on the ocean in a sailboat, and probably the first time Monroe could actually remember.

After the boat docked again, we grilled dinner in the marina. So by sunset on the first day of our weekend, we'd already visited the ocean and had burgers--I can't think of a better way to kick off the first weekend of summer!

Bunnies at the LA Zoo

Well, a few weeks ago I posted the first post in what promised to be a series describing our Easter weekend visit from my mother and father. Here comes the rest! On Holy Saturday of Easter weekend, we visited the LA Zoo for their annual bunny festivities. The special Easter area had face painting, a craft where you could decorate your own bunny ears, and live bunnies to pet.

Monroe was too frightened to pet the bunny, but as soon as we were done with the bunny area she shouted "I wanna see the LIONS!!" without a trace of fear (or irony.)


Monroe wasn't game for posing for an Easter picture either, but Mamai was more obliging.

We saw lots of amazing animals.


At the top of the Zoo, we caught the tram to a wonderful kids' play area (the secret draw of the Zoo for families with small children.) While Monroe was tromping around on the playground, the rest of us had the rare treat of food from the scrumptious Border Grill food truck, an LA treat almost worth Zoo admission on its own!


Green corn tamale in a cone.

We all had a great time!

Death Valley National Park

Amanda and Romeo invited us to join them for a camping trip in Death Valley National Park several weeks ago (March 6.) They were kind enough to take our tent out to the park with them when they drove out early Friday morning and set it up for us. Their generosity was key in making the trip toddler friendly! Friday night after work had dinner on the road, played car games, and then changed Monroe into her pajamas and "tucked her in" to her carseat so she could sleep for most of the drive.



It was cloudy moonless night, so once we got out of the city the sky was so inky black that it seemed to swallow our headlight beams a few feet from our car. We felt as if we were skimming the black floor of an uncharted ocean in some kind of submarine. The eerie nigh drive was probably a great way to see desert animals--we saw all kinds of smaller critters and encountered a beautiful ghostly Bighorn Sheep standing on the side of the road just as we entered the park.



After settling into our tent in the dark, were amazed to see our surroundings after dawn broke. We were in a large basin near some salt flats in a lovely campsite at about 180 feet below sea level!






Amanda and Romeo were our driving companions as we explored the park.




Scotty's castle was an elaborate vacation home built in the middle of the dessert. "Scotty" was the caretaker of the place, but he also lived there as a sort of upscale squatter and told everyone in the area that the palace was his! And it's known as Scotty's Castle to this day.
We all explored the grounds of this odd spot and then scouted out a place for our picnic lunch.



We had a picnic lunch at Scotty's Castle.




We went to Death Valley in search of the treasured desert wildflower bloom, but these were the only flowers we saw all weekend. The desert held many beautiful treasures for us, anyway--we were not disappointed.


We could never decide if it was the sky or the earth we ought to be looking at--there was beauty in every direction.

Easter Cute

My mom and dad blessed us with a visit for Easter weekend and the whole group had a blast. I was pretty sick both before their stay and again after they left, so I am just now getting around to posting some pictures of our fun time. Enjoy the next few posts; there will be BUNNIES!

Faux camping in Fortuna, CA

The weather in Grizzly Creek Redwoods state park did not support our dream of camping--it was very very wet and cold, especially with dark settling in at around 4:30 this time of year. So we created a Faux camping experience for Monroe--the tent in the background, a campfire dinner, and running through the forest. But when it came time for pajamas, we headed for a Best Western in nearby Fortuna!
The Fortuna leg of our trip was unplanned (since we weren't sure if camping would pan out or not.) We were delighted to learn that we were mere minutes from the best-preserved Victorian village in California, Ferndale.

I loved the old-time drugstore with an amazing collection of antique grooming products, and I was very excited to get to browse a few copies of Scientific American from 1880-1890.



After exploring the Victorian downtown, we took a playground break. Monroe said she was "teaching" the swing to swing when I took this photo.

Next stop was a cheese factory in Loleta where we got to see a big vat of whey churning to form curds, and a tank from which the whey had been drained. We snacked on cheddar curds and sampled the 35 flavors of cheese.

Our hotel was on the edge of town in dairy farm country. I took the picture that appears below from the front window!

Sonoma, CA

Our Thanksgiving trip began with a fun (and tasty) tour of the Jelly Belly factory and world headquarters in Fairfield, CA. After that delightful detour, we stayed 2 nights in Sonoma, the more low-key side of the wine country. We found all the kid friendly doings in this lovely, lovely town.

We played in a charming city park where Monroe saw her first big tree of the journey and we found a family of ducklings.

The park was surrounded by a quaint little town square with amazing shops on all sides, most decked out for Christmas and a few sporting lovely fall decorations as well.
The coutryside itself was splendid, with fall color in the trees and on all the vines. Vineyard after vineyard was ablaze with yellow, red, and orange leaves. This made for a fantastic drive / nap one afternoon. We
Our afternoon led us to Train Town, a kooky 10-acre park with little toddler-sized steam trains that lead to a petting zoo and a miniature old west town. This was TRULY fun for the whole family!







After train town, we headed back to town square for a very early dinner (or a late lunch) at a Sonoma favorite of mine, The Girl and the Fig. It's a nice place, but we ate in the bar which was very toddler friendly. And Monroe loves an artisanal cheese platter as much as the next foodie, let me tell you!


After dinner there was just enough daylight left for a return to the park where we stared the day. Monroe took a turn on the swings and had fun on the sidelines of a game of tag played by a few older children. We enjoyed watching her wear herself out. It seems she wasn't the only one, because we fell into bed at Monroe's bedtime that night and treated ourselves to an indulgence of sleep--and for THAT I am deeply thankful!