That's No Rat

I asked Tutu last night what the name of the beach is where we saw what we saw a week ago. It might be called 'Rat' beach, but without better information we settled on the descriptive name of, 'The beach down the hill from P.V.' Without further ado, the story of our beach trip.
To get the full story you have to go on a journey with me up the western coast of North America, to a charming little area known as the Pacific Northwest. Every time I visit there, specifically Portland, Oregon, I am struck by the sheer green-ness everywhere. Monstrous trees, lush carpets of grass (with no visible irrigation systems!). A beautiful and world renown rose garden. Quite a feast for the eyes. Well, all of that vegetation comes at a price, a price I am not willing to pay. The average annual rainfall in Portland is 36.3 inches. For 2006 San Diego got 5.12 inches. For comparisons sake, if all the rain in Portland happened at one time, poor Kulia would need a snorkel to survive. For Sammy in San Diego, his shorts wouldn't get wet, at least until he jumped into the little puddle.

Fast forward to a visit to the city of Angels by Portland resident Auntie Chrissie. 'Let's go to the beach' Auntie Chrissie would say. Uh, its cloudy and yuck outside, are you crazy? Come on, it's not raining, it is at least 50 degrees outside, this is beach weather. Uh, okay. She established the precedent for us wimpy southern California folks to go to the beach in less than ideal conditions. And it was fun. Even in less than ideal conditions all of the kids had fun in the sand, and running to the waters edge.

So, last weekend while up at Tutu and Papa's house someone had the idea of going to the beach. None of the adults (Dan, Suzy, Tutu, Papa) were very enthusiastic about this idea, but the boys (Daniel, Sammy) were quite excited. We threw stuff in the van, and ventured down the hill. Boys happy, adults leery. Well, thank you Auntie Chrissie, because it was fun. Sammy and Daniel had a great time playing in the sand. But most of their fun was had in the water. The horribly cold water. They both loved it. Getting soaked by waves they weren't fast enough to run from. Wading out holding onto someone's hand. I had a blast with them, it sure looked like Papa did too. There is nothing like having kids open your eyes to fun.

There we were, Daniel and I, standing in the area where the waves wash up, but it is mostly dry. At least for me. Daniel was wet through and through. That was when I saw it. The last time we were up there we saw some dolphins swimming around out by the surf line. That was pretty cool, and naturally when I saw something out there among the few surfers braving the chilly conditions I assumed it was more dolphins. With one eye and a strong grip on Daniel, I continued to look for the 'dolphin'. Oh, there it was, but that was no dolphin. That was dark with some white on it. What the heck, I think that was a whale. I kept watching. Oh, my, there it was again. By this time I was convinced. I told Daniel, and started looking around for Tutu, Papa, Suzy or Sammy to share my discovery. Tutu was up on the beach warming up Sammy. Papa was close, so I told him. I found Suzy. By this time I had seen the whale a few more times, and was amazed at how close it was. It was in the surf line. With the surfers. I watched one of the surfers paddle a little closer to it, and then quickly back away. As the waves would form I would see the whale's flippers, head or tail pop out of the water. Man, it was huge. Twenty feet long at least. Probably closer to twenty five or thirty. And it was only thirty yards off shore. Impossibly close. Thank goodness by this time Suzy had grabbed her camera. I hope these shots do justice to how amazing the experience was. This was a huge whale just off the beach (to the point we were wondering if there was some problem), and we were watching it just play in the waves. The boys could see it, but I don't think they quite understood the rarity of the moment. They have both seen whales plenty of times at Sea World, and thought this must be the same. All of the adults on the beach just stopped and stared.

We watched for a while more, until it swam away. Then packed up to head for home. Thank you again, Auntie Chrissie, without your lousy Portland weather we would have missed out on the chance to see one of God's amazing creatures up close and personal. A whale. I still shake my head when I think about it.

