Our weekend adventure

I have no idea what we did on Friday, but on Saturday, we set out to visit the Monterey Bay Aquarium. We dawdled and left a bit later than I'd planned, but it put us in San Jose about lunchtime, so I texted Liz & Andrea and Sue & Sarah. Liz & Andrea could make it, so we headed to their house (and saw the nice new gardenwork!) and then to La Villa for raviolis.

But raviolis were not to be had. (Perhaps this was a sign of impending doom. No crack ravs???) Family business means 'sometimes they are closed.' Went to Willow Street Wood-fired Pizza, except that only G got actual pizza (but the "best ever" Hawaiian pizza anyway!). I got La Villa ravs (!!) but in a red cream sauce that was pretty darn rich. (Didn't stop me from finishing it.) G and Val did a great job sharing the crayons for coloring their menus, yeah!

As we went in, Andrea noticed a long gash in one of my tires that I hadn't seen. She reminded me as we left (good thing, as I'd already forgotten) and I took it across the street to get the spare put on. As I was waiting for them to get to it, I walked around the car and spotted another tire with a gouge in it. I've never had a blowout (knock wood) and don't want to get one, so I asked the guy where the nearest Costco was. He gave good directions and we got there pretty quickly, waving to the Happy Hollow Zoo as we went past.

After buying four new tires for less than the previous set cost, we went into Costco to pass the time and buy some things I'd been meaning to get anyway (stupid printer won't print with an empty ink cartridge, wtf!). They were pretty much done when we finished and went back to the tire center. It was now 4:12PM. I asked the guy how long it would take to drive to Monterey from there, since it was south San Jose and seemed like it could be rather close. "I think you could make it in 45 minutes if there's no traffic," he lies. "We could have a whole hour at the Aquarium!" I'm thinking. (We have loaned passes, so it would still be worthwhile.)

I load up our purchases and we head off. We pull into the parking garage at 5:25; the museum closes at 6. Well, we did get to see the otters, the jellyfish, the big tank (love those giant Sunfish), and G got to see the sea cucumbers, even though the volunteer flatly refused to bring them into the touch pool for him to touch them. (This, after I said it was the one creature he had been waiting to see! "There he is," is all we could get. Um, thanks.)

We were ushered out of the Aquarium, feeling pretty hungry by now. I have decided to splurge a bit and have dinner in Monterey. We do a little shopping and end up in front of Bubba Gump Shrimp Company. G has never seen the movie, so all the references are right over his head (the children's menu has a bunch of trivia questions based on the movie). But they had a "Run Forrest Run" drink that he loved, and I had mahi mahi that was absolutely delicious.

Afterward, we went into a little corner store and both found watches we liked (his with sports balls all over it, and mine a hinged-band watch that doesn't bug my wrist). He is finally learning to tell time on analog clocks. I swear they started this in preschool (and I'm still not great at it!).

Then we headed home, nearly in a stupor, we were so tired.

Sunday, we showed up late to church. I wish we'd been earlier; our minister was giving a really interesting sermon about the magi/wise men/kings, likening their gifts to calm, support, and soothing. I really liked the imagery.

From there, we went to Bed, Bath & Beyond to buy a new digital timer that is dedicated to video game timing. I'll set it to 7 hours on Sunday morning, and whenever it runs out, G's video game time is up for the week. This makes me feel better about his game time, and he really seems to be getting it.

I met up with my fellow knitters at the library that afternoon, and we had the biggest group we'd had so far, with 5. I knit and chatted, and G read a Berkeley Breathed book someone had left behind. From there, we went to a Regifting Extravaganza party, where you bring the things you got from crazy Aunt Marge and would never use, and go home with a box of beer bread mix, a cool Santa ornament, and a jar of tart cherry jam. (OK, I don't have an Aunt Marge, but the other things are true.) Fun!