Total eclipse of the heart...I mean sun

For about an hour yesterday, I had all my boys at a park by the library staring up at the sun, watching it be eclipsed by the moon.

Did I play "Total eclipse of the heart" very loud and sing it to my children and husband?

Yes, yes I did.

From our location, it got darker.  We weren't in the "path of totality" and got about 90% shade, but we went from full sun and heat to dusk and 15 degrees cooler.  I totally wish that we would have been the family that drove to see the eclipse.  But, maybe we can do it in 2024.

The boys thought it was cool, when they weren't wrestling and crotch grabbing and rolling down the hill at the park.  Mostly, I think they paid attention only because I told them that we'd get lunch after.  So, thanks, In and Out!

An update on Grandpa

My grandpa has seen better days.  Today, he is an outpatient at the Riverton Hospital, getting a blood transfusion.  The last two weeks he has been residing at the Legacy Village Rehabilitation Center because of a hospital stay, and a feeding tube (he never passes the swallow tests).  The two weeks (or maybe just 10 days) before that, he was in the hospital.  He had a bad infection, stemming from a UTI because of a catheter and had two heart attacks and got a pace maker.

Phew.

The months prior to the last several weeks haven't been so great either.

But, there he is, plugging along, unwilling to give in or give up.  He keeps fighting, to stay with us for another day.

I'm not the best grand-daughter - it's really hard for me to visit.  It's hard for me to see people sick and weak - I want my memories of them to always be strong and healthy.  Knowing that my grandpa isn't doing well is also hard because when he decides it's finally time to leave us (hopefully not too soon), then that's it for me in the grandparent department.  I realize that I'm pretty lucky that at 39 years old, I've still got a grandparent alive to learn from and love.  But, it's touchy for me none the less.

Since January, I've been writing my grandpa letters.  I have written a letter every single week, not missing one.  He is my pen pal, only, a pen pal that doesn't write back.  It's a little one sided I suppose, but I sort of like it that way.  I know he likes to read, and I it's a good way for me to talk to him, because I've struggled with that my whole life, too.

My grandpa is stoic.  He is strong and brave.  He is faithful and courageous.  During my life, he has shared opinions, wisdom and stories of his life with me...mostly through my grandma but on a good day, he can tell some tales.

On Monday, we were driving home from swimming lessons and I had the following conversation with Quinn.  It's a little morbid, but he's four and a half and like all almost 5 year olds, he only speaks the truth.

Q: Mom, is Great Grandpa at home or still in the place?
M:  He is still in the place, but he is doing okay.  Should we go and visit him?
Q:  Yes, we should visit him.
M:  Should we draw him some pictures to decorate his room at the place?
Q:  Yes, I want to make him a card.  How do you spell, "I'm glad you're not dead!"

(Elliott and Wyatt laughing hysterically)
M:  Well, maybe we should say, "I'm glad you are still alive, instead?"
Q:  No, mom.  I'm glad he is not dead.

Well, Quinner.  So am I.

So.  Am. I.

#BoompaGoesToDisneyland

We went.  We played.  We drove home.  Sounds pretty simple, but the reality of getting our family of five somewhere, let alone somewhere at the same time as the other 7 members of our extended family is a pretty significant feat and now, days after our most excellent vacation, I am still exhausted and sleepy and have very sore feet.

When we all finally settled on a date for our Disneyland adventure, the countdown began.  In the days leading up to our vacation, the boys were more crazy than if Christmas were impending.  And, after a very slow start on day one, I really never thought we'd get on the road.

Rather than a travelogue, as I'm apt to do, the next few blog posts will just hit a few highlights of the trip.  There is just too much detail to ever try and write it all down.

So, let's commence the highlights.

We left on Thursday, October 6 in the evening.  The boys had to attend school, Ross work, and of course, there was a soccer game that Elliott needed to play in.  We waivered for the whole week as to whether or not we should go to the soccer game or just get on the road.  But, we decided yes to soccer and a very late start.  It was the better decision.  Elliott played an excellent soccer game.  His team squeaked out a win.  We got dinner and then headed on our way with the goal to spend the night in Mesquite.

