San Diego Trip: Part 1

As everyone knows, the Jones family is like a part of our extended family.  Dyani, Donovan, Edward, and I were always together as kids.  Our parents met when my mom was pregnant with me while at a Scottish Dance group at our church.  My mom and Kateri have been best friends for as long as I can remember.  So like the brother he seems to be, Donovan included me and Edward on the email list for a big family reunion/40th wedding anniversary event he was organizing for his parents.  

Back in April of this year he started organizing it.  At that time I wasn't sure my mom would be healthy enough to go, but lucky for us, she was.  Since I'd spent so many month working on my experiment (weekends, nights, whole weeks where I'd sent Eddie off to live in Gualala so I could work around the clock in lab) I felt like it was time for a proper Bower family vacation.  So instead of just the weekend Donovan was planning for us, we extended our trip to nearly a whole week.  It was dang near perfect.

My vacation started on Tuesday, September 26, when Eddie and I hosted a potluck party for my lab.  Some people stayed super late but I went about my usual cleaning/laundry/putting Eddie to bed and packing our suitcases.  The next day I had my first panel interview for a teaching assistant position--I nailed it and was offered the position a few hours later.  We left for Livermore that afternoon and hung out with my dad in the garden, had dinner, and then went to visit our friends and their new baby boy.  (Garden fresh dinner and a newborn baby?  What a great way to start a vacation!)

My mom, the Edwards, and I departed from Livermore at 5:20am on Thursday, September 28.  Lucky for us, Eddie fell back asleep almost immediately so we could drive in peace and quiet and there was no traffic while I drove.  We stopped at McDonald's in Lebec at about 10am for latte's and breakfast sandwiches.  Eddie got some energy out by climbing around  on the handrails outside.

Edward took the wheel and got us down to yet another McDonald's in Del Mar for smoothies.  By 2:45pm we arrived at the condo in Mission Beach.  

The condo: three floors, each with a bedroom and bathroom and balcony.  It was really nice and was soooooooo much cheaper than staying in a hotel for that many people.

Of course Eddie fell asleep as soon as I turned the van onto Sunset Court so I parked in the garage and left my mom to watch him while Edward and I used the rental house beach bikes to go grocery shopping at Trader Joe's.  I'd brought our bike trailer along, knowing there were bikes available, so we could tow Eddie to the beach.  

We used the bike path along Mission Bay to get to the store.  It was so nice.

We were definitely not in Davis anymore...there was hardly any bike parking at the store so we improvised.  You can see the security guard taking a break in his car.  He was giving us the stink eye the whole time.

That night I made a salmon chowder using veggies I brought from my dad's garden.  It was sooooooooo good.  I'll make it again and post the recipe here.

Dave and Jennifer both had to work a half day that Thursday so they met up at her apartment and then took the train to SFO to fly down to SD.  Their flight didn't get in until 11pm (and then was delayed due to fog in SF) so we had some time to kill after dinner.  After unpacking all our stuff, we decided to head out for ice cream.  Our trip happened during a bit of a late summer heat wave, so it was still quite warm out by 8pm so we decided to walk to Cold Stone Creamery.  I'm so proud of Eddie and my mom--they both made the whole way on their own.  Eddie rode a trike we found in the condo.  It was heehee-larious to see him pedal that thing really fast down the side walk.  It was a 0.8 mile trek each way and he did it all without complaining.

Uncle was nice and carried Eddie across all the intersections.

The next day when our entire household was there, us kids went to Sea World.  We biked there and back, me with the lovely (not) task of towing Eddie in the trailer.  Ouf, beach bikes are heavy enough as it is and with only one gear and a few overpasses, it was quite the workout.

Given that school was in session and it was nearing fall, Sea World wasn't crowded at all.   We started off with the killer whale show.  And wouldn't you know, the most fascinating things to Eddie were the pipes shooting water and the giant underwater gates that open/close to let the appropriate whales in/out.  That kid is 100% Bower, obsessed by infrastructure.  He sat on Edward's lap during the show and we kept saying, "Oooh, look at the whale jumping out of the water so high!  Isn't that cool?!"  And his response was, "Look at the gate down there in the water, Mama.  Uncle, what is that gate for?  Why is it under water?  Where is the shooting water coming from?"  COME ON, KID!

The rest of the day was spent wandering around the various exhibits and shows.

