The other night my Wife and Son and I were on our way home driving along the freeway.  Track 13 from Royal Crown Revue’s Mugzy’s Move was on repeat for our 3 year old who was rocking out in the back pretending to drum the drum solo.  The band itself brought back memories of when my wife and I were dating, years ago, and how we would go out swing dancing with good friends at different venues throughout the Los Angeles area.

I peered down to the odometer in our 2006 H3; it read 79,997 miles.  My wife glanced over and saw the same thing.  It got me thinking again on one of my random thoughts I frequently have.  I had 3 miles to contemplate the last 80,000 miles.

The first thought that jumped into my head was, wow we’ve done a lot in the last 80,000 miles.

Our roadtrip of life:

Trips to the beach,

trips to the desert.

Driving to the vet to bid a final farewell to an old, loyal friend.

Monotonous trips back and forth from work.

A nervous, slow trip driving my wife and new-born son home from the hospital for the first time!

Trips to our parents’ houses, trips to our friends’ houses.

Trips to Apple Orchards,

and trips to the pumpkin patches,

Our first vacation with our son to San Diego.

Trips on dirt roads and mud roads and no roads…

And our special trips to the moon with my son even though we only stayed in the driveway.  Rolling up and down the windows and turning off and on the windshield wipers pretending we were driving ‘Lightspeed!’

The pounds of chalk on the tires and bumpers from our budding artist…

We’ve had trips driving somewhere but nowhere in general, driving and driving to get our son to fall asleep.

Mammoth

Grand Canyon

Yosemite

Highway 1

San Francisco

80,000 miles.  It’s a long way in a short amount of time.  I wonder what is in store in the next 80,000 miles!

We’ve done a lot and I know I’m missing a whole bunch.  Remember, I did only have 3 miles to think about it.

VALLEY CENTER, CALIFORNIA–A tell tale for us when we know Autumn is here is when we are on our way to Bate’s Nut Farm in Valley Center, California to go find our ‘Great Pumpkin.’

So we are a little bit late this year, however, this year’s summer has been pretty mild compared to years past so to call it Autumn now almost want to make you ask what happened to Summer?  I’m not complaining, Autumn is my favorite season.  The last couple of weeks we had been fighting a bug that we seemed to have picked up at Riley’s Farm when we went apple picking in early September.  Skyler got a bit sick from the Apple Cider and had the runs for few days which landed him in the emergency room with an IV to restore his hydration.  Poor little man.  He is back to normal now and so we ventured out to our beloved pumpkin patch.  We found our 94 pound behemoth and placed it proudly on our door step for this year’s halloween.

The other night I took a seat near the patio door and looked out on to the hill in the backyard.  This was a view I saw night after night when Skyler was much younger.  Every night I’d hold him in my lap, with his head resting on my chest until he’d fall asleep watching his DVD, Classical Baby.  I’d stare out and look at the trees on the hill.  A year and a half later, those trees have gotten taller.  A year and a half later, my son is so much bigger.  He’s standing there playing with his hot wheels on the coffee table asking me if I want to play with him.  I think this is how I will remember him.  I think back now on when he was much younger, much smaller and it’s hard to believe this is the same little boy.  I’m sure I’ll be saying this when he’s older, but seriously, life has a way to keep going while your world seems to be standing still.  Perspective.  He keeps putting things back into perspective for me.  Life truly is great, but I do need to get those trees trimmed pretty soon…

This past weekend we headed over to Cabrillo Beach to show Skyler more tide pools.  We got there in the morning because that is the best way to plan the day with Skyler right now.  He still naps at around 1pm or 2pm for a couple of hours.  If he misses his nap it becomes a very long day.

Cabrillo Beach is a historic beach located in San Pedro, California. Cabrillo has two separate beach areas.  It is also home to a few famous landmarks, namely the 1.75 mile Los Angeles Breakwater which ends at the Angel’s Gate Lighthouse, the recently restored Cabrillo Beach Bathhouse, and the Cabrillo Marine Aquarium.

We had just visited the tide pools in Laguna Beach a couple weeks earlier and realized he really liked seeing the wildlife in the water.  Laguna Beach had the anemone police out so we couldn’t touch anything but this time Cabrillo Beach was unpatroled…

We made it to the parking lot and parked in front of the Cabrillo Marine Aquarium.  The tide pools are on the ocean side of the breakwater/jetty.  After a short walk about a quarter mile down we arrived at the tide pools.

There were tons of anemones everywhere.  We showed Skyler how you can gently push down on the anemone it would squirt water.

While looking around and exploring Skye found two large spiral shells.  We took a picture of them since we are not allowed to take anything from the beach.

We had a nice time at the tide pools, the water was beginning to return so we had to pack it out of there.  We’ll have to go back this summer when it’s a little warmer.  More photos at my photography website, CounterPointPhotography.com

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Rose Parade 2010

Is there a better way to start off the new year than to go to the Rose Parade?  There might be.  But this year, there was no better way to celebrate the new year than to head down to Pasadena, California, and find a spot on the parade route. One of Skye’s students was able to get us up-close and personal seating on the parade route with excellent parking.  This helped out so much, especially with Skyler.

The night before we set and packed the car so all we would have to do is get up, get Skyler dressed and head out the door.  Skye’s Mom and Step Dad were coming too so they were going to meet us at 5:30am when we were set to head out.  Nicely everything went as planned.  Before long we were already in Pasadena and could see the crowds of people.  The GPS didn’t help much since as you got closer to the parade route the more we found barricades blocking off streets.  We had  a printed out map for where were were to park so I just used that.