After a (thankfully) uneventful drive south we caught up to my parents, passed them, and all ended up staying in the same hotel for the night.  Quinn slept on a bed I made him on the floor and Elliott and Wyatt shed exhausted tears as they drifted off to sleep lamenting the fact that they were sharing a bed.

The Griswolds Go : Argentina! (Seattle, day 4)

On this, the last full day of our vacation, we didn't really have a solid plan for the day.  We had a few options, like the Japanese Botanical Gardens or the Ballard Lochs.  But, we decided to start with the Woodland Park Zoo and see where the day took us.

This day, Tuesday, was the "worst" weather of the trip.  Pretty chilly and off/on rain for big chunks of the morning and afternoon.  Luckily, I managed to remember to pack enough warm clothes for us so we were pretty okay.

We started the day with the zoo and it was pretty impressive.  Not so much for the animals, but the scenery.  It was so green and wooded and the zoo felt like you were more on a nature preserve than a zoo.  All the animals had really big habitats, and in 4 hours we walked almost 3 miles.  Yes, the zoo was big and yes, we were there longer than my boys have ever spent anywhere.

The zoo had a few interesting animals on exhibit too.  They had a small farm area with cows, pigs, sheep and a few goats.  Strange, but I guess city kids don't regularly see such animals.  And, even though we didn't see them, they had a small herd of elk, too.  There were four white wolves, a stellar sea eagle and 2 komodo dragons which were super impressive.  The zoo was also proud of a brand new baby gorilla but even though she was out on exhibit with her mother, they were not visible in the enclosure.










After our time at the zoo, it started raining (again) and we were hungry.  We found a little taco joint and got our food to go.  It was time to carb load and rest ourselves before the ultimate event of our vacation, the Copa America soccer game between Argentina and Bolivia.

Now, Ross should really write the next part, because soccer isn't my thing (I mean, I just don't get it.  The whole thing just feels like a giant time suck and all that anticipation for nothing?  Maybe that's why everyone does freak out when a goal is scored, because they get so little out of their 90 plus minutes of watching).  Anyway, the jersey's were broken out, the jumping and skipping (Elliott and Wyatt) had started and that dad of ours just couldn't stop smiling.

Expectations were high because, well, it's Lionel Messi and because Messi had scored a 19 minute hat-trick the previous Saturday.  Aren't you impressed with my soccer lingo?  Hat-trick?  Yeah!  We got to the Seahawks stadium a mere 2 hours before the start of the match to see some of the festivities.  Lots of crazy and drunk Argentine's chanting in the streets, and a few Bolivian fans spread out in the crowd.  I'm pretty sure that it was at least 80% Argentina fans to 20% Bolivian fans, and of all those Argentina fans, at least 80% of them were wearing some kind of Argentina or Messi jersey.  I wore a blue scarf.











The short version: Argentina won.  Messi played the second half.  He didn't score but he had some penalty/corner/whatever kicks and nutmeged the goalie (More soccer terminology for you).  Everyone in the whole stadium, including my husband, got their phones out to record anything that guy might do that had the potential to be amazing.  That was pretty funny to watch.  My boys left happy.  Wyatt drank almost 2 full 32 oz. diet cokes (The NFL does contracts with Coke, not Pepsi, hooray!) and used the bathroom about every 12 minutes.  We got some great souvenirs.  The boys were excellent, even Quinn who struggles to be excellent.  But, watching soccer laying on my lap was about the same as watching TV at home laying on my lap, and he had a box of skittles so he was at peace with the world.

That night, after finding an open late gelato shop near our apartment, we all went to bed around midnight.  Exhausted.  But, ready to go home the next morning.