Adults at the sea otter show.

Bowers inside the shark exhibit.

We went to the beach every night so Eddie could play in the sand.  It was only about 30 seconds to walk there.

The boys, heading for the water.

That Friday night the Jones family arrived and all 24ish of us met up at Tony Roma's for a group dinner.  Actually, we happened to meet up with most of them on Mission Boulevard as we all walked down to the restaurant.  Catching up with everyone was fantastic and it was so fun to see Kateri and Dale with all 5 of their kids and all their kids.  Currently, they have 5 grandbabies ranging in age from 9 years to 2ish months.

It was quite late for the kids to be out, especially Eddie after a full day of Sea World-ing and only a 20 minute nap on the bike ride home in the trailer.  Plus, Dave had taken him to play on the Mission Bay beach near the condo before dinner.  So after more than a few warnings about needing to sit and eat his dinner, Dave whisked him back to the condo early, leaving me to eat my dinner with everyone.  (Thanks, Lover!  And Sorry Allen for Eddie kicking out as he crawled around on the booth.)

Dave, Eddie, and I shared a bunk bed room on the main floor of the house.  I intended for the smallest one to sleep on the top but he made me sleep there instead.  

I'll do another post later about Saturday/Sunday with the Joneses and yet another post about the tail end of the trip.  Stay tuned!

Luther Burbank Benefit Dinner

*This is a much delayed post.  My brain is a bit fried from fiddling with data and R...so I decided to take a brain break.*

For years I've always heard that the Bowers are related to Luther Burbank, the famous botanist.  Supposedly, he was a beloved uncle of Dave's great grandmother.  I figured he was actually related or perhaps he was a good family friend who wasn't related to the family, but was referred to as an "uncle."  One of the first things I remember about the Bower family is that all the men look alike, except for Michael, who looks just like this famous botanist (quite true, actually).

A few months ago I decided to look further into this relation.  Not wanting to pay for genealogy services, I had to poke around online on many different sites and build a family tree from this free information and the Bower heritage scrap book I borrowed from Gualala.  It turns out Burbank had something like 14 siblings and his father was married thrice but had children with only two of the wives.  Like him, many of his siblings didn't have kids, but of course I couldn't find the names of all his nieces and nephews (let alone the nieces married names!).  The sketches I made were messy and confusing with all of these people and the letters/pictures/stories in my scrap book.

When I told Peggy about my searches she finally went out to the storage building, dug around in a box, and found the family tree information for me.  So Luther Burbank's sister Sarah had a daughter named Lizzy who had one child, a girl named Amy who eventually married Dave's great grandfather, John.  After all this wondering, discussing, and finally getting the answer Dave and I decided that Luther will be the name of our second born son (if we get one).  So there you have it: someday there might be a Luther Bower (Lute, for short).

Anyway, during this poking around online I came across an event being held at the Luther Burbank Gardens in Santa Rosa on Saturday, September 8.  There was to be charity dinner in the gardens, highlighting some of the fruits Burbank developed during his life.

Cute idea: green beans in the water

I arranged for Eddie to spend the night with a friend and got us a hotel near Santa Rosa.  I was sooooooooo excited to dress up, mingle with people, sip on local wines, and eat local/sustainable/historical foods.

Us, all ready to go eat some scrumptious foods and meet new people!

Me standing at the back of the famous greenhouse.

A view of the gardens

A handsome man standing at the front of his great--fifth-uncle's greenhouse

The menu

First course: a plum popscicle

Second course: raviolo (singular of ravioli)

Third course: succotash (basically tomato jelly over corn pudding).

Fourth course: chicken pot pie

I didn't take pictures of the other courses, unfortunately.

So that all looks amazing, right?  Well, it started out great...but then by the second course, Dave was in the bathroom barfing.  You will recall that only two weeks prior Eddie and I had come down with the stomach flu.  We're not sure what Dave got that night, but it sure sucked (can a stomach virus last in the house for 2 weeks?).  I'd shared drinks with him all day and I didn't get sick that time.  Who knows.  We texted back and forth and he kept urging me to stay and enjoy the food.  But eventually I left (just before dessert and speeches) because I felt so bad for Dave.

