10th July 2011 – Yosemite Weekend 🙂

Late on Wednesday, we decided to see if we could get a hotel room near Yosemite National Park in California (approx 200 miles away from the house) as we have promised ourselves that we will go, but we have just never got around to it.  Simon found a reasonable deal on in a hotel that claimed to be just 2 miles from the park entrance, so we decided to go for it.  We put the bikes on the carrier on the car, popped in the trailers (for Elly and Olly), packed an overnight bag and set off on Friday evening.

The hotel was perfectly located with the room overlooking the Meced River – there were white water rapids right outside the veranda.  Frankly the hotel could not really have been better placed.  Unfortunately the food in the hotel was less than optimal (read crap really), but by morning, we got some breakfast snacks, jumped in the car and set off.  15 minutes later we were in the park (having paid $20 for a 7 day pass) making our way round past El Capitan towards Yosemite Village.  We were met by one of the most tremedous sets of waterfalls that were still flowing (ice from the winter supplies the falls with their water) over the 2,425 ft high granite (the 6th highest falls in the world apparently)

We took the bikes and cycled all around the valley floor (special bike paths were in place and so we did around 10 miles of cycling with the boys in tow) and stopped for a few minutes to take in various marvels – none significantly prettier than Mirror Lake.

We got back on Saturday night so we still have enjoyed a whole day at home – well we went into Los Gatos with the folks to the farmers market, had some lunch and then relaxed at home.

Simon went out first thing this morning with Barbara for the second ride, and while they got to the top of the hill by the Summit Bike shop in Los Gatos, Simon had to stop 4 times.  The route down was tres exhilarating, but his fitness level needs to radically improve if the overall experience is to stay high 🙂

Just 4 weeks until we are on our way to Maui – the countdown is ON.. 🙂

We all wish you a wonderful day – hope you have a really enjoyable day.

We had a great long weekend, with daddy getting his new Santa Cruz Blur LTc mountain bike – AND actually using it on th trails on Monday morning – yes readers, he got his a$$ out of bed at 6:30am on Monday to get out and back before the kids got out of bed… Vicky is wondering how long it lasts – Simon is hoping to do this at least once a week on top of our other cycling and walking activities.  Simon actually did over 30 miles in just over 24 hours this weekend :-).  He is still a fat lard a$$ though – in case you were wondering.  For those who care, please see a picture of Barbara below – named by Vicky and Tim 🙂

We also managed to get hold of one of the trail along bikes for Elliot as he is getting a little big for the trailer now, and as a result Olly and Elly are squeezed into it, and it is a tad heavy for the aforementioned lard a$$ to pull on the bike.

The above is a little picture of the trail along bike that we bought.  Elliot LOVES it – he clearly feels grown up, and so our first outing was to be a small test to see how he gets on with the new sensation that we all remember form our first reasonable length cycle trip.  He ended up doing just over 8 miles on Sunday lunchtime – in the heat of the sunshine as well (100F / 37C).  This was also a BIG time for mummy, as we bought a “tow bar” for her bike for the original cycle trailer so that she could pull Olly.  The decision was that while Elliot and trail along is marginally lighter weight, there was the added bonus of needing to balance both yourself and Elliot on his “bike”, hence mummy would pull Olly.  Funny though as Olly was lording it up by himself in a bike trailer for two – he certainly adopted a typical bloke seating position – legs akimbo etc.

We did another 8 miles tonight and Elliot took it all in his stride, although his balance was not as good tonight as it was yesterday – think he might just be getting a little cocky…

We had a nice BBQ last night with the Somerfields – a reminder that we should do it more frequently if we can – but another reminder that the house does not have a garden 🙁

This weekend is Independence weekend so we have Monday off as a bank holiday – yay !!

We somewhat wasted the day by lazing around in the house until 12:30, when daddy and Elliot nipped out for a haircut – Olly is not up to it :-(.  He (Olly) has had three days of high temperatures and while it feels like he is improving, when he ‘goes off’, he really does falter unfortunately.

We then nipped out to the shops (Fresh and Easy) where we got some groceries and beer and then mummy dropped daddy off at the bike shop as he had his new bike to pick up :-).

Elliot played his new XBOX 360 game, Cars 2 tonight although he seemed to prefer to want daddy to play it while he watched – perhaps a waste of cash ??

The weather has been great this last few days, with the temperature nudging 100F today and the threat that it will press up beyond 100F over the next couple of days 🙂

We are hoping to get the boys out with their bikes as they have not been practising on them for a couple of weeks now.  We are also hoping to find a trail along bike for Elliot as he is getting a little too big (and heavy) for the bike trailer.  This does mean however, that mummy will need to pull one of the boys behind her bike, as we don’t think that it is allowed to have a trailer pulling a trailer….

