Visit from Grandpa 1

This weekend, Grandpa joined Claire and me for a farewell to California visit. This Grandpa is not to be confused with Claire's other grandpa, Papa. On the fridge she has pictures of both grandpas, and likes to tell us, "I got two grandpas. One. Two." and show us the pictures.

In just two days, we had quite a few adventures. On Saturday, Claire and Grandpa watched while I successfully completed my "gold" belt test in Taekwondo. This will be my last test, given that we are moving to Houston and my belly is starting to protest. Thanks to Grandpa's visit, I didn't have to make babysitting arrangements for my test, the logistics of which had been bothering me, since Maria lives 20 minutes away from my "dojo" by car.

Next, we went to the Palo Alto Junior Museum, which is a (free) hodgepodge of games for kids and a small zoo. Claire holds her own against the onslaught of other kids. She'll let a kid know if they are invading her turf, e.g., "No Little Girl, that's my ball." We had milkshakes and burgers at In N' Out, napped, then went on further adventures to the bookstore and finally the playground. Claire was worn out at the end of the day! When Claire was asleep, I sprung a birthday pie on Grandpa, as well as his birthday gift of Malcolm Gladwell's newest book "Outlier," which he had been interested to read.

Sunday, while Grandpa was at church, Claire and I slept soundly. When we finally got up, we went to brunch at Hobee's restaurant in Palo Alto, which I like because they cater to little kids by bringing out a fruit plate with whipped cream as soon as you sit down, crayons, and a good kid's menu. We enjoyed our breakfast and then went to the Baylands for a hike. Baylands is a fun place to go because there is plenty of space to run around, a big field where people fly model airplanes, and a bird walk. Right now there is no water, but at other times of years there is a lot of water birds around.

We had a great time with Grandpa! Check out the picks, upper left, Grandpa Visit November 2008.