The Redwoods, Day Four: Avenue of the Giants

On our last full day of vacation, it was time to leave the magical and mystical world of giant trees and head back to the reality of drought stricken California via a seven hour drive.  And, of course, the reality of heading home.  We decided however, to head home with one more scenic drive, a pretty touristy drive called the "Avenue of the Giants".  It is a 31 mile scenic route that travels through some very small towns (think, population: 31), and some very big trees, along highway 101.  Not only was it an absolutely beautiful drive, but it saved us from some of the more treacherous and curvy stretches of the highway that made us (okay, me) a little sick on the way north.



The Avenue of the Giants was pretty crowded, much different than the farther north forests we'd been in days before.  After a lot of research, I'd decided that our best bet was to just make one stop, inside the Roosevelt forest in Founders Grove.  Here, we'd find some walking trails and we'd also be able to see the Dyersville Giant, the tree that had been the tallest documented tree in the redwood forest (well over 300 feet tall) until it fell down decades ago.





This stop did not disappoint as it had the Founders Tree, which was 325 feet tall and just amazing to look at and had a dozen or so giants that had fallen.  Their root structures were absolutely amazing and so large.  We learned on our first day that redwoods have very shallow and wide root structures and that if the ground around them is trampled too frequently that it will destroy the roots and the trees will die.  So, when a tree actually does crash, all it's roots become exposed and just hang out.  It's really a pretty cool thing to see and I was pretty excited that we were able to stop and see them.







Once we finished walking and seeing and stretching, it was time to get some lunch and get back to San Jose with as few stops as possible.

We did our best.

The boys were definitely running out of steam, but we'd had a great vacation and were ready to head home.

We managed to avoid all the traffic that we hit on our way to Eureka and with a stop at an outlet mall got back to our hotel with only moderately numb butts.  After finding some dinner, getting the boys showered and bathed, it was time for bed.  Our sleeping arrangements were a little odd for the night; Wyatt was alone on the fold out sofa; I was with Elliott and Ross was with Quinn, but it worked out well and I think that Ross and I, sleeping on tiny beds with tiny bodies probably slept a little better than we had the rest of the trip. Minus Elliott kicking me in the face and Quinn falling out of bed head first anyway.

As with all trips, they end in a pretty anti climactic manner.  We got up in the morning.  Found some breakfast, packed our bags returned the rental car and made it to the airport.  Our flight was on time.  Quinn had a complete and total melt down that was so extreme we thought they were going to kick us off the plane because he didn't want to wear his seat belt.  Then, he fell asleep for the entire flight.

The flight was uneventful.  Which is always a good thing.

It was so strange, in the last few minutes before we arrived home, to realize that the day before, we'd been among literal giants, and now we were at an intersection with a Walmart and a Costco.  But, I guess that's the beauty of a vacation.  It lets you experience those amazing and cool things with your family that you wouldn't otherwise be able to experience.

This trip ended up being part of my birthday present.  It was the best birthday present.  I'm so grateful to Ross for planning and cooperating and being so willing to go along with my schemes.  The trip was really an absolute dream.  I couldn't have asked for anything better.



Except for maybe a glimpse of a real bigfoot.  But, that maybe would have been a bit too much.

The Redwoods, Day Three: Lady Bird

Day Three of our adventuring got off to a slow and rough start.  You know how sometimes on vacation, you just can't seem to get going?  Well, that was today.  Lots of in and out of the car.  Lots of fighting boys.  Lots of wrong roads.





We started our morning with a visit to Humbolt University in Arcata.  We wanted to find the bookstore to look for a souvenir.  We finally found the bookstore, but not without some 8 and under bruised knees and egos.  Like I said, it was a rough morning.  The bookstore however, was a little on the lame side so we left with nothing more that two key chains.  One of which we had to buy because Quinn declared it his and ripped off the price tag.

