Trip to Huntington Beach Fourth Day

My fourth day was Monday and everybody got back to their normal routines:  school and work.  Everyone except Robert who developed a nasty little cold over the weekend and stayed home.  True he was not sick enough that he was unable to practice his guitar but sick nonetheless.

After the kids got off to school, I went to campus with Galen for his office hour before class (no one came by) and then his lecture in the mechanics course.

His lecture was interesting and engaging because he used his bicycle as example.  I actually understood why my front wheel brakes always seem stronger than those on the rear wheel:  static friction on the front wheel is greater and poses the greater risk of going end up especially going down hill.  After class we stopped by The Sports Authority so I could pick up a long sleeved rash-guard t-shirt for sun protection on our bike ride.


Once back home, I had a couple pieces of fruit and we set off on the recumbent bikes.  Click here for a link to our ride.  It was a beautiful day with a nice tail wind on the way out and a head wind on the way back.  Everything went well till we were making the transition from the beach trail to the street on the way back home.  I failed to negotiate the pole auto barriers and crashed into one.  Fortunately neither I nor the bike were injured, just a bit sore:  me not the bike as far as I know.

We had pizza for dinner and then out to one of my favorite places, Cherry on Top, for self serve frozen yogurt with a huge variety of toppings.  All for 39 cents an ounce.  Nice.  Tonight I was the first to go to bed!

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Trip to Huntington Beach Third Day

As those of you on Facebook know, Sunday began with Galen baking cream puffs!  They were delicious.  Unfortunately we ran out of whipped cream so I volunteered to leg it up to Trader Joe's to get a fresh supply.  When the cashier thought I needed it for early morning coffee, I proudly explained that my son was baking cream puffs for the family.

I polished off several of these as I was finishing up Christopher Moore's Bloodsucking Fiends the initial volume in his vampire trilogy.  At Sean's urging, I have discovered his work and have been enjoying it immensely.  In discussing all this with Galen, I had said that I need to get to Barnes & Noble to get the second volume, You Suck: A Love Story.  He suggested that I use his Kobo reader to borrow it from the Monroe County Library System back home.  I could then send the reader back to him.  I check the MCLS resources and the book is available for e-borrowing.  I have downloaded to my laptop and will transfer to the Kobo today and start reading.  This will be a good test for me of an e-reader.  I probably wouldn't go with Kobo but the Color Nook looks promising.  I just checked and think it will support my Rhapsody membership.  I know that Meg just got a Color Nook and look forward to learning of her experience with it.  With the android 2.2 upgrade, it is looking like a really good buy.

After breakfast, Galen got his second recumbent bike set up for me and I gave it a try.  Once I got it going, it wasn't bad but clearly I would need more experience before I would bike with him to work along the Pacific Coast Highway.  So on Monday afternoon we are going to some biking on some side streets and trails where the worst that I can do is run into something rather than run the risk of something running into me.  I believe him when he tells me that it takes about 500 hours before you get really comfortable on one of these in traffic.


After a quick lunch, Galen and I took the three youngest to a program run by the anthropology department at Cal State-Fullerton at the Fullerton Arboretum which is on the campus.  They got to experience presentations about the life of native peoples in this area, the Chumash:  arts, crafts, games, and canoe building.  They also were able to participate in a "dig" which they seemed to really enjoy.  Graduate anthropology students were assisting as well undergraduates from the general education anthropology course.  Toward the end, Galen noticed that the undergraduates were all reading different MLB caps.  I noticed a young woman with a Royals cap.  turned out that her family was from the Kansas City area and she was a Royals fan.  We had a nice conversation.  After witnessing the canoe launch, we drove home.  Robert, by the way, had spent the day at Knott's Berry Farm with a friend.

After a brief recovery at home, we went out to dinner at Don Ramon's, a Mexican restaurant nearby.  That's where we learned about the death of Osama bin Laden actually via a phone call from Robert who told us it was on CNN.  This seemed strange to his parents until we realized that he had not returned home but to his friends house where he was informed by his parents.  Robert is not that 14-year-old who comes home and immediately checks CNN for his news update.

We returned home to watch more coverage on CNN.  This night I was the last one to go to bed.  Quite a day!

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Trip to Huntington Beach Second Day

Galen was up early and baking.  He made brioche.  He uses Julia's recipe.  According to Galen, when it is a French bread, he does exactly what Julia says with no innovation on his part.  His only change is that he bakes it as rolls rather than a loaf since that works better with a "grazing" family.  They were yummy especially with the lemon curd.  I also had a chance to get some nice photos of Marshmallow, the family pet.  He is obviously the guardian of the family remote control.

Galen, Laura, and I took Maggie and Thomas to Shipley Nature Center in Huntington Beach where the annual community event was underway.  I went last year as well.  We visited the booth for the Bolsa Chica Ecological Preserve.  Laura is active in the leadership of the Bolsa Chica Stewards, a group of volunteers that work in the reclaiming of the area for native plants.  Galen and I hiked around some of the trails with Thomas and Maggie.

When we returned home, I took Robert and Henry to the movies.  They chose "Paul" which, as Robert said, was a lot better than he thought it might be.  For some reason they didn't want to see "Fast Five," the latest "Fast and Furious" release.  That was disappointing to me since I rely on adolescent grandsons to justify my attendance at...well, more adolescent movies.

Then it was back home for some sliders.  After dinner we all watched "Fantastic Mr. Fox" which was quite good with great voice talents:  Bill Murray, Meryl Streep, and George Clooney.  As usual I hit the sack earlier than everyone else and am now up at 5:00 a.m. writing this before even Galen gets up.  Sunday promises to be big day as well.

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