A Family Trip to Santa Cruz

I just go back form a trip with my family to Santa Cruz.

We left a bit before 1 on Wednesday, picked up the kid from preschool and drove down to Santa Cruz we made good time and got there around 3:30. It wasn't quite time to check into our AirBnB so we stopped downtown and got ice cream. Then we checked in and R took the kid to the boardwalk for a little bit while unpacked and had a bit of downtime. Next when did some grocery shopping and got take out pizza for dinner. We came back the house and ate and put the kid to bed. They had some trouble falling asleep in a new place so it was long process. Then we hung out on the sofa for a little bit before going to bed ourselves.

The next morning I got up before everyone else and enjoyed slow morning for a bit. It was raining pretty hard -- which is not what one expects in May in this part of the world. Once everyone was up we headed for the Monterrey Bay Aquarium. It's such a great aquarium. We arrived in time to see them feeding the Deep Ocean tank. The tuna go so fast! The kid was less excited by the actual fish but enjoyed running between all the interactive bits and pushing all the buttons. We had packed a picnic lunch but couldn't eat outside by the great tidepool due to the rain. So we suck our outside food into the cafe.

We got back to Santa Cruz in the mid afternoon with time for more boardwalk time and for me and the kid to play at the beach and get in the water a bit. For dinner we had a bunch of pre-made stuff, two kinds of ravioli and a bagged salad. Bedtime was easier the 2nd night but still difficult.

On Friday morning we drove out to Henry Cowell Redwoods State Park, which has some lovely old growth redwoods. We took the short self guided nature loop -- the kid got pretty into finding the numbers. We saw several banana slugs, and spend a little bit of time in the nature center there.

We headed back to town and had lunch at a dinner before going to the MAH. I really enjoyed one of the exhibits Guided by Ghosts which featured three interconnected timelines -- the artist personal history, the history of Chinese immigrants and Chinese-Americans in Santa Cruz and international events.

After the Museum, R and the kid had some more time at the boardwalk and I took a walk. Then R had some time by himself in the arcade while I played with the kid at the beach. They where very enthusiastic about playing in the waves and we got pretty wet. Right at the end though the they tripped and got their face wet and that scared them so we had to have lots of cuddles. We went home and took a shower together then had some time playing with electronics. R made french toast for dinner which was delicious. The kid went to bed without much trouble and we where able to watch some TV.

Saturday started out clear but was predicted to rain latter. R and the kid went back for more rides at the board walk and I took a walk down on the wharf -- there where a lot of sea lions out there! As I was heading back it started to rain and by the time I got to the car it was coming down pretty hard. We had picnic lunch in sheltered bit of the boardwalk then went into town and got ice cream. I tried rolled ice cream for the 1st time. I got salted caramel with chocolate whipped cream and mochi bites. It was really good -- but I felt bad about how much work it was to make -- mixing it up seemed like so much labor. Then we headed home -- it was kind of a long drive with heavy rain.

It was good trip, but I'm tried now. I've maybe planed a bit too much travel for this month. Since I'm now home for four days (including today) two of which are work days before I head to WisCon.

Recent Media: Lots of Cute Kids

Star Trek Discovery Season 2-- We finally finished this despite the kid having trouble at bedtime since its light latter now. Expect a more detailed write up at some point -- probably not until I get back from WisCon.

A Memory Called Empire by Arkady Martine What an amazing book! It’s about an ambassador form a small space station to a massive empire -- and while violence happens in this book the main character’s goals are always diplomatic -- she’s trying to solve her problems by talking to people and really appreciated that as the focus of the action. I also really enjoyed the worldbuild in this book -- there’s so many little details about the food, and clothing. I also enjoyed the characters talking about the in-world fiction, and the main character experiencing culture clash and having complex feelings about it.

Hilda This netflix original cartoon about a girl called Hilda. It's a lovely show about exploring and making friends and meeting magical creatures. I’ve watched 5 episodes so far. One of my favorite parts is Hilda’s mom Joanna. I love her relationship with Hilda, and how she has her own life going on in the background of the show.

Yotsuba&! by Kiyohiko Azuma I’m really impressed with the protray of Yotsuba’s grandma, I can see how she would be a really irritating house guest for her son since she cleans all the thing, but also how she has really sweet relationship with Yotsuba. The manga manges to show her as both aggravating and loving at the same time. I’m now finished with all of these that are out in English.

Mirai-- This is an anime movie about a toddler who travels through time and has other magical adventures to learn about his family. This quite cute, I especially liked his visit with his great grandpa in post-war Japan, and all the city scapes and toy trains. But I have too many opinions about fictional parenting (seriously I’m so judgy) and sometime these parents rubbed me the wrong way.

Guardian I’ve been doing a very slow re-watch and updating my giant food post as I go. I missed so many things! Like multiple things every episode so far. I’m a little bit frustrated by how slowly my project is going, but I’m enjoying focusing a bit less on the subtitles and looking more at the faces.