Red Chuck

45 Robots

Saturday, Harrison drew 45 Robots. He said he wanted to design machines to help with things around the house. So for example, he drew Mowy who mows the lawn and Sweeper who sweeps the roof. But after drawing several of these helpful robots, he then started drawing more fanciful automotans. There's Spike who's purpose is self preservation, Claw who "controls stuff" with lightbulbs and eyestalks, and (and this is my favorite drawing of the bunch) Smarty who builds other robots.

Part of the fun for both of us was naming each robot and then talking about what each robot could do. I took photographs of each of the drawings and then imported them into iPhoto. After that, Harrison told me what to name each robot and what to write about each robot. I typed his descriptions into iPhoto's comment field, trying to stick as closely as possible to his words and diction. Export as "Web Page" and voila — instant robot web archive. We are both extremely pleased with the result. I am very glad that we took the time to sit down and name all these guys, because, to me, the descriptions and names are as imaginative and colorful as the drawing themselves.

So without further ado, here's 45 Robots.

John Cale

Set your calendars, John Cale -- Hendrix College -- Nov. 4th -- FREE!

Recess

So Katherine's recess gig went well. I was secretly hoping they'd outfit her in an orange vest and arm her with a whistle. No dice. She said she did call down a first grader who was teasing a younger class mate. Otherwise her stint as monitor was uneventful. She said there was a lot of action on the playground but that most of the kids were well behaved.

Uncle Steven

Friend Alan's friend Tom's friend Steven holds baby.

The Stampede of Children

So we're half a week into kindergarten now and Harrison still hasn't given up too many details about what his school day is like. "You know, we line up for class, then they ring the bell, then we sit in a circle, and then we have lunch," he says matter-of-factly when I ask him how his day has been. (Actually you need to replace all those aforewritten Ls with Ws in order to really get to how he explains the tiresome business of life in K: "You know, we wine up for cwass, then they wing the bewl. . . etc.) He does get quite animated when talking about recess though. "Dad, you won't believe it. . . they open the doors and its a. . . stampede of children." To demonstrate the point, Harrison will then run around the room screaming and waving his hands over his head.

Katherine has signed up to help supervise recess. Tomorrow is her first day as a parent monitor. I can't wait to hear about the child stampede from her perspective.

Hart in Neutra

Kindergarten

So Harrison survived his first day of kindergarten and we survived dropping him off. School starts at 7:30 and as we left the house this morning, Harrison asked, "Are you sure school starts this early?" (My sentiments exactly.) Though he seemed uncertain about school hours, overall his mood was upbeat. He was excited about wearing his uniform, he was excited about his new lunchbox, and he was especially excited to be doing something that his sister isn't old enough to do. ("Hewen, one day you will be 6 and you will go to kindergarten too," he said.) Also, he was determined to bring in homework on his first day, so he wrote 2 + 2 = 4 in black majic marker on construction paper while he ate his breakfast at the kitchen table.

Since we are fortunate enough to live within walking distance of school, we all made the journey this morning, Lucky included. Our morning trek cut through a playground and a soccer field — gorgeous, wide open, dewy, grassy spaces. Yes, a scenic trek with lots of oppurtunities for a dog to frolick and/or take care of business. So in typical Lucky fashion, the TCoB aspect of the walk was performed not in the open fields behind school but in a small patch of grass right beside the school's main entrance. While Katherine took Harrison into his classroom, Helen and I stood out front and did our best to steer the crush of people clear of Lucky's work: "Good Morning, oops, watch out there, the dog just. . ." and instead of saying anything more, I employed an apologetic grin and a sweep of the arm to infer that there was something nearby that needed to be avoided. Thankfully someone appeared with a plastic bag.

Its hard to believe Harrison is now in elementary school. It seems just like yesterday that we were driving down 21st Ave with this cooing, brown eyed newborn boy in the backseat. Its also hard to believe I missed meeting Harrison's teacher and seeing his classmates because of our dog, Lucky. As Billy Pilgim would say, "So it goes."

Or, as Katherine says, in reference to Lucky, "Unbelievable!"

In Their Own Words: The Woefully Gifted or What I Dislike About My Super Power

Marshmallows and Toohpicks

In case you haven't noticed, I've been posting a lot of rollover images recently. (What! You haven't noticed! Well go back and mouse over some images.)

So what we have in today's rollover image is an example of what two six years olds can do with a bunch of toothpicks and marshmallows. And yeah, it ain't buckytubes but it is a good way to occupy an hour when you and the six year olds are confined to the house on an extremely hot afternoon.

