Minneapolis!

Dear Future Tracy,

You just drove across the country for the second time with your loving, patient husband and your sweet, inquisitive son that never ever ever ever stops talking. Congratulations.

Love,
Present Day Tracy

Muuuurcy!

The last week and a half was graced with Mercy's presence and new adventures (here, too, employees can bring their pups to work!). [Did I spend too much on stickers? Yes. Yes, I did. Does my kid even like stickers? No. No, he does not.)

H developed a love for smoked gouda, red quinoa (yes, I just had to Google that for the spelling) and pistachios (that, too).

But look at these best-ies (with weirdly placed kid in the photo)!

 Now's your chance to weigh in on The Great Bang Debate of 2010 (bring it on here: honesty is a gal's best friend)! Other than her other best friend.

Sonoma County Fair

There is nothing better than the county fair. Except the county fair when it's free. And your parking is free. Because you won tickets from your local library. Because you are awesome.

You'll note that the Sonoma County Fair doesn't mess around:

I can't even tell you how many times we had to return to the car to drop off our knives! Hundreds. Maybe tens of hundreds. Hundreds of hundreds?

A lady inside this little booth assured me that I ought not worry about money (Ha! She apparently is unaware of the ER visit bill I received the same week.) and that our family will live in the Chicagoland area for a couple of years. Also: two boys and a girl, if we so desire. Do we? Ask the Mister.

Who doesn't want to ride on the Black Widow formerly owned by Mr. Michael Jackson?! Oh. You? Me either.

Total bargain cheese on a stick: $3.50

Cowpoke and water pump, together at last

This is what we came to see, folks! The big event! The Amazing Acro-Cats!

I saw three minutes of this cat rock performance before H let me know he was sick of performing cats in various forms.

$1.69! $1.69!

Grandpa R came out west last week for his visit and tour of San Francisco.

We finally rode one of these!

Hen spent the weekend with his pop, trying to learn the mechanics of the potty while his mama flew home to Wiscownsin (note: humidity, mosquitoes) to see her family and get tattooed on Lauryn's 18th birthday.

And we are hosting our BFF Muuurcy now (who H mistakenly keeps calling grandma). We stopped at Target for a bottle of shaving cream, setting us back $1.69, but providing some good clean fun for 30 minutes.

I fell in to a splashin' ring of water/I spent $5.00/I missed Tom Waits

Hen and I found our way to Howarth Park in Santa Rosa in spite of Google's 100% inaccurate directions. And let the splashing begin!

I spent $4.99 on this poorly reviewed water rocket and had great results.

[Right now: Hen is screaming at Mike to turn up the LCD Soundsystem song "Drunk Girls" "LOUDER! LOUDER!"]

After the Law Review freed Mike from his shackles this morning, we went to Wild Cat Adventures in Sebastopol but Hen had little tolerance for the cheetah that was 10 feet away from him and we had to sneak out between kitties, lest we cause some sort of mauling with our disruptive child that will talk about lions incessantly at any time other than when he isn't in the presence of wild cats. Here's a blurry photo of a, um, cat.

Sebastopol, California is my new favorite place: home to a tiny Whole Foods, Tom Waits (man, I would have loved to do my Tom Waits impression to Tom Waits!), and multiple yarn stores and chocolatiers. We shared a veggie melt at Slice of Life while an acoustic guitarist played "Puff the Magic Dragon" and "Moonshadow" for the kids. Our kid. Who clapped wildly.

Plum Loco!

We welcomed Grandma C this week, which resulted in long drives to the hotspots around Sonoma County for various baked goods.

And what did H learn? To blow bubbles!

To eat plums!

To build sand castles!

We also went to the 18th Annual Cotati Children's Festival, themed "Welcome to Candyland". For a town of 7,000, they really have it together up here: funnel cake aplenty, a Diaper Derby crawling baby race (man, babies do NOT like being raced!), and a lot of advertising--a muffler shop, Avon, Boy Scouts. H made puffball ice cream!

Thanks for the visit (and the marbles!), Gma C!

Train Town and Sonoma

Because Mike googled "petting zoo," we found ourselves at Train Town in Sonoma, riding a miniature train ("The Most Well-Developed Scale R.R. in the Americas") through a ten acre park.

There were goats, of course.

We introduced Henry to my favorite sport. Then I lost while Mike was holding our 30 pound kid in one arm.

We also went into Sonoma city for Nepalese food and Mike commented on how foreign everything smelled. [Note: he was probably smelling himself.]

"YOU ARE ENTERING MOUNTAIN LION COUNTRY...

IF ATTACKED, FIGHT BACK AGGRESSIVELY." So said the sign at the Welcome Center to the Point Reyes National Seashore [note: this is not a good welcome]. We ventured in the hopes of seeing sea lions along the coast, but what we saw was, um, fog. A lot of fog. And cows. And if you look at Point Reyes Station on a map, you will see why it gave me such a sense of vertigo that I almost puked: we were winding up mountain roads along the ocean, alone, at the edge of the continent.

We walked 302 steps down to the Point Reyes Lighthouse (after Mike promised to carry the kid both ways) and it was, um, foggy?

Then we walked right back up. 302 more stairs.



We saw a bazaar of common murres (yes, a bazaar!) that I thought were A) penguins or B) puffins.

A great thing about California is that when you are trying to find sea lions you might actually find a cheese factory!

And a beach where you can practice skipping stones!

Guests, GIANT donut, Beach bum

This weekend we welcomed our first guests! Gma M and Aunt Jen flew into Oakland to spend the holiday with us. We went to San Francisco and H kept running into water that was too cold. [Note: his mom is not the one chasing him.]

Then we stood at the bottom of Lombard Street like bona fide tourists.

And then we had to walk up it. With a stroller. And bags. And a 35 pound sack of kid. [Note: I held nothing and am trying to appear dramatic. Is it working? Do I have your sympathy here?]

We finally went to Bob's Donut and Pastry Shop for, uh, this:

That took all four adults (that's right: Hen didn't even taste it) two days to finish. Two days. It was as big as a spare tire, but more delicious. Doughy. Not even too sweet.

And we spent the 4th (birthday of both America and Geraldo Rivera) at the beach in Doran Park in Bodega Bay. Lesson learned: sunscreen. Aunt Jen was lobsterized. H couldn't have had more fun.

The evening ended with many bouts of Speed Scrabble which I, regretfully, lost. Lesson learned: Gma M thinks every combination of letters is a word. It isn't. Watch her! Thanks for the visit, goons!