Artists

Two artists taking their craft very seriously on the way to LA.

Vacation 2013: Part I Continued

We arrived in San Luis Obispo!

8:00 pm Friday, August 16th, 2013

These guys were troopers the whole time.  Still in good spirits about seven hours after we had expected to arrive.  Plans for exploring San Luis and playing in the pool and perhaps taking in a drive in movie version of Planes were thwarted, but they were both excited anyway.

Julia was enamored with the phone.  Not often that you see a phone with a cord these days!

Vacation 2013! The Detour

9:00 am Friday, August 16th, 2013  

Moraga, CA

All ready to leave for vacation!  Here we come San Luis Obispo!

9:40 am Friday, August 16th, 2013

On the side of the road somewhere near Sunol, CA

While slowed down in traffic due to an accident, someone motioned for us to put the window down and proceeded to so nicely tell us that coolant was pouring from the bottom of the car.  Shortly thereafter we started to see steam pouring from under the hood of the car.  Luckily, the problem was caught before it could cause any damage.  A connector for a large hose going to the radiator snapped in half.  AAA was called and in the meantime we hung out under a tree up on the embankment next to the freeway.  We called Esmond (Super Friend!) and asked for him to come and rescue us.  Secondly, we called our mechanic Son in Oakland (Super Mechanic!) and asked him to order the part.  

After an hour and a half of coloring, snacking, blowing up balloons and getting tattoos on the side of the freeway, AAA came and took the car and Esmond came and took us to Oakland.  We went to our favorite restaurant Vientian for takeout and ate lunch in the back of Esmond's minivan in the parking lot of the service station.  

Waiting for the car repair to be finished.  It didn't take long and Son wouldn't even take any money for it.  I think that when he realized that all of us, including Xena were in the car and starting our road trip, he felt bad for us.  

On our way again.  Mango mochi in hand.

Leaving from Oakland, CA 3:30 pm

A Lot of Look

This was one of Julia's outfit choices this week.  Sometimes she gets a little crazy with her combos.  Flowers, ladybugs, kitty socks, lavender sandals, two bracelets, but she makes it all work, because she is so darn cute!

Visit to Chinatown

The kiddos and I took BART into San Francisco one morning this week and then walked over to Chinatown to explore.  We ate some dim sum, visited the fortune cookie factory (tiny and very labor intensive), shopped around at various stores and bought a pair of purple pig chopsticks and a dragon chopstick rest.

Go Gators!

Showing off their Gator tattoos.  The huge end of season swim meet is this weekend, so there were lots of spirit week activities to participate in this past week.  Julia now is quite good at cheering, "Go Gators!".