Sunday, November 04, 2007

Sabbatical Blog: 10/18 Scotts Valley, San Jose and flying home

10/18 Scotts Valley, San Jose, and Home
So Sad, today is our last day of Sabbatical. One more big breakfast, one more morning to lounge around and relax. I’m glad the weather in Scotts Valley and San Jose has been really nice. We took our time getting our act together, and Traci had made plans to visit her friend Alisa who has moved back home with her husband and family from Bakersfield.

For me, I think this was the first time I’d actually met Alisa. I’ve heard Traci speak of her many times. And Traci has seen her several times in Bakersfield. So it was nice to finally put a face to a name for me. Alisa and her husband Dave, have 4 kids. Two of which are twins. So they have their hands full.

We spent the remainder of our afternoon with Alisa and her family, before heading to the airport. For whatever reason, by the time we left I was slowly starting to feel a bit funny… kind of light headed. Maybe it’s the beginning of an inner-ear infection?

Dropping off the car at the airport was fairly easy. And for the first time in all our sabbatical travels, we had people help us load our luggage onto the rental car shuttle bus. These same people helped us unload, and even offered to help us get all of our luggage up to the Baggage check. It was very nice and refreshing.

While waiting for our flight, Kylie was starting to lose her cool. She was getting tired, and so were we. Eventually our Southwest flight began boarding, and once again no pre-boarding for families. Hopefully Traci is still motivated to write Southwest about their new boarding policy. It really sucks for families. And is a dis-service to passengers in two ways.
1. We get to bump into people up and down the aisles.
2. People don’t get as much of an opportunity to avoid sitting near families (aka crying babies).
3. We simply take longer to get settled in our seats. With the car-seat, etc.

Our flight was late on arrival, and because of this I feel they were rushing the boarding process. Because of their new boarding process, we get to board with the “A” boarding group, which put us at the back of the 60 some person line. The first row with 3 adjoining seats available was just several rows from the rear of the plane. In the time they finished boarding, and pushed back from the gate, we still didn’t have Kylie’s car seat buckled in. In short, the new boarding process sucks!

Here we are on our last day of freedom. Do we look relaxed?

Kylie rolling on the floor at Alisa's parents house.

Alisa youngest son (12mo.), Ezra, and Kylie playing.

Kylie would often try to steam-roll Ezra, why? I have no idea.

He we are at the San Jose airport awaiting our flight.

Saturday, November 03, 2007

Sabbatical Blog: 10/17 Scotts Valley, CA

10/17 Scotts Valley, CA
This morning we started our day with another great homemade breakfast. Today Erwin didn’t have to work, so he warmed up the La Pavoni Espresso machine and pumped out some tasty caffeinated brew. The previous evening, we had learned that Traci’s best friend Leslie’s sister, Julie, had just given birth at the Stanford hospital. So, Traci and Kylie had planned to go visit since we’re so close and spent the middle part of the day there. From what I heard from Traci, our St. Vincent’s maternity ward is much nicer than Stanfords… but they are doing some remodeling to improve their hospital.

While Traci was out, I spent my time helping my mom and Erwin setup their new Plasma TV, Comcast Cable box, and DVD player… “correctly”. The guys who installed their equipment are a joke. They had cables connected that didn’t belong.. and the biggest offense was having a high-def TV, with High-def service, and not being able to see any of it because they had the TV using the RF modulated CH3 output from the cablebox. It’s a tragedy to say the least.

I also helped Erwin setup their new HP Color Laserjet printer with Wifi Jet direct printing. So needless, to say, I had a productive day. That evening we went for dinner at my Mom’s favorite Sushi place, Shogun, in Downtown Santa Cruz. I really like the Shogun too. It’s better than almost any sushi place I’ve been to in the greater Portland Area. (not that I’ve been to that many different places).

I also always enjoy walking up and down Pacific Ave. in Santa Cruz. There are so many colorful characters that frequent this part of town… it has it’s own built in entertainment. One landmark person, is the “pink” guy. He dresses up all in pink with a tutu and fairy wand or parasol and just stands on the corner. Occasionally waves at people. He’s not pan-handling, he’s just a landmark fixture of Pacific Street. Allegedly he holds a normal job too.

On our way home we decided to play some cards… its become somewhat of a tradition. Traci really likes to play cards, and doesn’t get to play very often. Our game of choice… Hearts. It’s quite competitive with Erwin, Traci, and myself. Erwin is really good at “going for power” or “shooting the moon” depending on your game terminology. It’s where you collect all the tricks and the Queen of spades and as a results you give each of your opponents 26 points (the goal of the game is to have the least amount of points). We spent what must have been a good 3 hours playing. Erwin won, followed by my mom, Traci, and myself. Though the results might have been different had we stopped playing sooner. In either case, we had fun.

Traci with Rob and Julie's newborn baby, Elizabeth.

From left to right: Kylie, Traci, Julie, baby Elizabeth (aka Lilly), and Leslie

It was good that Traci got to meet up with Leslie in the bay area. Initially our sabbatical plans would've had us driving up from LA to San Jose and stopping in Dinuba to see Mark and Leslie. Instead we got 6 days in Cancun. I think it's a fair exchange.

Grandma Kate and Kylie.

"Deal me in."
Kylie thought she was going to be able to stay up and play cards with the adults.

Sabbatical Blog: 10/16 Scotts Valley, CA

10/16 Scotts Valley, CA
Today we started our day with a hearty breakfast cooked by my mom… eggs, French toast, fresh fruit, etc. Erwin had to work today, so instead of having his Pavoni made espresso at home, we took a short walk across the street to Starbucks. We didn’t bring any food for Kylie to munch on, and before I bought something for Kylie, a kind woman overheard Traci and offered Traci the rest of her Kashi Cheerio box. Kylie ate these up no problem.

After Starbucks, my mom took us next door to a cute little shop that sells all sorts of artsy stuff and some kids stuff. Traci and I really liked this wrought iron mini-Eiffel tower and a finger puppet book… and my mom bought these for us. Thanks mom! Kylie really liked the Kitty cat finger puppet book.

Shortly after coming home, my mom made us a gourmet pesto based sandwich lunch… very tasty. We spent the rest of the afternoon around the house. For Dinner my mom made some Bun Bo Xao (Boon Baa Sao), one of our favorite Vietnamese dishes. We were in hog heaven… We greatly appreciate how hard my mom worked to keep us well fed… I’m not sure if she ever left the kitchen from the time we had lunch to the time we had dinner.

Kylie struggling to get the last bit of water out of her starbucks cup.
The little finger-puppet book My mom bought for Kylie.

You can see how novel it is!

Grandma Kate reading to Kylie.

Kylie wanting to conduct some business.