Cabin camping in Point Reyes

While I would love to be a mom who easily packs and takes on camping adventures, I am so, so, far from that person. David and I have camped a grand total of two times, and both times we tagged along with expert  friends. Expert camping friends who also cook incredible food, plan everything perfectly, basically make camping look really easy.

Knowing I’m a novice, and knowing how much we loved our previous trips, cabin camping at Samuel P. Taylor Park seemed like a great way to dip our toes in the whole camping-as-a-family thing, while staying comfortable (and warm!).

Friday afternoon, we drove out to Marin. The drive was gorgeous. We usually take 580 to Point Reyes, but David had a meeting in SF, so we took 101 across the Golden Gate bridge.  The bridge was packed, full of people marveling at the city views in the afternoon sun.

Silvia met us as the cabin and we all got settled before leaving for a trail walk. The cabins were built relatively recently (2012) and were perfectly clean, with electricity, an electric stove, and mattress pads-no tents needed.

We picked this camping date as it was the only one available-the cabins get booked up 6 months out. We really lucked out with the weather-it was warm, and the park was green and lush, especially after last week’s rain.

After the trail, David started dinner. Outside each cabin is a picnic table, fire pit, and barbecue. This is my favorite part of camping: spending hours outside, around a fire, and eating cheese and crackers, while waiting for a yummy camp dinner. David made incredible burgers and veggie kebobs. Our hiking backpack ended up being much more useful as a highchair. Maybe we just need to go on more hikes? It was totally worth bringing it for meals-Diego was perfectly happy to sit, snack on goldfish and edamame, and supervise dinner prep. I was also really grateful we went camping with Silvia. It was really wonderful to have grandma help with Diego and spend time together.

The only thing missing from our camping cuisine was s’mores-next time! Still, it was nice and cozy drinking tea by the fire, while watching the stars come out.

The next morning, David made an mushroom, egg and sausage scramble, and we enjoyed breakfast in the crisp morning air. For a brief hike, we tried putting Diego in the Ergo, but halfway through, he was NOT HAVING IT. On to David’s shoulders he went!

We said goodbye to the Madrone cabins and drove over to Point Reyes Station for CHEESE. I love visiting Cowgirl Creamery and seeing the stacks of Red Hawk and Mt. Tam in the dairy window.

With bags full of Humboldt Fog and turkey sandwiches, we made our way through green hills of happy cows over to Drakes Beach. At this point in the day, it was quite warm, not a cloud in the sky, and WINDY. I was reminded of the hilarious chaos of beach tent assembly in the wind, but David eventually got it, and we enjoyed a delicious lunch while watching the water.

While I took a power nap in the tent, this brave little Pisces crawled into the water-again! I love this photo Silvia snapped of David and Diego.

After exploring the water, Diego was freezing, and it was time to go home. Hope to get back to Point Reyes soon. I’ll be keeping my eye out for openings at the Samuel Taylor cabins-they are awesome.

Sending good thoughts for the weekend!

Weekend in Irvine

​Hello, Friday! Before jumping into a new weekend, just want to remember last week’s visit to see my parents. Diego is quite the Northern-Southern California frequent flyer, but this was his first flight out of OAK. And-his first AirBART! Three cheers for public transit to the plane.

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The airport was packed (Friday evening flight), but while we were waiting at the gate, I looked up and guess who I saw….

Uncle Max!! One of these gentlemen in micro-fleece was en route to grandma’s house, and the other off to Vegas…

Speaking of grandmothers…the next morning, we joined an impressive group of grandparents, students, and families at the Irvine March for Our Lives. I’ll be honest, when I heard the words “Irvine” and “march,” I kind of expected it might just be my family, standing on a corner with signs. Irvine doesn’t exactly scream political activism.

Wow. Was I wrong. The turnout was amazing. And passionate! And incredibly inspiring. I was most heartened by the enthusiasm from all the cars driving by.

I’m nervous about getting too hopeful–November is still many months away–but I’m hoping the activists and voters maintain their stamina and turnout for the midterms.

After incredible tacos at Puesto, Janou and I went for a walk at the beach. I can’t remember the last time to the two of us had a free afternoon to go for a walk (my mom watched Diego-hooray!) and it was really nice to enjoy the scenery and catch up.