We considered making the 1.5 hour drive home but I'm glad we didn't because he barely made it back to the hotel.  That night consisted of him going between the bed and the bathroom, me running downstairs to refill our ice bucket and buy Gatorade, and both of us trying to sleep.  Poor Davie.  It took him a few days to feel 100% again.

Eddie, of course, had a fabulous time at Renee/Kelly/Jeff's house--playing, doing art projects, etc.  We played at a new park, had a picnic dinner, and generally stayed out of the house for the rest of that Sunday so Dave could recover in peace and quiet.

I'm confident that our next visit to the Burbank Gardens will end much more happily and healthily!

On a happier note, Burbank also wrote a book about raising kids called The Training of the Human Plant.  Mind you, he never had kids, but he had some great insights.  My dad has had a quote from this book hanging near his desk at home since my childhood:

"Every child should have mud pies, grasshoppers, water-bugs, tadpoles, frogs, mud-turtles, elderberries, wild strawberries, acorns, chestnuts, trees to climb, brooks to wade in, water-lilies, woodchucks, bats, bees, butterflies, various animals to pet, hayfields, pine-cones, rocks to roll, sand, snakes, huckleberries and hornets; and any child who is deprived of these has been deprived of the very best part of his education."

I heartily agree.

Day in the Life: Thursday

Today I took a picture of whatever I was doing for each hour that I was up.  I chose today because it was (supposed to be) pretty typical: school, daycare, etc. There was only one little hiccup but it turned out okay.  This quarter I am not teaching and I'm only attending my grad group seminar and our lab meeting each week.

7am: I started the coffee and then got to work cleaning up the kitchen.  It sucks that it's so dark  now in the mornings. Come on November 4, I need my light.

8am: Cooking breakfast, watching the news (Eddie was watching a Mickey show in the living room).

9am: Bike packed up and ready to go...sort of.  I wish I'd have been organized enough to have Eddie in the trailer already.
But who am I kidding?  We never leave the house before 9am.

10am: Weighing out samples on the microbalance.  I listen to This American Life while I do lab work like this.  I listen to the podcasts backward chronologically.  Right now I'm in the middle of 2001 and it only goes to 1995.  I better finish up this PhD before I run out of shows.

11am: Backing up my data using Dropbox.   Like my Tupperware footrest?

12pm: Lunch was leftovers.

1pm: Trying to do some stuff in R.   

2pm: Still trying to do some stuff in R. The subset function changed some variables into NA instead of  numbers. Not only was that weird, it was really annoying.

3pm: Coffee time!  Don't laugh, but I drink decaf during the day now and it has plenty of caffeine to keep me going until bedtime.

4pm: Cassie texted to say that Eddie had a bit of a cough and after his super long nap (3 hours!) he refused to get up from his mat because he said he didn't feel good. So I biked home in some crazy wind to get the car, assuming he was too sick to want to bike home in the trailer. Turns out, he was fine (minus a small cough). I think his post-nap crankiness conned them into thinking he was sick. This stunt makes me worried about how he'll act when he's a teenager...

5pm: We picked up our CSA basket on campus. I put everything away while Eddie watched a show.

5pm: Just wanted to include a pic of Eddie and the doggies watching some Mickey show.

6pm: I shelled beans while Eddie watched even more of that Mickey show. He couldn't tell that I had ear buds in and was listening to another episode of This American Life.  Shhhh, no need to burst his bubble that I don't enjoy his kid shows as much as he does.  I paid juuuuuuust enough attention to it to answer Mickey when he asked which tool was needed to save so-and-so.

7pm: I watched the debate while I made dinner. Ryan reminds me of a hotter version of Gabe from The Office.

8pm: Eddie took a poop break from bath time.

9:30pm: Doggies were getting the bed all warm and hairy for me.  Dave's ETA tonight is 11pm.

Kris Kross

Remember that rap group, Kris Kross?  One of their signature fashion statements was wearing their pants backwards.  Zipper at the back. Butt pockets at the front.

Eddie does this sometimes, too.  But for him it's a matter of probability: sometimes he picks them up the correct way and sometimes he just happens to pick them up the wrong way.  But either way, he just puts them on.  And if you know any toddler boys, you know that they DO NOT want to be corrected.  

I had to run some errands on campus after I picked him up from daycare on Tuesday.  He was very proud that he'd put on (and taken off) his naptime Pull Up by himself.  No one had to inform me that he also put his shorts and shoes back on after nap by himself.