Construction notes: First Harrison and his buddy started working on separate structures. Then they realized they should connect their structures, which they very obviously did. The result - the Super Amorphous Structure that is currently stuck to our kitchen table. (Note to parents, don't let these sit in one place for too long.)

Lake Catherine

Out of all our travels recently, its nice to report that we had a great time here in the Natural State this weekend. Katherine and I took the kids to Lake Catherine Friday after work for a family reunion. Helen and Harrison went fishing with their cousin Jack. Actually they cast plastic fish into the lake and then reeled them back in, which doesn't make for great fishing stories but does make for great fun (if you are under the age of 7). In lieu of a great fishing story, cousin George told us about an incident he witnessed a couple days before (George and his family rented cabins for the week, so they had lots of good Lake Catherine stories).

George's Story: "Earlier in the week, the cabin next to ours was being rented by an elderly woman who was confined to a wheelchair. One day I noticed that the woman was sitting not in her wheelchair but in a rocking chair on the porch facing the lake and that two young boys were pushing her wheelchair up the hill beside the cabin. After getting the wheelchair to the top of the hill, one of the boys jumped aboard and rode the chair down the hill and off the dock into the lake. The other boy cheered and then ran down to the water's edge. The two of them fished the chair out of the lake and then pushed it back up the hill for another turn. As this continued, the old woman started yelling at the boys, 'Quit ramping my chair off that dock!' Of course, she couldn't do anything to stop them other than yell loudly from her rocking chair, which she did for an hour or so."

George's story is pretty good but the best part was his closing comment,

"Yeah, that's not the kind of thing you'd find people doing if they were staying in the Hamptons."

Even though Lake Catherine ain't the Hamptons, it sure seemed idyllic Friday evening. A cool breeze was blowing off the calm water. The kids played well together and after "fishing," they went for an evening swim. There were hamburgers and hot dogs on the grill, there were funny stories in the air, and miracuously, there were no mosquitos above the skin.

San Francisco

2 reasons why this picture best sums up our day in the city:

1) We had a great time (big smile, wave hello to everyone back home).

2) Katherine and I carried the kids everywhere we went today.

What a day. Golden Gate Park, Haight Ashbury, then Chinatown, North Beach, and Nob Hill on foot. We got into the city around 12 and immediately drove to Golden Gate Park. Once again Helen fell asleep in the van, so Harrison and I went to the children's playground behind Kezar Stadium for an hour. After that we drove to Haight Street and walked around for 30 minutes in search of a burrito restaurant Christina recommended to us called Bob's Burritos. (If you haven't noticed yet, we like burritos). The restaurant was nowhere to be found but we did stumble upon a Taqueria with a "Bob's Burrito" on the menu, so we ate there. Rather we ordered food there and then got it to go because Helen stared to have a major meltdown. So after getting back in the van, we headed to our hotel for our 3pm check in.

Out of all the hotels we have stayed in this trip, this hotel is the worst. Our room at the Ramada on Market Street looks out on a brick wall. The beds are uncomfortable, the plumbing stinks (literally), and the only amenity is wireless internet in the rooms. The only reason I bother complaining is becasue this is Expedia's number 1 choice for reasonable accomodations in San Francisco. Blech. Next time we'll stay at the Hotel Triton.

Once we got settled in our room, the bed jumping began, so we decided to get everyone suited up for a trip to Chinatown. By the way, the "I'm tired, I wanna go back to the hotel" whining thing that strangely turns into "Lets spazz out in the new hotel room" is an interesting and frustrating part of traveling with young children. As of yet, I can think of no way to counter this phenomena.

Anyway, our plan was to walk three blocks down Market to the Powell St. cable car turnaround and then ride a cable car to Nob Hill and Chinatown. When we got to Powell the cable car line was a block long so we decided to hoof it. This was when both Harrison and Helen got tired so we carried them up to Union Square. Pant pant. At Union Square, we all sat down for a breather, grabbed a pretzel for a snack and then cut over to Grant street and the green gates that mark the south entrance to Chinatown. I should also pause to note that there was a lot of whining about going to Chinatown by Harrison. This all ended once we got there. Harrison was in heaven. We went into about 5 different shops in the first block. Harrison couldn't believe all the stuff. Then, out of nowhere, a dragon parade came down the street. Harrison and Helen couldn't believe their eyes. A white dragon came right down the sidewalk past us. The parade actually consisted of 2 dragons and a small procession of teenagers in red t-shirts clanging cymbals and beating drums. It was all very loud and exciting. My camera's memory card was full so in trying to make room for a couple more shots, I missed the beginning of the parade. I did get this shot of Harrison and Helen as the noisy tail end of the parade passed us.

