10.7.17 - Fleet Week party

Jack and I dropped off the girls with Beth at the meet point at 8am and then we headed straight to San Francisco. I was worried traffic would be horrendous getting into the city but we took 101S and it was actually fine. I just love when you come around the bend and can first see the city spread before you and then the Golden Gate looms into view, and on this morning the bay looked very sparkly and the view was as beautiful as ever. Such a gorgeous city.

Julie's pic of Zoey playing in the bay the day before we came down.

Of course the Marina was packed, and it was clear right away that many other cards besides us were looking for parking. Dad told us to stop bothering and pay to park at the local school instead. We had no cash so we headed back toward the house to get money from Dad, and on the way there we saw a woman pulling out of a spot less than half a block form the house! It was a Fleet Week miracle.

Jack and I went with Dad to Safeway to get chips and ice. They were out of ice, but the walk was still nice. Both Bob R and Henry were heading toward us so they picked up ice at more distant grocery stores anyway. We took all the supplies to the roof and visited with the head tenant, Kenny, for a while. I like that guy. Easy to talk to, and a go-to guy.

Jill, Rocket, Julie, Zoey, and Malcolm joined us soon after. Julie left to use our double stroller to take Malcolm for a walk in the hopes he'd take a nap. Zoey stayed on the roof with us and played with the mega blocks/Duplos with Rocket. I kept an eye on her but I hardly needed to. She just played quietly in the shade of one of the roof tables and occasionally asked for water or something. At one point after the ice arrived I opened up the bags and she gleefully dumped them into the coolers. That was fun.

Eventually she was getting sunned out and overstimulated, so we went down to the living room and I found her a huge coloring book still on the floor-to-ceiling bookshelves. There were no crayons but there was a highlighter, so she could still do connect-the-dots pages. I think it was somewhere around that time that Julie returned with Malcolm, and we all stayed in the living room for a bit. Malcolm was tired and fussy, and when Julie stepped out to use the restroom he started crying. So I picked him up and cuddled him like I cuddle Clara; it's nice to have a much better sense of what to do with kids now. I asked Zoey if they knew the song "Mr. Sun, Sun, Mr. Golden Sun." She said their mom sings that to them, so I started singing it to Malcolm. The first verse is:

Oh Mr. Sun, Sun, Mr. Golden Sun

Please shine down on me!
Oh Mr. Sun, Sun, Mr. Golden Sun

Hiding behind the tree!

These little children are asking you

to please come out so we can play with you

Oh Mr. Sun, Sun, Mr. Golden Sun

Please shine down on me!

Then I made up a second verse fitting of how Fleet Week must feel to chlidren:

Oh Mr. Sun, Sun, Mr. Golden Sun

Please go behind the clouds!
Oh Mr. Sun, Sun, Mr. Golden Sun

The jets are way too loud!
Please help us to find some peace and quiet

before we have to start a riot.

Oh Mr. Sun, Sun, Mr. Golden Sun

Please go behind the clouds!

When I started singing this verse Zoey looked at me so suspiciously, as if she wasn't sure I was tricking her or not, haha. Julie just laughed.

Not long after I made my way back to the roof to visit with my friends while Julie stayed with the kiddos downstairs. I basically spent hours on the roof not using enough sunscreen, sipping wine, eating turkey rolls, and talking with Kale about all things political while Henry and Genninlyn listened in and added a point or two here or there. I love talking to Kale about politics. We agree on very little but it's always amicable and we're both relatively ready to admit when we aren't sure about the facts. Kale is great about that. It also seems like he's usually interested in what the conservative view of an issue is, if only as a curiosity because he doesn't hear it much except as caricatures. So I enjoy trying to explain it (when I understand it).

A pause in conversation, watching the air show.

At one point we were talking about Trump, the Robert E Lee statue, and Nazis, when Dad interrupted to have me come talk to one of his clients about our CER videos and teach ins. When I returned I said "So what were we talking about?" Kale: "Uh you were telling us how you love Nazis." That made me laugh pretty hard. I like that he can joke about these things. We talked about NFL and kneeling protests and the Las Vegas shooting and gun rights generally and so on.

Oh yes, and Rachel came too. For some reason she didn't feel like talking about Nazis and guns though.

I did feel a little bad, though, because Julie is never in town and I was spending all my time talking to Kale about politics while she was hanging out with her kids. So Kale, Henry, and I decided to head over to the library playground to hang out with Julie, Jill, Rocket, Zoey, and Malcolm. But even on the walk there we kept talking politics and lingered outside the playground for a while to discuss transgenderism. Then we went inside and said hi to everyone and then watched the kids on the teeter totters while we talked about libertarians and taxes paying for roads. We just couldn't stop!

Finally we really put a halt to it and hung out with everyone at the playground. It was a pretty busy playground day but the kids still were able to run all over the place.

When we got back the party had largely moved downstairs to the living room for pool and lounging. Zoey and Malcolm were starting to seem overwhelmed with all the noise. Julie wanted to play some pool but couldn't get her phone to play videos for them for reasons I can't remember. So Jack, Kale, Henry, and I took the kids back to the sun room (where it was much much quieter) and Jack lent them his laptop to watch Cat in the Hat on Netflix. At first they were fussy when Julie wanted to leave, but I told her to go ahead and if they didn't calm down we could always come and get her. Sure enough, a few minutes after she was gone they settled and just watched Netflix and played with the chess set in the room. It was the second or maybe third time that day I was glad I have kids and have some idea of what I'm doing with kids so that I could be more helpful to Julie. It's hard traveling alone with kids and being the only person on point. Anyway so the rest of us hung out in the sun room and talked about kids and dating and relationships.

Finally it was time to get going. Jack and I packed up whatever gluten free food was leftover, plus a ton of Diet Cokes (the part I was really excited about), and then we drove straight to Folsom to get the girls. I slept part of the way. It's always so nice to see the girls after being away from them all day, and they (especially Clara) are so happy to see us.