Half Moon Bay

 

 

Unbelievable as this sounds, this is our 10th year straight of doing a pumpkin patch on the last weekend of September. As is tradition, we visited Pastorino's in Half Moon Bay (including the new haunted house -- scary!) and my new rule: you can get any pumpkin you can pick up and take in the wheelbarrow. Nate of course found the largest pumpkin our house has ever seen; Julie went for small but perfectly formed. For lunch, we found Daddy O's…a restaurant that serves gourmet comfort food out the back of a yellow rail car caboose. 

Bike Around SF

 

 

 

 

My friend Steve had a fun idea: ride our bikes from our home to BART, go into SF, and then bike around the city (literally around the WHOLE city) while stopping at our favorite breweries and bakeries. It all worked out according to plan -- all 25 miles -- until the ride down the hill to Ocean Beach where my bike's front fork broke and my tire dislodged, luckily after the fast downhill section. That was a close call. But I was able to fix the bike enough to keep on peddling and make our way back home around 4pm.

Cello

Someone is very excited about 4th grade Strings class and her brand new cello. She almost has the Jaws theme down.

The Mount Diablo Fire

That's the first time I've seen smoke from our backyard. 

Our Labor Day: Trip to UC Berkeley

 

 

 

 

With Gina's brother Dave, we headed out to Berkeley to let the kids slide across from the Berkeley Rose Garden, and then we hit Jupiter for pizza. Since we were one block from campus, we walked through the Life Sciences building to see our favorite Tyrannosaurus Rex.

Inaugural drive over the new Bay Bridge

With the old bridge visible to the left. The drive over the new bridge wasn't any faster, but that didn't matter -- it's beautiful! 

LEGO Kid Fest

 

 

 

 

 

 

Gina found this event in San Jose -- a Lego exposition tour that made a three-day stop in the San Jose Convention Center -- and she bought tickets before it sold out. That Saturday we met up with another family and did as much was physically possible in three hours. The highlights seemed to be the "Friends" station for Julie and Delphine; for Nate and Chloe it was either the area to build structures for a giant map of the US (his red tower), Chima racers, or racing Lego car creations. It didn't take long for us to figure out which areas gave away free Lego sets, and we walked out with our fair share of posters and Legos. What I would give to be able to buy shares in Lego! Unfortuantely it's privately held...