Summer 2011

Well, I haven't been on here for 3 months so let's see if I can get back to it more frequently.

We made it through shop hop back at the end of March. We had so much fun those four crazy days. Then a week later, Hana, Richard and I went off to California for Hana's spring break. We spent the first night with my mom in Mountain view and had a nice evening. Hana had to go to the See's candy store to buy a box of candy for her friend Lizzie and family, who she was going to see the next day. On Sunday We headed onto "the city" to take Hana to meet her friend Lizzie. We were early so drove Hana to see where her dad used to live in the lower Haight and then went up Haight and stopped for coffee. Next we met Lizzie and family in San Francisco at the American Grilled Cheese Kitchen for brunch. Yum, yum! After food with friends, Richard and I left Hana with Lizzie and headed north over the Golden Gate Bridge towards Mendocino.
Once over the bridge we had to stop in Santa Rosa at the Russian River Brewery for a pint (and picked up a few extra bottles for our evening) and stopped at two wineries, Breggo (the best bottle of wine came from here) and Navarro, in the Anderson valley on our way to the Andiron Inn and Cottages which is an absolutely charming place to stop for the night.
On Monday morning we started our day with a 5 mile hike into Van Damme State Park before breakfast and then went for coffee and a pastry in Mendocino and a little shopping, we headed to the  Glass beach (used to be the town dump) near Ft. Bragg and then into Ft. Bragg for lunch and a pint at the North Coast Brewery. After lunch we had plenty of energy for tackling the lost coast highway and the Avenue of the Giants. We stopped off in Legget to drive through the Drive-Thru Tree and then stopped later to hike in the Founder's Grove nature trail (seen in the picure to the right). It was amazingly beautiful! From there, we headed further north to Arcata where we had a little house rented for two nights.

Our first morning in Arcata we found a great breakfast place, and headed out to the Manila Dunes for a hike to the Ocean which was just amazing. Then we headed south to Eureka where we found a neat little fabric shop, Eureka Fabrics, and then to the Lost Coast Brewery for another pint (my favorite beer of the trip) and lunch. After lunch it was back to Arcata for an afternoon hike in the Arcata Community Forrest, which was the most amazing place I have ever seen. I enjoyed the redwoods there more than any of the others we saw! If you do the California north coast make it to the Arcata Community Forrest! That evening we ate dinner at Hey Juan Burritos where Andrew Kahn told us we had to go if it was still there, which it was all these years later.
On Wednesday we headed south in the first really drizzly weather we had, which was perfect because we were driving and not hiking. We cut over to the Tomales Bay via some beautiful dairy hills and then ended up in Stinson Beach for the night with a walk on the beach and a good seafood dinner.
Thursday morning we drove into "the city" with no problems and went into Japan Town to get Hana from Lizzie's family. Once we had Hana, we went for a nice breakfast in the Castro and then headed to Haight for some good shopping for Hana, where she hit pay dirt on the skinny people clothing. We made it down to Mountain View in the afternoon where we had a nice home-cooked meal with my mother.
Friday we took Hana to see Stanford, where her Grandparents went to college and then to the Oasis (where her grandparents and great grand-father used to go for burgers and to watch football) for a burger for lunch. After lunch it was wandering in downtown Palo Alto.
What a great spring break we had!
Since that spring break trip, Richard has been to Ghana, I went to Salt Lake City, Hana turned 15, both kids finished school, Richard, Hana and I went to Tallahassee to see family, Zachary came home for a visit, Hana got her learner's permit and left for Ireland (seen getting ready to leave to the right) on the 14th of June where she will be until the 30th, Zachary went back to Brooklyn and his new life without us, Richard had a birthday (today) and then will be heading off to Africa on Saturday if their Malaria branch budget gets finalized for the next year before then, which is not looking promising.
All of that thrown in to regular life.
No wonder life seems like it's been so crazy and gone by so fast again!
Happy summer folks!