After the dragon parade we ducked into another store where Harrison found some glow in the dark dinosaurs and Helen picked out a Hello Kitty clock. After checking out, we faced a new challenge. Both kids needed a bathroom. I thought we were getting close to North Beach so I suggested we high tail it that way and try to find a pizzeria. We went down 1 block, up 2 more (lots of whining at this point) and walked straight into Café Niebaum~Coppola at the corner of Kearny and Columbus. Halleluia. We all sat down in a corner booth and shared a small pizza. After dinner we walked up Columbus to City Lights Bookstore and then kept walking to the Gellato stand on the corner for desert. We considered walking over to Telegraph Hill to watch the sunset but wisely decided to head back to the hotel.

Once again our intention was to ride a cable car! We walked down Broadway to Powell. When we finally found a cable car, it was packed. We kept walking the cable car route (basically Powell) in the hopes we might find a less busy car. No dice. So with the kids on our shoulders we hoofed and huffed it up and down Nob Hill all the way to Market and back to our beloved Ramada. What a day.

And what a trip. Tomorrow we get up early and head for the airport. On our walk down Powell this evening, Harrison said, "Dad, I don't want our vacation to be over." That felt good. Its been quite an adventure. Though I have complained some, Harrison and Helen really have been great little travellers. We've been on the move a lot and they've stuck right with us.

Also of all the places we've been this week, I think we all liked San Francisco the best. What an incredible city. The people, the food, the parks, the culture, the geography! We could see the bay from Nob Hill today — a sailboat in the distance framed by the houses and buildings that line the street. What other city in the world offers such surprising views? I am always inspird by this place. Maybe some day soon we'll all come back.

Breakfast

OK. Just had the best breakfast of the trip. The coffee and scones at the Downtown Bakery & Creamery in Healdsburg are out of this world. And its no wonder. Our host and guide, English, tells us that this place is owned and operated by two former managers from Chez Panisse. We bought a small potato leek pizza for the road.

By the way, I'm sitting in the rental minivan with the kids while Katherine and English shoe shop. Can't wait to get rolling. . .

Healdsburg

Another action packed adventure filled day. We drove up from Monterey to San Francisco, hitting the foggy city around 12. An easy 2 hour drive. No problems. The minute we got off the 101, Helen started screaming. So we spent 30 minutes winding through the city with a crying 3 year old as our soundtrack. All our troubles vanished when we discovered that the Greens Restaurant now has a take out counter. All praise the veggie gods. We sat at a picnic table at Fort Mason Center and devoured delicious tapinade and arugula sandwichs and sipped moroccan bean soup. (The child who will only eat french fries nibbled a croissant). After that it was an easy drive to the Exploratorium. Man, what a great place. So many different things to explore. Harrison really got into the biology exhibits. We spent a lot of time looking through microscopes at potato skin cells. Thankfully he wasn't intereted in the cow eye dissection. He also liked dancing in front of 3 color projection wall. Overall I was impressed with the museum's mixture of science and art. A great deal of the mechanical exhibits are credited to sculptors. Their creations are as structurally inventive as they are educational.

At 3pm we hit the 101 North to the Golden Gate bridge and an hour and a half later found ourselves in Healdsburg. What an amiable town. With Finch Mountain in the distance you get the feeling that you are in some thawed alpine community that is nothing but friendly. We walked to the town square for a picnic supper. A swing band was playing in the bandstand and the park was packed. It looked as if the whole town was present. We drank red wine and ate ham sandwiches while Harrison and Helen danced and played. I mean, what the hell? Have you ever been to Northern California? Is this the norm? Perfect weather, good food, people drinking great wine downtown on a Tuesday night. What's not to love.

Monterey

It's 9:45. Everyone is in bed but me. Helen has been whining because she wanted someone to remove the sales tag from the stuffed animal (a sea otter) we bought at the aquarium today. Harrison is alseep. Katherine just murmured form a half sleep "OK. Ya'll. I'm just so frustrated with everybody." Here we are at the end of another day on vacation.

The picture is from today at the aquarium. I love the light. We were sitting in an alcove having a snack. Actually we were just getting up from our snack to go to the next exhibition. I like this as a family portrait because its not your ordinary here-we-are-all-smiling-together-in-front-of-something-grand type picture. (Don't worry, I do have some of those from this weekend). But lets face it. Half of a family vacation is fun and half is hell. At this point in the game, we are all getting on each other's nerves a little bit. But don't worry, we've had fun.