We found the parking.  It was a block away from the Pasadena City Hall and about half a block away from the parade route.

The reserved seats we had were across the street from the post office and on the street.

This was the view we had of the parade.  We actually were sitting on the street level as the floats passed by.

The floats were impresive, the crowd was respectful and everyone had a great time.  We saw Oscar DeLaHoya hanging over a balcony behind us and Jack Hanna on a float.  Now where else can you say that but at the Rose Parade?

Skyler loved watching the bands, especially the drummers.

It was a cold, early morning but we all had a great time!  What really impressed me was the fact that we could actually smell the flowers on the floats!  Pretty cool.

Here the link to all the pictures from the Rose Parade.

Rose Parade on CounterPoint Photography

Continuation from our recent trip to New York, back in May of this year.

Dinner at Gasho's

Saturday started off a little late. It was nice to sort of sleep in. Because of the time change Skyler wasn’t getting up until 8am. That was pretty cool, only thing about that is that we had a late starts in the morning. This morning Skye had some errands to run with Charlanne, so Skyler and I headed to some random park. It wasn’t the best of parks but it served it purpose. When we got there we were the only ones there. By the time we left there were like 10 other older kids running looking for trouble. A few days earlier we had bought Skyler a sand pail and shovel from Target. I brought that with us to the park here so Skyler could play in the sand box. There were kids that were circling us like vultures because they wanted to play with Skyler’s sand toys. Mind you, these kids weren’t 2 years old or 3 or even 4 years old. They had to have been at least 8 or 9 years old. At one point, one of the kids tried to reach for the pail and I said, “I don’t think that’s yours.” That made him back off to regroup.

Skyler - Cold Spring Harbor

Soon after that Skyler was done with the park and so was I so we got back in the car. It was hot so we headed to the mall. When we got to the mall there was a little carnival set up in the parking lot with the usual cast of strange “carnies” manning their stations. We walked around but there was really not much for Skyler to do so we headed into the indoor mall. We found a smoothie stand and ordered a peach smoothie. Skyler loves those. He pretty much finished the whole thing.

On our way home we drove past a White Castle. Skyler had fallen asleep in the backseat so I pulled into the drive-through. I ordered some sliders. Those things are greasy, but good. I think a couple of greasy sliders every couple of years is all right.

Skyler looking for a rabbit

After the nap Skye was free for the rest of the day. We decided to drive up to Cold Spring Harbor. Charlanne had told us there was a fish hatchery up there that one of her patients goes to with her boys. It was only about 20 minutes away but seemed like it should be farther. We drove though the town and it reminded me of Vermont.

We found the fish-hatchery but it had just closed. The parking lot was connected to an old church that sits on a large pond. We decided to walk around and check out the scenery.

Skye and Skyler at Cold Spring Harbor

As we walked up to the side of the church there was a very nice sight. Canadian Geese were swimming around the pond as a mother and daughter looked on. The mother had to have been in her late 80s or early 90s, the daughter in her 60s or 70s. There were just sitting on a bench looking out over the beautiful, picturesque landscape; it was such a nice memory being made for them.

Skyler at Cold Spring Harbor

We walked around the fed the geese, chased a rabbit and Skye and Skyler found some old Easter eggs. It looks like the church must have had an Easter egg hunt and not all of them were found, until now…

Skye and Skyler - Cold Spring Harbor

We had a dinner reservation at a Japanese steakhouse called Gasho’s where we were to meet up with Charlanne’s Mom, Ruth and Step-Dad, Neal. It was a restaurant like Benihanas, where the cook cooks in front of you. There was some minor drama involved when we got there but things worked out and we had a nice time. It was entertaining.

Skye and Skyler - Cold Spring Harbor

We came back to the hotel. Had a swim in the pool and went to bed.

Skyler's New Drums

Here is a short video of Skyler when he first saw his new drum set for his 2nd birthday. He really loves them. Even though it’s for a 3 year old, the next day he had figured out how to use the bass drum pedal. Enjoy!

I created a 20 minute slide show for my son for his 2nd birthday.  This is just one of the songs that is in the slideshow.  He really loves drumming so here is a little show case of that. The music is great; it’s performed by The Dirty Sock Funtime Band. They have so many other great songs too.

After much consideration, we’ve driven off the lot a brand new 2009 Saturn Vue.  It was time.  A few years back my wife fell in love with the Sebring convertible.  We bought a used one about 7 years ago.  It was a 1999 forest green with a tan top and tan leather interior.  It only had 25,000 miles on it and it was much better than the car she was driving from her college days.  That car was great.  We many road trips with it to the wine country the river but it was unfortunately cut down in it’s prime.

A couple of years back when my wife was pregnant she was driving on the freeway in the rain.  The Yukon driving in front of her slammed on the breaks which made Skye’s car collide with it.  The nose of the Sebring is much lower than the bumper on the Yukon so it slid under and bent the frame of the Sebring.  The Insurance company  called it a total loss and now we were in the market for a new car.

During this time we were neck deep with our remodel debockal.  We need to find a car and we were set on keeping a convertible.  Through many negotiations and driving from dealer to dealer we finally settled on a private seller in Naples near Long Beach.  Long story, short, we thought we bought a good car but ended up having more problems with it than we had anticipated.  You can read about one of the problems here.  Skye was way overdue for a new, SAFE, car.

It sure is pretty.

Here is a nice little side note: as we were signing the documents for the car we realized it was June 24th.  Exactly 9 years ago was when I proposed at Café Piccalo in Long Beach.  Time flies.  It doesn’t seem like 9 years!