Ski Week

This family of non-skiers is home for mid-winter break, so we've been exploring the area -- doing some new things and revisiting some favorite spots.  It finally rained in drought-afflicted California, and as a result, the creek at nearby Baltimore Canyon was running to Bryn and Luke's delight.

On Sunday we met up with the Moriartys in Sonoma.  Our first stop was Train Town, which Bryn and Luke have nearly outgrown, but it was fun to go with friends who had never before been.  And Connor, up to his Mom's chin, was tall enough to ride along with Bryn and Luke in the Scrambler so Ken and I didn't have to!

While in the town square in the heart of Sonoma, Dave showed us the Geocaching App, which is worth every penny of its $10 price tag.  In addition to showing you the global positioning of a hidden cache, which could range from a box filled with plastic treasures to a micro-sized scroll that finders simply sign and date, the app also provides a hint and photos to the hidden cache's location  We didn't have any luck finding the cache that we assume had been attached to the back of a sign in the park, but the geocaching has provided us with multiple rounds of treasure hunting in our very own neighborhood!  On our first geocaching quest in Tiburon, Bryn and Luke discovered this geocache hidden among some old, rusted train wheels in front of the Tiburon Library.  It contained a small memo pad that the kids signed and dated.

Now that you know what it looks like, do you spy the hidden geocache?

Here Bryn and Luke are signing the memo pad:

On Tuesday I took Bryn to the American Girl Store in the Stanford Shopping Center, which is about 90 minutes south of us.  Though she had been to the larger store in NY a couple of years ago, she had a blast.  We paid $15 to have her doll's hair styled.  The doll was put in a barber's chair and was outfitted with a smock:

Bryn chose a flip 'do:

Then we had lunch in the Bistro, which seats only 24, not including the banquet room for parties (of up to 12):

The boys, meanwhile, went to the 700+ Dipsea Steps in Mill Valley in hunt of a geocache. BINGO!

Walking back down the Dipsea steps:

To our terrific surprise, the boys, in our absence, made a beautiful, lattice-topped strawberry pie!

Then more geocaching in the Open Space off of Lyford (at the top of our neighborhood hill):

That brings us to Wednesday.  Nichole took Bryn and Luke to a skate park that allows scooters every day until 1:00 and all day on Wednesdays.  It's about a half an hour from our house and really cool:

Approaching the bowl took some practice.  As you transfer from the flat surface of the skate park to the interior of the bowl, the bottom of the scooter scrapes and catches the rim.  So the trick is to put the front wheel of the scooter a good 8 inches or so into the bowl and start from inside the bowl.  Luke was more willing to practice this trick:

On Friday we went to Muir Beach, one of our favorite beaches in the area.  The beach had been closed for about a year as the Park Service tore up the existing parking lot and constructed a new one. We coordinated with our friends the Veiners and the Borrows.  Muir Beach is located within the Marin Headlands, and Ken RAN there from our house -- at least 10 difficult, hilly miles!  We could not have had more beautiful, warm, clear weather.  

In the afternoon, we did another geocache in Tiburon by St. Hilary's church, a Tiburon landmark that is adjacent to an open space close to our home.  

It took some time to find this particular geocache, which was hidden "behind two fist-size rocks" in a retaining wall.  The container itself was badly busted.  

Saturday we went downtown, right in front of the Maritime Museum by Ghirardelli Square, to witness the Polar Plunge, a fundraiser for Special Olympics.  Participants in costume waded -- some dove -- into the seemingly frigid Bay water.  It was an amusing enough spectacle that we may participate as a family next year although costume ideas are still being batted around -- Star Wars?  Harry Potter?  Then lunch and two successful hunts for geocaches -- one, a magnetic key holder hidden inside a metal box that dispenses free guides to Fisherman's Wharf 

and the second, a large tin filled with junky trinkets in a community garden at Fort Mason.  

The geocaching is providing hours of entertainment, and Ken and I like that the quests take us to places that we haven't been before.  For example, neither of us knew that Fort Mason had a community garden.  Tomorrow is Sunday, the last day of break, and I'm sure we'll find ourselves geocaching yet again!