Escaping the heat

 

with a quick trip to the beach. Sand for them, and then a stop at a brewery for us later.

2005 vintage bottled

 

I pumped the cabernet from the barrel into the variable capacity tank and mixed with six gallons of the petite verdot before bottling. I'm thinking of calling it Natulie Cab....hmmm. Sounds close to the Nadalie barrel (from the Nevers forest in France). SHT letters indicate the level of toast to the barrel, in this case Heavy Toast.

Sunflower update

 

 

This year we were around to watch them bloom. They've grown a lot since May.

Reading to Trains

 

He likes an audience. This time he's reading "Oi! Get off my Train!" to his collection in the living room.

Nature's Bounty

 

From our garden: apples, peaches, tomatillos, strawberries. Not shown: lots of juicy red tomatoes, and a couple of anemic ears of corn.

Nate's Snakes

 

Trains are still king in Nate's mind, but now he's starting to develop a new little kingdom of snake friends. On one recent morning watching "Wonder Pets", we stumbled upon Nate's assembled friends all poised to watch the show.

San Mateo County Fair

On Gina's birthday, we visited the San Mateo County Fair to see the rides, pet the snakes, visit my wine entry (no medal, oh well) and generally poop ourselves out. The highlights must have been the looong and fast ferris wheel ride, and all the reptiles near the children's exhibits.

SF Golden Gate Park Playground

 

 

 

 

Train Day at SFO

I took the kids to the SFO airport via Caltrain and BART last week, stopping at the new International Terminal. Besides the good restaurants there, the international terminal where BART ends is also a convenient place to pick up AirTrain, the new-ish two-car automated train that runs on elevated track around the airport and out to the rental car buildings. It's the best view & ride anywhere. By the time we stopped for lunch, and took the obligatory escalator and elevator rides, the kids were wiped out and we slowly headed back home the same way we arrived.