Weekend recap

Friday
Our city's Rec & Parks department saw fit to arrange an outdoor family movie for Friday night. It was really great fun. Families were encouraged to bring picnic lunches and arrive 6:30ish with chairs and blankets. The movie was scheduled for 8:15. We got there about 7 and were given a drawstring plastic bag with some coupons (free "now all natural" 7-Up) and 2 hair products and a very sexist "Help Mommy Get Beautiful" booklet. (WTF?) Then we went in through the gate and were offered our choice of new Diet Pepsi "Jazz" flavors in a 2-liter bottle. Neither was caffeine-free but I was too curious not to grab one. We got "Black Cherry/French Vanilla." I tasted it today and it is very sweet and kinda odd.

On Saturday, I stashed the bottle and we headed to the baseball outfield to find a spot. I chose a fairly central spot and set up our chairs. They had some kid's activities, so I walked over with G to do them. The one he liked best involved going in a big inflated cylinder and having a Park & Rec guy roll him down to a cone and back. He did it like 3 times, in between eating some of his sandwich. They also did kid games on the infield while he was being rolled. They were pretty cute but dang they could have had more prizes! Only 3 kids got prizes at all, out of, in the end, easily 70 kids participating (the last one was that game where you have the line of kids join hands and they have to pass a Hula Hoops down the row, each kid going through the hoop, without dropping hands).

Finally, about 8:30, they started Nanny McPhee. It was really very good. Lots of actors I didn't know, some very good ones I did, and the ending was not as I expected, which I always like. It didn't end till about 10:00, though, which is pretty darned late for G, so it was hard to get us all packed and out of there. Home about 10:30 and my boy really conked out, shoes on and all.

Saturday
We didn't have anything special going on on Saturday morning, thank goodness, because we had a lazy morning. I had a card-stamping party to get to by 2PM (1:30 when she called to ask if I could bring my 5' table), so we finally got going maybe 11:30. I wanted to go to Costco but realized we wouldn't be able to get there & back in time, not on a possibly busy Saturday. So we buzzed by the library and went to the party.

Which was fun! I made two cards, learned a bit more about this stuff, and had a good time. After dinner out together with some of the other families, we went to Orinda to pick up a cable modem I'd arranged to buy. I was hoping it would be plug & play but the "Online" light never lit up when I tried it. Oh, well, more work on that later. (I need to return the original modem to my Internet provider, as they'll be charging me $10/mo in a few days.)

We got to bed fairly early, because...

Sunday
...we were registered for a kayaking trip for queer families out at Moss Landing. I had thought I could do a 9:30AM kayak trip and be at my 2:30PM game with no trouble. Then I read on the description that we were due to be out of the water at 2PM! Oy. I debated and finally decided to commit to the trip, as I had never seen a kid-friendly kayak trip advertised before. Felt bad about missing the game, though.

We left the house at 7:15AM and made good time, even with stopping for drive-thru breakfast.
Got there right on the dot of 9:30 and a gal in a "ONE LESS [sic] CAR" t-shirt came right up to my car and said, "Are you Jeannie?" (close enough) "Well, the tour leader has been trying to call everyone. She has a stomach bug and has to cancel." Note that there were no messages at work, home, or on my cell phone, ever. Annoying.

But I spotted a friend from my childbirth class and we all joined onto a family tour and had a great time. I had wanted to see sea otters and we must have seen 15-20, as well as harbor seals, cormorants, and other cool wildlife. My friend's family and we had lunch together afterward and parted ways, them to Monterey Bay Aquarium and us for home. I didn't want to go over 17 again for fear of being stuck in beach traffic, so I decided to take 152 to 101 instead.

Turns out I was thinking of 156 from Monterey to 101, which is fairly straight and quite quick. 152 wends its way around Watsonville for quite a while and then twists and turns through the hills, past Mt Madonna State Park (very pretty; lots of redwoods), toward Gilroy. There is not one single road sign saying, "100,000,000 miles till Gilroy" at all. It's endless.

As we approached Gilroy, I thought, "Hm, isn't 152 where Bonfante Gardens is?" and lo and behold! it was. And as we have VIP passes to Great America, they get us in free to BG. BG is way better for younger kids, so I decided we'd stop there instead. Got out of the car and was nearly pushed backward by the enormous wave of heat. (Record-setting heat for both Saturday and Sunday in Gilroy. Lucky us.)

Not to be put off, we shouldered forward and had a really rather nice, if sweaty, time there. The guys at one of the food places were very, very nice about giving us ice water again and again and not charging (as some folks do) for the paper cup.

Headed home about 6:30PM. G asked what we were having for dinner and promptly fell asleep, not waking till this morning.