That evening, we all met up at the park before heading home for a birthday dinner for Diego! My mom made delicious arroz con pollo-so comforting and cozy.

The next morning, Mom packed up a picnic breakfast for the beach. Bagels + beach + fresh air are all a happy start to the day.

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It was a beautiful spring morning. Soon, it was time to head back-this time, Janou joined us for the flight! Flying with a teething baby seems to be my thing, and he’s getting verrrrry wiggly. But we all made it back, relaxed and refreshed from a beautiful weekend with family.

Lately

It’s Friday night, David and I just stamped and sealed our Christmas cards, and I’m starting to get sleeeeepyy. It’s been a LONG week of rotten sleep + colds for Diego (which means equally rotten sleep + colds for us). So, I’m very grateful for the weekend! Here’s what we’ve been up to the last few weeks: 

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The leaves are almost all gone. This is from a few weeks ago, picking Diego up from daycare. 

The Attigas hosted a BBQ in Golden Gate Park. Yasser made incredible ribs and wings and it was a delight to see everyone. I screenshoted this photo from Molly’s stories-those little baby feet!

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Silvia got Diego this jacket and I can’t get over how cute he is in it.

Doug Jones is Alabama’s Senator! The thought of the…other candidate…being in office was deeply distressing. Thankfully, Indivisible Alabama had a postcard writing campaign. Even though I only got involved the week before, just having that teensy bit of involvement helped me not feel sooo helpless. And Tuesday night was AWESOME!

Also, ha, I made bread! It’s almost embarrassing to post this, but I’m hoping by writing, I’ll keep it up. It was so easy-and I’m not a baker-and delicious.

Diego’s BFF from Daycare, James, came over for dinner (with his awesome parents). Diego was giggly with excitement. He’s always so serious and he LIT up with joy hanging out with his buddy. It was heart melting.

Ok, time for sleep. Speaking of, the only plus side of Diego’s cold is he is more cuddly. Very, very grateful for these Diego snuggles.

Happy weekend :)

Lately

Wrote this on Saturday. Thought I hit publish-but guess I had not. Now, re-reading it, after Sunday’s tragedy in Texas, I almost feel like deleting it. Especially the last sentence.  Feeling pretty shaken and scared by the horrific violence in Texas. I can’t stop thinking about the families. I’m trying not to read too much about the morning, as I don’t want to click on anything that in any way amplifies the violence. I just want to think and pray for the families that are broken, the people that are lost.  In this little corner, I don’t know how to document and memory-keep the moments of our life during a time, during a year, that is so difficult.  All I want to do is hold my baby, hug my family, hug my friends, and just hope for better. It is particularly difficult to process all of this without a leader with vision and heart. So, seeking some comfort and guidance in President Obama’s words: “May God also grant us the wisdom to ask what concrete steps we can take to reduce the violence and weaponry in our midst.” Amen.

Anyway, here was what was on my mind on Friday:

It’s 9:00 pm on a Friday night. I’ve got a snoozing baby next to me, a glass of Michael David Petit Petit waiting for me in the dining room, and that happy-content feeling that happens after a delicious bowl of Gian’s gnocchi with (garden basil!!) pesto sauce.

So, seems like as good a time as any to catch up on the last few weeks of October. Here’s what’s been happening around here..

It’s getting chilly!! Here’s a bundled Diego pre-morning walk:

David turned 33!!

We celebrated with friends a week before his birthday. On his actual birthday, he just wanted to hang out at home and cook. No complaints here. He made amazing braised short ribs.

Unfortunately, later that night-through the morning, I had to take a trip to the ER. A mosquito bit me while I was hanging out in the yard with Diego. Several hours later my finger was completely swollen, and my rings were starting to cut off my circulation. The only solution? Cut off the rings. Ughh. Very frustrating. And oddly unsettling-I keep reaching for them, and I get a quick pang of sadness they’re gone. Hopefully, I’ll get them re-banded soon.