Next stop was a gas station for a drink - from a soda fountain that didn't work - and a bathroom break - from a dirty bathroom that you had to get the key and make a purchase - but the soda fountain didn't work.  The boys got a drink so we could pee.  Then, it was a few miles up the road to Trinidad to see a lighthouse, that wasn't nearly as impressive as I thought it would be.  A light house that is on land, and no longer out on the rocks generally isn't that impressive.  Nor are the "tide pools" that aren't actually tide pools but just the jagged rocks that you can see when low tide is out.  We did though, eat at the lighthouse grill in Trinidad and they had great garlic fries.





We suffered from some severe bathroom problems on our trip.  These bathroom problems required a lot of stopping - preventative and necessary.  We ate lunch at noon, but felt like we'd already stopped a thousand times to use the bathroom.

Finally, we were on our way after what felt like a wasted morning.  I have to admit I was getting a little nervous that the trip was going downhill, and I wanted it to be spectacular.  Little did I know that Lady Bird Johnson had something spectacular in store for me.

In the 1960's LBJ's wife worked with then Governor Ronald Reagan to save the redwoods.  Because of her apparently valiant efforts, they preserved a whole grove of trees (hundreds of acres) in her name and made a one mile scenic walking loop through the grove.  Here you can walk and touch and gaze and these giant trees.  It's not a drive by like the Drury road the day before, but it's up close and personal.  Like if you could touch the gorilla at the zoo instead of just looking at him through very thick glass.  I have absolutely no words for the trees.  I realized that I love trees more than I ever had any idea and I was pretty sure, walking through this grove, that at least for me, this is what heaven looks like.  It was just spectacular, amazing, delightful.  There aren't enough adjectives to describe the beauty that exists in this forest.  I'd just never seen anything like it in my entire life.  At one point, our little family got separated and I seriously thought for a moment that maybe Ross and Quinn had been swept away by a forest inhabitant.









I told Willie in my weekly e-mail that I'm certain these forests are inhabited by fairies and gnomes, pixies and trolls and the like.  He replied and told me that after living in Lithuania for the past year, and experiencing some of it's forests, he too believes that mythical creatures exist, and that they are just much smarter than the people who are looking for them.  After visiting the redwoods, it has definitely got to be true.









We left Lady Bird and decided that it would be fun to drive through down town Eureka and spend the late afternoon, before dinner wandering through a cute small town.  Two problems with that.  One, Eureka (and Arcata) were hosting a "kinetic sculpture race" and the towns were full of weirdos and two, Eureka is not a cute small town.  It is a gross small town.  We really spent the whole day just driving around aimlessly it seems so once we gave up on that, we headed to dinner.  A roadside burger joint with duck taped seats called Toni's.  It was delicious.  One more fabulous food stop on our trip.

The boys were done being in the car by this point and really wanted to hang out at the beach house and let's face it, we were all done being int he car at this point, so with a day close enough to being over, we headed back to our rental and spend the evening reading Charlotte's web, watching movie's on phones (because there was no Internet service on the island where the house was) and generally having a really nice evening "at home".

 

The Redwoods, Day Two: Trees of Mystery

On our first full day we woke up ready to go.  The goal was to head about 90 minutes north, into the Prarie Creek Redwoods State Park to a pretty touristy destination called the "Trees of Mystery" and then work our way back down through the park via the Newton B. Drury Scenic Parkway to see Fern Canyon and hang out at Gold Bluffs Beach before heading back to Arcata for dinner and Eureka for the night.

The weather in the redwoods is really interesting.  Apparently, it's always around 60 degrees.  In the mornings, it's foggy.  In the afternoons, sometimes there is a break in the clouds, but otherwise, the weather doesn't waiver except in the winter, when it's just 60 degrees and raining.  It was so strange to see such heavy clouds and no rain, especially because at home right now, the clouds we were seeing in California would have meant inches of rain and bitter cold.  But in the redwoods, it was really pretty pleasant.






