CRUISING

parker's wheels - cruising canuck's style

we're back from SF.

ok. we've been back nearly 4 weeks now. argh! why am i always a month behind myself? our appointments with DR H went well. more about that in another 4 weeks...er, i mean, another day soon. i'd rather talk about non-medical stuff today. i'd rather talk about non-medical, non-lyme stuff anyday...which might just be the reason behind the delay. i dunno.

anyway, back to SF.

we certainly made a splash while we were away...i mean how could we not - considering we had another car-boat?! oh yessiree! our car boat rental issues are so legendary now, it would be weirdly disappointing to NOT get a car boat.

this trip's car boat

epic trunk space

our cars are so epic in size, i believe even our GPS, montgomery, is confused. car or boat? pretty sure this time around it thought it was directing a boat. we started to suspect that montgomery was directing us on a rather unconventional route when we bypassed the exit for the bridge and headed towards a marina...and then, when there was nothing but water around us, it told us to go "off road"...call me crazy but see for yourself...


i'm not lying. i'm serious. it was one of the most hilarious things ever...

once we got ourselves and our boat sorted out, our first call of port was in-n-out burger. obviously. parker has a serious burger addiction. we indulged it with 3 visits this time. hear my arteries screaming for mercy.


avery, on the other hand, is not so big on burgers...but in-n-out worked it's magic on her and she's given it the "it's okay" rating - which is a huge compliment as far as her standards go.


quite frankly, so picky is she, that we couldn't believe she ate any of it. this was near historic - so naturally, i wanted to document the landmark event -


she was less than impressed by my exuberance. she even made me pinky swear i wouldn't post any of these pictures on facebook...


i'm lucky she didn't mention anything about not posting them on the blog. ha ha. one day you'll thank me for recording these memories, my dear daughter.



rather than try to cruise incognito (which the kids prefer) we proudly flew our canucks flag from our car boat. during the week that we were down in SF, "our" hockey team, the vancouver canucks, were battling the san jose sharks in a bid for a spot in the stanley cup playoff final. there was something about being in close vicinity to the san jose area that was incredibly gratifying - especially given that the canucks absolutely dominated the sharks while we were there.


a funny thing happened during one of our drive's to DR H's office. we were cruising down the highway and this truck kept speeding up beside us and the driver kept looking over at us and glaring. we were a little unnerved and wondering what in the world was this guys problem...and then we noticed he had a SJ sharks sticker on his truck and sharks ball cap on his dashboard. once we figured it out. we grinned broadly and gave him the v for victory! then we sped off as fast as possible. ha ha.

i'm actually shocked that our rental car didn't get vandalized...but speaking of vandalizing, we did decorate DR H's truck with canuck's stickers the day after their 7-3 victory over SJ. the day after the BIG win was a non-appointment day, but it just so happened that we had to drop by DR H's office to pick up a couple iv supplies (note to self: i should not pack iv supplies. i always forget something).we even cheekily blasted into his office waving our canucks flags, more than ready to rub our team's dominance in his face...but he'd just gone into an appointment with a patient so we couldn't personally rub it in.

DR H's canuck's sticker

we were hoping to actually drive down to SJ and circle the shark tank but we just weren't up to making the trip...or i should say that because energy is restricted we needed to pick and choose one outing. as fun as it would have been to cruise thru SJ, we chose to go to santa cruz instead. we had heard there is a boardwalk and beach area there. i really felt the need, both emotionally and physically, to have some part of this trip actually 'feel' like a vacation.

view of the beach from santa cruz boardwalk

happily, our best day health wise and weather wise happened to be on the same day! so on the thursday we drove down to santa cruz and spent the afternoon there. we checked out the boardwalk and parker and avery played a round of mini golf.


the boardwalk was pretty cool. maybe we'll go back next time and ride some of the rides...maybe, maybe not. our life is a roller coaster, not sure i'm apt to voluntarily go on one - let alone pay for it.


the beach area by the boardwalk was glorious. parker kept saying...

"this is how i always imagined california to be!"

isn't that cute and endearing? so true. i'm so glad that after 6 trips to california that parker was finally able to experience california the way it is supposed to be. and he really did. the last couple of weeks leading up to our trip, he was doing quite poorly again, so it was so great for him to finally have a good day. DR H told us about a place called the mystery spot (also located in santa cruz). we're really hoping to visit it next time. it looks so cool...check it out here.

i, too, really enjoyed our day in santa cruz. it was just what the doctor ordered. it was good to sit and watch my kids "be kids". that is a sight i'm not apt to ever take for granted. ever. life is fragile.


just as we were leaving the boardwalk, avery spotted one of those old school photo booths. and she begged to do it. i'm not big on "wasting" money on things like that but i finally acquiesced. and i am soooooo glad i did.


it turns out one of my all time favorite photos was captured in that silly old booth. it's grainy and poor quality but it is alive. if that makes sense. i look carefree. happy. alive. exuberant.


life is fragile. it hurts a lot of the time. but there are always moments, as fleeting as they may be, where life feels good and you are happy to just be alive. and who knew a silly little photo booth could capture that feeling.

we ended up staying in the san mateo area this time. this was a new to us area to stay in. our hotel happened to be just around the corner from coyote point park. on our last day, we had a bit of time to kill in between checking out of our hotel and needing to check in to the airport, so we decided to cruise through the park and check it out. it turns out you have to pay to go into the park...but you know what? the park attendant let us cruise in for free...canucks flag and everything. isn't that so lovely?

believe it or not, as we were parking, we noticed this guy taking pictures with a massive camera...the camera was HUGE but that is not what caught our attention...rather it was the canucks t-shirt he was wearing! YES! believe it or not! what are the chances, eh?


we spent about 30 minutes on the beach at coyote point park, just enjoying the fresh air and searching for a few beach treasures to bring home.





then it was time to head to the airport...but we had one last port of call to make on our way there. you see, just on the outskirts of the oakland airport, on doo little drive, along the meandering water front, there sits a lonely watermelon. we cruise by this watermelon every trip and we have always wondered about it and figured there must be a story behind it. turns out there is...read about the watermelon here. and would you believe there is even a facebook fan page dedicated to the watermelon rock? seriously! who knew?


i wonder what new mystery we'll uncover on our next trip to the bay? stay tuned.