Later that day, we checked out another winery, and the small pops of fall colors were beautiful:

Diego has been cycling in and out of colds and teething, which is frustrating for him, but his rosy cheeks are darling :)

UPDATE: Diego woke up. Continuing on with this post Saturday afternoon. Diego and David are grocery shopping and I have the whole, quiet house to myself…

Anyway, I went back to DC last week. I was mostly at a conference, but caught a quick glimpse of fall colors on the way to the airport:

And, my awesome parents came up to help out! The three night trip felt a lot longer than two nights, so I was particularly grateful for their help with Diego:

And it’s so special seeing Diego and Abu together:

Last Sunday, we met up with the Dillons for Boo at the Zoo. David was…incredibly excited. Diego played it cool the whole time :)

And here we are! The first weekend of November. Hope it’s a quiet and relaxing one for all.

Janou + Max got married!

It’s Sunday night, Diego is (currently) asleep, and tomorrow is a holiday. Finally have a moment to jot down some happy memories from Janou and Max’s incredible wedding!

Because of schedule, commutes, etc., Diego and I flew down from Sacramento and David flew in from SFO. I was a bit anxious about managing daycare pickup, parking at the airport, the luggage, picking up the rental car and driving the 70 miles to Palm Springs, solo. And, also the flight! Thankfully, once we got to the airport, Diego handled the flight like a total regular.

Add “letting my baby roll around on the airport floor” to the growing list of things I said I would never do as a parent-and now TOTALLY do

One lesson from the trip-and something I never thought of-car rental companies don’t  always install car seats. It makes sense, it’s a liability, and thankfully, I figured out how to install, but just another new parenting lesson for me!

We arrived at Colony 29-the hotel and wedding venue-at the same time as David and we all quickly settled into a magical weekend. Colony 29 is absolutely incredible. It’s a former artist’s colony of gorgeous vacation rentals, on the side of a hill, smack in the middle of Palm Springs. It’s naturally stunning, impeccably maintained, and close to everything in Palm Springs.

There were many, many highlights from the weekend, but one particularly special moment: seeing Abu and Diego meet. Abu traveled all the way from Argentina for the wedding-she’s amazing. On Friday, we walked over to my parent’s place and Diego met Abu. Look at Diego’s little grin seeing Abu for the first time! My family watched Diego for the afternoon (hooray!) so David and I got to lounge in the pool.

It was incredibly relaxing (I mean, that pool! That view!). Katie flew in from London for the weekend, and it basically felt like we were back on Dewberry, at the McGuffy pool (although a much fancier version), laughing, catching up and totally relaxing. Delightful :)

The afternoon at the pool put me was total vacation mode. Soon it was rehearsal dinner time!

Another stroke of magic? The weather. We anticipated brutal heat, but it was warm and breezy, and comfortable for all.

The next morning, after a quick walk to Starbucks, it was wedding prep time. Janou was serene and calm-I was in awe of her perfect balance of excitement and composure all weekend.

While we got ready, David and Diego enjoyed the pool…

THIS photo of Diego! And his expression!

My second favorite moment from the wedding (favorite being the ceremony) occurred while we were getting ready. We gatherered around Janou while she practiced her vows. Her writing is exceptional and it took everything in me not to cry as she read her beautiful words (had to try to keep that makeup on :)). It felt particularly fitting to gather in the bathroom-I’m in the tub-and listen to Janou, as Janou and I have shared thousands of conversations, standing in front of the bathroom mirror on Dewberry, rushing to get ready for something (or nothing at all), and in that quiet place we would talk about everything.

After some very happy tears, we pulled ourselves together and got ready for the ceremony.

Janou was absolutely stunning-a radiant, glowing bride. She also just seemed so comfortable and at ease, just happy and excited to marry Max.

My parents and Janou walked down the aisle to Leon Bridges’ River :)

Janou and Max’s friend Kevin officiated the ceremony. He led the two of them to their vows with a beautiful story about their relationship. I loved watching the two of them, with the gorgeous mountain backdrop, listening to their sweet story.

And then, they were married!! Time for dancing under the stars :)

The next morning, after some pool time and lunch at my favorite deli, the three of us made our way back home.

I don’t have the words to adequately explain how grateful I am that our family was all together for the weekend, and that Janou and Max have started their life together. This weekend we got to visit them in their new home (hope to write about it soon) and seeing the two of them starting this beautiful chapter filled me with great joy. Watching them in the kitchen, preparing lunch, I pictured the two of them preparing for many more happy moments and family gatherings, and I’m so excited for their love and their future.

Cheers to Janou and Max!