Time Marches On

At the start of February I was sad. For the past two years I have been spending one morning a week at home with Sammy, while Suzy goes and helps out with Daniel's class. My Monday morning's with Sammy finished in January because Sammy started going to school with Daniel. I didn't really think about how that would make me feel. I thought about how excited Sammy would be (he has wanted to go to school with Daniel for a long time), but I never contemplated what my reaction would be. I have to admit I was a bit surprised. I am not normally someone who gets sad. Overall a pretty even keel kind of person. For most of the month of February when I started to think about it I would start feeling sad. I am very happy for Sammy, don't get me wrong. He has been doing great in school, and is fitting right in with all of the kids. But for me, not so much. Part of it is regret, that I didn't enjoy the time we had just the two us together, as much as I should have. Part of it is just the fact that I probably will never have that regular time just the two of us again. That's junk.

This week (Thursday to be precise) I went down to the K through 8th grade school associated with our church and wrote what was the first of many checks. Daniel is now enrolled in kindergarten to start on September 4th. Suzy and I settled on this school mainly because we know and respect so many of the teachers and the staff. That has probably been my greatest reward for being on the School Board there for the last two years. I have gotten a first hand look at the people involved and decided I could trust my boy with them. It is very hard to believe that Daniel is mere months away from starting school for real. We shall see what my reaction to that will be. Suzy, I know, is going to be a mess, but having Sammy will distract her to a certain extent. She probably won't let Sammy start school until he is about 15. My beautiful wife sometimes likes to delay in the inevitable.
On a different note, I have been commanded to write a blog entry about what we saw while at the beach up in LA visiting Tutu and Papa last weekend. That post will be coming soon, but the teaser is... It was nothing any of us ever had seen from a beach before in our lives, quite amazing.

Hot! Hot! Hot!

Well, last week I was saying it feels like Spring, but the last few days have felt like summer. It has been HOT! We have been hitting the 80's and even crept up to 90 over the weekend. I have been romping around in shorts, skirts and tank tops and enjoying this weather. Actually this weather is better than summer because although it hits the high 80's during the day it only stays that hot for and hour or two and then cools back down to the 50's at night. So the house stays at a comfortable temperature all day.

Since it has been so hot I decide to take the boys to the pool today. They water was pretty cold still, but Daniel and Sammy didn't seem to mind. I enjoyed basking by the pool while the boys played in the water. We even pulled out our blow-up crocodile, who Daniel has named 'Snap trusty', and the boys pretended he was a ride a Disneyland.


I am still not used to the time change and have to drag myself out of bed in the morning to go workout. And it is so dark out at 6 in the morning. But I do like the extra hours of sunlight and the pitter-patter of little feet running down the hallway to the bathroom doesn't start till much later in the morning, which is nice for Dan.

The boys have mostly recovered from the coughing bug that has been passed around their preschool, but last Friday someone was sent home sick and it turns out she had strep throat. Just great! I am praying that the boys stay healthy for awhile because Dan and I are just plain tired of one or the other being sick. Hopefully this warm weather will chase away the cold and flu season. Bring on the warm weather!

Feels like Spring

My favorite season is Spring. Not too hot, not too cold, but just perfect. These last three days have felt like Spring and I am loving it.

One of the things I love about living in San Diego is the weather. It has just the perfect balance of weather for me. Just when the summer heat seems like it will never end and I am beginning to wish for some cooler weather, fall comes. And just when I am starting to get tired of the cold, although some people don't think that 60 degrees is very cold, and am looking longingly at my shorts and sundresses in the closet, spring warms everything up. So I know that spring is just around the corner because I am getting tired of wearing pants everyday and climbing into a cold bed at night. Spring training has started and daylight savings is early this year, next Sunday, so a Springtime feeling is definitely in the air.

But I am trying not to get too excited about warmer weather because it is only early March and this warm weather is just whetting my appetite, but it sure is nice. Today it hit 80 and yesterday during the boy's nap I got to read outside in our air chair. But in San Diego it can be beautiful and clear and hot one day and cloudy, raining and cold the next. Hopefully this beautiful weather will hold for a couple more days. Do I dare pull out a pair of sandals or would that jinx it? Maybe I'll be able to sneak in a sundress or two. You gotta love Spring!