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Our Escapist Weekend

A few weekends ago, the weather forecast showed temperatures in excess of 100 in San Jose both Saturday and Sunday, so we got out of Dodge and had two days of family adventure:

Saturday in Santa Cruz @ Harvey West Park
imageJohn John is proud of his walking stick.

imageThere was as event being set up for a Boys and Girls club, which meant we eventually left amid the booming bass of a sound system manned by a millenial (as indicated by musical selection and order), but while the morning was still cool-ish, and quiet, John John had fun with this enormous beach ball, the likes of which he’d never seen.

Sunday in Mill Valley
imageThrowing rocks in to streams with friends.  John John later tried to scale that rock.

imageThis photo was followed by naked romping in the water. A good way to cool off!

imageRefreshed after a much needed bath to remove mud and grime, having some cheese on Papa’s lap.

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Monterey Bay Aquarium

On the 18th my mom and I took the bean to his first visit of the Monterey Bay Aquarium.  “John John,” we told him, “we are going to go to a place where we will see lots of different kinds of FISH!”

“Viff!” he exclaimed (That means fish, for those of you who didn’t already know).

“Yes!  And maybe we’ll see jellyfish and sharks and crabs and penguins!”

“Octopus!” he added on his own.

“Yes, and maybe even an octopus!” I said, amazed.

He was excited.  My favorite thing about watching him be engaged is that ‘quiet attention’ face of pure engrossment and concentration.  You’ll recognize it on the second image down.  He is a little sponge.

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image^^^Quiet attention forever!^^^image

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Now, he can pronounce ‘fish’ correctly (though I must concede, I’m a little sad…’viff’ was so cute, though he does still say ‘Sea Animo.’  I’m sure that, too, will be short lived.  He’s growing up!) and can properly identify those ‘animos’ on his ocean-themed pajamas: Sea Turtle, Hammerhead Shark, Mako Shark, Whale.

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Good times!  Nice memories!

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Guadalupe Park Playground

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We used the Guadalupe Park playground across from the Shark Tank.  It was a Saturday morning. John John had fun on the slide.

There were a lot of homeless people around, sleeping on the grass, or messing around in the bathrooms.  I knew there would be homeless folks there because I went to the discovery park drum circle near there back in the nineties, and there were many then.

There were two other families.  It’s too bad it is underutilized because it is a nice playground with plenty of shade.  The playground for toddlers was almost totally unused for play, with many people set up there, sleeping or sitting on benches. Because no one uses it for the intended purpose, it isn’t a great place to play.

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Like Father Like Son

We ate soboro chicken last night – the closest thing to comfort food in my world and Japanese to the core.  Chicken and egg with flavorings of shoyu and dashi and sesame oil, some mirin, garnished with a piece of nori.  The added bonus is that it’s incredibly fast to make, so we were able to sit down to a family meal.   John John has been really excelling at his use of the fork, so this may have been his first experience eating soboro with one bite having many flavors combined: chicken, egg, peas, seaweed.

“I’m so glad John John can grow up in a  world that knows seaweed,” I sighed.

And immediately realized how empty that sounded.  But seriously, growing up in Newhall, CA,  I’ll always remember when ‘sushi’ was a disgusting foreign dish with raw fish – if anyone knew what it was at all – and I was teased for the rice balls with seaweed in my lunch box: “Seaweed? Ewwww!!  Gross!!”  That’s when I felt the need for lunchables, but back to this post.

“Can I have hot sauce?” asked John.  I looked at him askance.  “Is that wrong?” he said.  I gave him some, because who is to say what is right and wrong with all of the mixing of flavors in the world.  If there can be Korean Tacos, John can eat hot sauce on soboro.  “It’s good,” he attested.  I’m too set in my ways when it comes to this comfort food, so passed on using the condiment as much as I do love it.  But John John pointed to the mostly empty dish of hot sauce.  “Mo,” he said, and signed “please.”  I put some on a piece of chicken and he ate it.

“Yum,” he said. “Mo!”

“Can you say, ‘please’?” I asked.

“Pess,” he replied.

He ate the rest of his meal with hot sauce.