The Swing

Shelly has a wonderful swing in her back yard, which all the kids enjoy.

While we were there they were cleaning out the shed behind the swing. It is going to be renovated into an artist studio for a neighbor. Durring the clean up they found an opossum in a box, which they put into the chicken coop. This was, of course, incredibly exciting to the kids. And even more exciting when the opossum figured out how to get out, climbed the cage and left through an upper door that was unlatched! Lot's of delighted screaming...

Hanging out at Shelly's

Griselda's kids are like Shelly's grandchildren, and were very sweet and entertaining. And obviously spend alot of time at Shelly's. Julien and Sebastian loved hanging out with them. They read books together, poked in the dirt, threw ice into the street and more. Soon they will be moving into a new place. Shelly will miss them!

Griselda's Tamales

Griselda, Shelly's downstairs neighbor (and former caretaker of her mother), stayed up all night making tamales one night. The next day friends came by to buy them, mostly families with young children. It was great for Julien, who became part of a pack of kids.

Griselda explained the process of making the tamales to Julien, including buying the corn and having it ground in Watsonville.

And we all loved the tamales.

Shark Attack

Julien is quite concerned that since Ali is a surfer she will get bitten by a shark. That didn't stop him from letting his shark attack her.

Ali

We saw Ali almost every day that we were in Santa Cruz. She seems like she is doing really well. She still lives in the same little house by her old farm, Dirty Girl Produce, which is now run by a man (somehow the name takes on a different meaning).

She now works for two non-profits, Roots of Change and Greenopia. She also spends a lot of time surfing. Julien thought she was really great. He ate as many blackberries as he could pick when we visited her. She also took us to a surf museum in the Santa Cruz light house, where we saw a surf board with shark bite marks in it.

Lunch and snack

When we finally stopped for a snack at the end of the day we were pretty wiped out. We also realized that we were there till closing, which meant that we had been there for 5 or 6 hours! It had been a long, and very memorable, day.

Tide pools

My posts have been delayed because of work and the stomach flu, which we all got in the last three days.

In any case, Julien loved touching everything in the tide pools, especially the bat star and the shark egg case.

Kelp Forest

Julien was mesmerized by the Kelp forest. He sat on the ledge watching the silver sardine clouds and the leopard sharks for a long time.

Jellies

Outer Bay

The Outer Bay exhibit was amazing. We saw several types of sharks and rays and a very weird fish that looked a bit like a swimming rock. My favorites were the sea turtles. (Thanks to Shelly for the beautiful photos).

Monterey Bay Aquarium

Before our trip I had promised Julien a trip to the Monterey Bay Aquarium. Thankfully, Shelly took us; it would have been quite complicated for me to take the kids by myself.

We had a very fun, very long day. And it made a very big impression on Julien. To this day he is still playing with his sharks and telling all the neighbors about the biggest threat to the ocean- overfishing.

Rock-n-Roll

On one of the first nights we picked up Richard from campus and went to the boardwalk. Richard had promised Julien a ride on the roller coaster, but Julien wasn't quite tall enough. None the less, they had lots of fun on the other rides, especially the Rock-n-Roll.

Neighborhood

Shelly lives near the Food Bin (where Richard used to work) and by Emily's Bakery. We went to the bakery for breakfast almost every morning. Julien loved it. Especially the chocolate croissants. Apparently Emily is the Mayor of Santa Cruz.

Shelly's house

We spent the rest of the week at Shelly Errington's house in Santa Cruz. She lives in the same house that she lived in when I attended Santa Cruz, which is just down the hill from the UCSC campus and not far from where I lived senior year.

Her house was great. Julien climbed into her loft every chance he got (thankfully Sebastian did not learn to climb the ladder). Sebastian loved playing with Shelly's necklaces. I tried to keep him away, but it didn't always work.

Sleeping arrangements

The rest of the trip Julien and Sebastian and I all slept together. Julien was very happy about this. He had been asking to sleep with Sebastian since he was first born. Plus he got to sleep with me. It was fun, although at times I wished I had a little more space.

Back to Napa

We were back in Napa for two more nights. We went to Copia, the food museum, and went swimming each day. Kathy also helped me take a much needed breather from the kids.

Good bye

We said good bye to Susi, Rob, Penny and Eliza. We plan to see them again next year!

Brunch

Back to the trip...
On Sunday we had a brunch with Megan and Michael and their two girls, Anya and Savanne, at Susi and Rob's. It was good to see Megan- it has been a while! Susi made a great quiche.