Interesting note:  Redwoods contain no resin or sap and have a special type of bark which makes them resistant to fire, pesticides, water and bugs. That's why they grow to be so big and live for so long.  Most of the redwoods along the California coast that make up the multiple Redwood Parks are 300-600 years old and 200-300 feet tall.  The trees, in their initial growth, go for height first, striving to reach the sunlight, and then they start to add their girth.  That's why there are no short fat trees, just tall giant trees.  There are of course, other types of trees in the forests, like evergreens and dogwood trees and rhododendrons but they aren't as tall or as impressive and people don't travel for hundreds and thousands of miles to see them.





Another interesting thing to note is that there are no animals in the Redwood forests.  No squirrels or rodents.  No bugs.  There are mosquitoes closer to the coast, but not inside the forests.  Apparently, the trees do not make good homes for critters.  I guess there are a few bears, some Bigfoot here or there, and lots of birds and that's about it.







Anyway, at the end of the tree tour there is a gondola ride that takes you, I think, 700 feet to an overlook at the tree tops.  Great idea right?  Not if you are afraid of heights.  I'm not sure what I was thinking, being the one who suggested the thing, but the boys in my family loved it.  I was terrified of every single second going up.  Eyes shut tight.  Holding on, bracing for dear life.  The view from up top was foggy at best, but still pretty cool and the ride back down, with my back to the down, wasn't nearly as scary as the ride going up.







After the gondola, and a wander through a pretty pathetic gift shop, it was time to find lunch.  But guess, what, lunch is pretty hard to find in the middle of a redwood forest.  We drove around for a while through some tiny towns when I finally asked for some help and was directed to a little gas station that had a small restaurant in the back that could fix us a pizza.  SOLD!  The pizza was pretty good.  The french fries were tasty.  The dirty old man who was limping and not wearing any underwear who ordered a pulled pork sandwich and a beer was pretty entertaining.  And, Quinn chose to sit in a high chair for lunch, something he hasn't done, for, oh, about 9 months maybe.  Good times.



After our very late lunch, we drove the Newton Drury Scenic Parkway.  Let me tell you, this was the most magical and mythical rode I've ever been on in my life.  The sun could barely poke through the trees and as we drove, it's like you were just waiting for fairies and magic dust to pop out, or maybe a dinosaur to swing it's tail across the road.  I think I smiled the entire drive.  The trees were gigantic, absolutely gigantic and the green!  The deepest most emerald sparkly green your eyes could ever stand to see.



After this, we headed on a 4 mile dirt road that took us from an emerald forest, to what felt like a jungle out of an Indiana Jones movie to another 4 mile dirt road along an isolated beach.  Here we saw elk.  Yes, elk.  Elk by the ocean, eating grass, is one of the strangest sights you ever will see, and also one of the coolest.  We parked and walked a short hike to Fern Canyon, which is a deep canyon, lined up all sides with ferns.  It was impossible to take a picture to do it justice, but it was really quite cool.  It was also very wet and in our 20 minutes there, all three boys lost a shoe and pant leg or two as victims to the creek we had to cross multiple times.







With everyone wet, it made perfect sense then, to get more wet so we headed straight for Gold Bluffs Beach and the ocean.  We found a completely isolated spot and the boys had a great time getting chased by waves, beach combing, and just getting all around soaked.  The ocean in northern California is so much different than in the South.  Warm gray sand, no shells or signs of life, and just the birds to keep you company.  This was Quinn's first time to experience the ocean.  He was a bit timid at first, for about 5 minutes and then he just went for it, chasing his brothers, burying his feet in the sad and having so much fut.  The boys found a dead fish and each had to pick it up.  They also found crab legs, which I'm sure were left by a bird that Elliott wanted to bring home.  As the boys followed their dad down the beach, I found a quiet spot and just listened to the waves.  They were so loud, quite literally crashing in a way that they don't crash on Huntington beach. It was a lot of fun and a great way to end the day.









We went back to the beach house and got cleaned up and headed into Arcata, California, which is so much cleaner and hipper and cooler than Eureka for dinner.  Ross found a place, Renata's Creperie for dinner and it was delicious.  The boys each had a sweet crepe, filled with fruit, and Ross and I had savory.  A great way to end a great day.