Today, for instance, was pretty great. First we spent 2 hours at the aquarium. The jellyfish exhibit was amazing. Its a glowing, slow motion ballet of aqueous flower creatures. Mesmerizing. Strangely relaxing. Oh wait, they're piping some new age music in here. Oh well, this is California after all. So, moving on, the kelp forest was amazing. Would you just look at those giant stalks of kelp swaying in the tide!? Its so hypnotizing (tolerable new age music playing in the background, a loopy synthesizer piece, very Terry Riley-ish). Look! There's a bat ray! Look! There's a spotted fish! Look! There's a six year old boy with a mohawk! I mean, what mother would allow. . . There were so many things to see today at the aquarium. Harrison and Helen kept darting from window to window, wide eyed at each new discovery while Katherine and I both kept a watchful eye on them and on the throngs of people that surrounded us. Even on a Monday, the aquarium was very busy.

So after a side trip to the gift shop, we all strolled down Cannery Row until Helen started complaining that she wanted to go home. OK. Fair enough. We've had a busy morning. Assuming she needed a nap, we took the trolley back to the Hotel Pacific. After getting everyone settled, I went in search of lunch. 2 blocks away I found a great burrito place. I ordered a veggie for Katherine (her usual) and got myself a Super filled with chili verde. Then I returned to the hotel to find no one napping. Helen and Harrison were jumping on the bed, so we ate fast and then headed to El Estero Park.

After Harrison & Helen worked off some energy sliding down slides and climbing on the playground, we drove 2 miles NW to beautiful Pacific Grove. Within five minutes of being in the car, Helen fell asleep. Oh well. The rest of us enjoyed the ride. Pacific Grove is a surprising town. The architecture is like fusion cuisine. We saw an asian style adobe house as well as some victorian style motor lodges. Amazingly, none of this seemed tacky. Quaint, yes. But I think the clean sea air keeps you from looking at anything in Northern California with too critical an eye. So after cruising this little town, we made it to the beach where Harrison and I waded in the tidal pools in search of starfish, hermit crabs, anemones, and other coastal creatures that we had seen earlier at the aquarium.

From Pacific Grove we drove back to Monterey. Helen woke up when we got into town. The four of us spent the rest of the afternoon wandering through Monterey State Historic Park. We walked through the walled sanctuary of the Pacific House and the gardens of California's First Theater (lots of Morning Glories). After that we went in search of dinner. We ordered a cheese pizza (the child who will only eat french fries agreed to this compromise) and Katherine went off for falafel. I forgot to mention that Katherine was today's winner in the Don't Lose Your Cool parenting contest. I lost 3 points during the bed jumping incident. As I've said before, there's always tomorrow.

Overall, Monterey is a great town for a family trip. Its easy to get around. Our trip to the aquarium was a free trolley ride. Other than that, we walked everywhere (excluding the jaunt to Pacific Grove). Our hotel is a little pricey but I'd say its well worth it since we are right in the middle of everything we want to see and do. Also, we found a great market right around the corner which has enabled us to eat several meals in our hotel room's kitchenette, saving us both money and the hassle of dealing with little kids in a restaurant.

Oh, I forgot to mention, the Beat Museum is also right around the corner from where we are staying. The Beat Museum is full of beat poet memorabilia like a photograph of Allen Ginsberg taking a picture of the guy who owns and operates the Beat Museum (which is what the caption said instead of "Allen Ginsberg holding a camera in front of his face" which is what the caption also could have said), like a paperback copy of the Grove anthology "The Beats" sealed in a plastic bag, and like, not much else. Nevertheless, I did like the store, I mean, museum. I bought a later-years Ginsberg first edition though the store owner was really pushing some sort of Kerouac narrated art film on me. I said, "I think I'll stick with a book."

Tomorrow we get up early and head to Healdsburg to see some old friends and a little bit of the wine country. Our plan is to take the 101, stop in San Francisco for lunch, visit the Exploritorium, and then head north over the Golden Gate Bridge before rush hour begins.

Contest Amendment

New rule. Whoever loses their temper the least today wins. So far the score is tied 1 to 1.

BTW the Aquarium was incredible. Lots of interactive exhibits. The kelp forest was especially cool.

The Contest

Katherine and I are holding a contest with each other to see who can go the longest without losing their temper today. The prize — an hour alone later this evening. Wish me luck.

The Aquarium

Are we going to the aquarium today? Are we going to the aquarium today? I have been asked this question approxiamtely 400 times on this trip. Today I can say yes. Monterey Bay Aquarium here we come.