Simon purchased a bike rack for the back of Vicky’s car this week – ready to enable us to use the bikes away from home as well as at home 🙂  It is really quite nice (in a sad sort of way) as it fits directly onto the towing eyes on the back of the car, allowing two bikes to be secured (with lock and key) to the car, BUT that also allows the car boot lids to open without making contact with the bike(s).

Yesterday we went to 6 Flags Discovery Kingdom just north of San Francisco to celebrate young Ben Somerfield’s 4th birthday.  The weather was perfect, and while we expected lots of exhilarating rides, we were not expecting the sea world type of stuff as well.  Check out this photo from the dolphin show….

The kids had a great day although 5 hours in the sun meant that they got VERY tired – Olly slept for nearly two hours from the moment that we left the park until juts before we got home = result.

Then today, we went out to see CARS 2 first thing – the boys loved it, although it was just a little too long for Olly.  It is a great movie, although seems a little complex for the little minds to follow – that’s right even Simon struggled to follow it…

We then strapped the bikes to the back of the car and head to Palo Alto to cycle around Stanford University campus – something that we are surprised to have not done before now.  It was very interesting cycling around although was particularly funny when Simon nearly fell off his bike when we passed the William Gates Computer Science block… 🙂

We finished the day off with a BBQ around at Amy and Jason’s place – they have just had a new lawn laid in the back garden – a little larger than previous and flatter – very nice and gives them additional play area – sadly we still don’t have any garden at our place….

On Saturday, Elliot had a birthday party at Liam’s house and it was a DC Comic party – so Elliot needed to go as a super hero.  He had chosen to go as Buzz Lightyear, his favourite superhero, but due to his reading a book with mummy, he decided late in the week that Batman would be a far better option.  So, Saturday morning out we head in search of the elusive outfit – it also needed to have “muscles” in it….

We tried various stores from Party City to a specialist costume hire store called Natasha’s on Bascom, and the last one we found actually had the dark knight available in a size just a little too big – no drama, it could be made to fit – happy days… Except it seemed that Elliot had his heart set on a blue batman outfit – not the all black dark knight setup that we could find.  I guess he was after the Adam West style (the comic would most likely have been this blue version) outfit – the only one we could find was in Party City, did not have muscles and was for an 8 to 10 year old.

So we managed to persuade Elliot that the superman outfit that they did have in the store might just be better.  Incredibly (certainly we thought so) Elliot was up for the costume change and was reasonably happy to go as Superman – as it happens he was one of the main attractions at the party so was absolutely in his element 🙂  He had a great time and played well with all at the party – great result 🙂

Sunday was fathers day so we head out to the beach in Santa Cruz for the day with the Somerfields.  It was 28 Celsius as we left Los Gatos area at 11am, and when we got to Santa Cruz it was cloudy and 15 Celsius 🙁 We decided to stick it out, and thankfully within an hour or so, the clouds had disappeared and the temperature felt just perfect.  We had a small BBQ on the beach, the kids dug holes and played in the water for over four hours.  Oliver was asleep in the car before we even got out of Santa Cruz…..

He definitely looked pretty grumpy and boy was he when he awoke in the Trader Joe’s car park as we were getting in some provisions for tea etc.

Amusingly it was still only 16 Celsius as we got in the car at the beach, and less than 6 miles inland it was over 30 Celsius !!!!

This week it is expected to get hotter and hotter for a couple of days, and then chill back down to beneath 30 Celsius towards the end of the week.  As a note, today it touched 37 Celsius at just after 4pm local time !!!!

Next weekend we are heading out to 6 Flags Adventure Park near Sacramento on Saturday to celebrate Ben Somerfield’s 4th birthday and on Sunday we are heading to the Cars2 movie premier in Campbell – both boys are REALLY looking forward it – maybe daddy a little as well 😉

This week has seen the heat go UP here in the bay area – 95 degrees at home on Wednesday, and a mere 85 yesterday.

We had a busy weekend last week end with mummy finishing up with the clean up at school while Daddy and the boys went out to the park etc.  Then Sunday, was the Silicon Valley Duck race:

And here is the moment that 15,000 ducks were released into the water in the park in Vasona:

Poor Olly fell and bumped his head – actually caused him to cut the back of his head – basically the sun hat has a toggle on it – he landed on the toggle 🙁

An ice-cream soon enabled him to forget about the issue 🙂

A busy week this week, with a new bike acquisition for Oliver – he is very pleased with both it and himself. Hopefully we can get out and practise riding it this weekend.