two nice san francisco water days

yesterday i took miles to crissy field. the water was just about warm enough to swim, but we found a tidal river flowing into the bay that was about 85 degrees, with beautiful ripples of water. miles played last airbender and jumped off the sand cliffs into the water. our blanket ended up next to a group of kids and teachers from a school for kids with emotional disturbances, some of whom had come from the burt center, where i worked long ago. they had a pretty sweet little program going, and miles and i built tunnels while i eavesdropped on all the positive reinforcement going on and watched teenagers splashing joyfully in the bay. it was nice to be a mom of one for a few hours, and have my kid tell me "i like being alone with you."

today i took both kids to the north beach pool/joe dimaggio playground. i used to go here with the special day class i worked with at yick wo, as an indulgence when i was pregnant with maya. we were a little early and checked out the community center garden across the street as well as the corner store which sold ping pong supplies, candy, and pokemon cards. there are two beautiful clean pools inside, side by side, one 85 degrees, one a little colder. as soon as it opened the pool was flooded with at least 100 chinese kids, most of whom seemed to be without their parents. i thought miles would feel shy but within seconds he and another boy found each other in the mass of splashing, kicking, yelling kids. they followed each other around pretty much silently for about an hour. maya let go of the wall for the first time and jumped through the water to me, then swam back, over and over until she was exhausted.

we dried out in the north beach sun at the playground, where miles found his friend again.

home now, watching the old disney movie homeward bound, the incredible journey.

harvest photo

some vegetables from our garden. i like this photo. right now the peach tree is full of ripe fruit, come on over and we will give you some peaches to put on your cereal.

the kids and i said goodbye to our visiting friends at fort funston today, by the cool great green pacific ocean. dogs ran in packs and crows glided overhead. i brought gourmet doughnuts and miles and maya gave some of their toys and a book to nina and niko to make their trip home nicer.

my son is obsessed with money right now, asking a million questions about costs and incomes. i feel badly for his impressionable little brain sometimes, surrounded by ads on buses, in magazines, kids walking by with their portable video games, every adult with an ipod, ipad, iphone, basketball players with 100$ shoes that will make him jump higher "because they have air". he wants us to look these things up on the internet so he can see the cost. would things be different if we lived in the suburbs? up in the mendocino woods? a deserted island? it seems so hard for my little boy not to want more and more when that is the way the economy is designed. miles said the way it works is that he keeps thinking and thinking about wanting a cool new thing until he gets it, and then he starts thinking about another cool thing. we need to teach him how to resist wanting things, somehow, so he can fill his brain with more sustainable and peaceful thoughts. or maybe that is just a mother's fantasy.

more staycation and existential whoopi goldberg

sunday streets hit the mission again. a beautiful day for sunglasses, tricycles, scooters, rollerblading, hula hoops. miles and edison played street hockey with some real live san jose sharks. we sat on the admittedly not bad synthetic lawn at john o'connell high school and watched circus bella perform with a great live band, and then the kids got messy with el tonayense food. no cars around for five hours. peaceful.

our friends are still visiting. yesterday we spent a lot of time with them at the zoo, and then i splurged and stayed next door to them with the kids at the ocean park motel so we could relax in the hot tub and not have to rush home for bedtime. it was nice being out on the west side of town near the ocean. the air is a little different, the traffic noises still loud but calmer somehow. we took the l taravel to sushi which my kids pretty much hate. then today we braved the academy of sciences with 4 tired kids. we saw the whoopi goldberg narrated planetarium show which was pretty deep. maya liked watching the baby stars getting born and did not appreciate any dark or scary music. at home later miles said it was a little scary because the sun is going to die. i tried to convince him that in five billion years humans will have changed so much they will be less like us than we are similar to jellyfish, and that by then we will probably have magic powers, and that there will be new solar systems to live in and that we could just teleport there.

he was intrigued, but not convinced or cheered up, really. me neither. it has been so nice being with our old friends who are visiting, even with loud and sometimes quite annoying kids (mostly mine) that it is a reminder that this is our only, short, life. miles and i both get it, even when we don't want to, that these good times are not going to last forever. what to do, how to enjoy them the best we can?

time to write a rock musical, or have a drink on a rooftop deck, or go smooch my sleeping kids.

goodnight

rob hill

very tired, so this will be short. it has been a busy week of going to anchor bay and point arena to camp, swim, see fireworks and stay up into the wee hours with old friends, as well as a blur of city time with visiting old friends--park visits, eating out with sloppy kids, eating at lolo, drinking at dirty thieves until almost closing. then last night we went to rob hill campground with the same old friends. we were joined by about 30 people many of whom were about waist height or shorter, and camped in the presidio with a fire until about 2 in the morning. the kids were giving each other piggybacks, making witch brews out of bark and leaves and dirt, dancing on the picnic tables, hiding in the raccoon proof food lockers, and wrestling hard like puppies. hawks, flowers, mist, a view of the ocean through eucalyptus trees.

it is good to see so many friendly faces. feeling a little old in the morning, creaky and tired, but happy. we have been with old friends and their kids all week and even though our kids are not growing up together they still seem able to be close. my eldest has been driving us nuts with his show off crazy boy behavior but the kids seem to like it.

their baby time together made some kind of bond, i hope it lasts.