 Heehee, ain't he cuuuuuuuuuuuuuuute?

Moroccan Margarita

Want a new idea for using preserved lemons?  Like in a drink?

Jennifer loves coming up with new cocktail concoctions.  Last week I brought some vodka plum cordial I had stewing in my pantry and bought some sorbet at the store, knowing she'd make it into something delicious to enjoy while dinner was cooking.

And she did.

We found a neglected jar of Moroccan preserved lemons on top of the fridge.  I think I gave them to her in the spring...oops.  But they smelled delicious and the jar sat on the counter while we made dinner.

She and a friend made a delicious, margarita-tasting cockail and got a fun idea to add a little bit of the preserved lemon brine.  That tiny bit of salty-citrusy flavor was amazing.  It really brought the whole thing together and made it taste just like that first, salt-rimmed sip of a fruity margarita.  So, so good!  And another great way to use preserved lemons.

Moroccan Margarita
Blenderize the following:

• 1/2 cup vodka plum cordial (or any fruit cordial)
• 2 scoops mango or blood orange sorbet
• a splash or two of soda water
• a teaspoon (or to taste) of Moroccan preserved lemon brine

She also made a spicy cocktail by swapping out the brine for a fresh, minced cayenne pepper.  It was surprisingly delicious.

Quick Update

Apologies for not posting recently.  I'm sure you were all waiting impatiently at home for me to post something.  We were in San Deigo last week for a beach vacation, sandwiched between spending time in Livermore at my parents' house, and wrapped up with a day/night at Edward's apartment and then a family birthday party for my mom's 70th birthday.  So...we've been busy.

Here's a quick look at upcoming post topics:

There was a conveniently timed heat wave to wrap up the summer while we were in San Diego.

 

We went to San Diego to crash the Jones' 40th wedding anniversary/family reunion.  Just kidding, we were invited!

We had a fun party at their oldest son's Cross Fit gym, where we had done "a Cross Fit" that morning.  Ouf, my upper body took quite a beating.

We ate at McDonald's 4 times on that trip.  I love fast food for breakfast, but I did discover that the salads are also super yummy (and the whole milk latte's).  Dave and I laughed when we found ourselves having to convince Eddie to eat the nuggets and fries from his happy meal.  He just wanted the milk and apple slices.  

Our vacation rental condo was about 30s from Mission Bay beach so we went every night for an hour until it got too dark to see.

In Livermore, my dad's garden was going gangbusters, thanks to the heat (and that he didn't plant it until June).  I took all of this produce home.

When we got back to Davis I paid $8 (!!!!) for this gallon of milk, but found these cans of coconut milk discounted down to only $1.59 each (30% off).  Dave went to Safeway on Sunday and found organic milk for less than $6/gallon.  Local is good, but it's expensive.  (For record's sake, gas was $4.23/gallon in Livermore before we left for San Deigo and it was $4.89/gallon in Davis on Sunday.)

Eddie and I spend Friday in Mountain View with Uncle because a) I forgot to arrange for childcare and b) I had a Groupon voucher for CuriOddessey to use up. Uncle tried to ride his bike to meet us at CuriOddessey but got a flat.  Eddie had a good time "helping" him fix it that night.

Saturday we celebrated my mom and Uncle Bill's 70th birthdays at Royer Park in Roseville, a park they played at as children since their house was only a block away.

Taking pictures of the birthday people was difficult with so many kids running around!

Edward and Jennifer rode the 39 miles from Davis to Roseville for the party but hitched a ride with us that evening.  Check out my minivan: living up to its potential!

Sunday we ran errands and took Eddie to Hometown Buffet for lunch.  He did a pretty good job of eating and staying in the booth while we ate.  We bribed good behavior out of him with promises of a blue Icee and cake from the dessert station.

I gave the boys haircuts and after Eddie was bedded down, Dave took the doggies to the park for their nightly romp.  He has them trained sooooooooo much better than I do.  They stay (impatiently...Ruby shakes with anticipation) until he says, "okay" with a sweep of his hand and then they run off to the baseball diamond at the park.

More will come later.  These pictures are from my phone.  I have more and better pictures on the actual camera of our adventures to the San Diego Zoo, Sea World, and the Wild Animal Safari Park, plus pictures of the awesome beach house, etc.