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Saturday, October 24, 2009
Thursday, October 22, 2009
Spaghetti Western: Part V
Since our last post, we have covered another 800+ miles in our western adventure. A week ago we said goodbye to Papa and Gigi in Newport Beach and headed north to San Jose to visit the Mazzoccos. On Sunday we all piled into the MazzMobile for T's first ever trip to the famous Halfmoon Bay Pumpkin Festival, a long-standing Allen family tradition. Being able to go this year with my sis Wendi was a special highlight of the trip, and Luca felt the same way about enjoying his first pumpkin fest with his cousins.
In fact, Luca loved every minute of our time with his aunt, uncle and cousins, so much so that we were a little worried that he'd be bored with just the two of us when we left on Wednesday for Yosemite. Fortunately for us, he adjusted gracefully and we enjoyed our visit to Yosemite - another first for T and Luca. Though we didn't get in as much hiking as we had hoped, we did get to see many sites, including the Mariposa Giant Sequoia Grove, on foot and through the car windows.
In fact, Luca loved every minute of our time with his aunt, uncle and cousins, so much so that we were a little worried that he'd be bored with just the two of us when we left on Wednesday for Yosemite. Fortunately for us, he adjusted gracefully and we enjoyed our visit to Yosemite - another first for T and Luca. Though we didn't get in as much hiking as we had hoped, we did get to see many sites, including the Mariposa Giant Sequoia Grove, on foot and through the car windows.
L, T & Half Dome at dusk
An interpretation of a classic Allen photo of mom & me when I was a baby
Friday, October 16, 2009
Monday, October 12, 2009
Rumor has it that a few inches of snow fell overnight back in Minneapolis. Even though Fall is overtaking us here in Newport Beach and the skies are overcast for the first time since we arrived, the cold, white stuff seems like a figment of someone's imagination at the moment.
The warm temps here have afforded us a number of beach days and Luca has surprised both himself and his parents by enjoying letting the waves wash over him, sometimes even crying as they retreat. He's grown so comfortable with sand that the other day he took off from our oasis of towels and crawled about 100 yards without looking back. We're fairly sure he would have joined a party that he saw going on at one of the nearby houses if we hadn't intervened.
He's gaining confidence on his feet as well. Since we've been in California, he's figured out how to stand without the help of a furniture prop, and he's discovered that this latest trick gets a big reaction. And though we haven't yet caught any independent steps on video, he's tallied up a dozen or so shuffle steps walking from one of us to the other. The most curious thing about Luca and walking is that if we ask him to walk, he crumples to the floor and cries, so we have to be creative in how we encourage him. Looks like that open-mouthed smile might not be the only trait that he inherited from his parents!
The warm temps here have afforded us a number of beach days and Luca has surprised both himself and his parents by enjoying letting the waves wash over him, sometimes even crying as they retreat. He's grown so comfortable with sand that the other day he took off from our oasis of towels and crawled about 100 yards without looking back. We're fairly sure he would have joined a party that he saw going on at one of the nearby houses if we hadn't intervened.
He's gaining confidence on his feet as well. Since we've been in California, he's figured out how to stand without the help of a furniture prop, and he's discovered that this latest trick gets a big reaction. And though we haven't yet caught any independent steps on video, he's tallied up a dozen or so shuffle steps walking from one of us to the other. The most curious thing about Luca and walking is that if we ask him to walk, he crumples to the floor and cries, so we have to be creative in how we encourage him. Looks like that open-mouthed smile might not be the only trait that he inherited from his parents!
Wednesday, October 7, 2009
Luca the Lion takes down the Tigers.
Here's an iPhone pic that A took last night as Luca and I supported each other through the massive ups and downs of Twins fever:
And here we are chest-bumping/hugging when it finally came down in our favor (at least I think this is us):
And here we are chest-bumping/hugging when it finally came down in our favor (at least I think this is us):
Thursday, October 1, 2009
Spaghetti Western: Part IV
It's been an eventful couple of days for our troop of fearless road warriors. We covered 800 miles over Tuesday and Wednesday, not counting the extra hundred or so that we incurred when we had to go from UT to AZ to NV back to AZ back to UT because we (I am choosing not to name names) left our 'important bag' (which according to -hint- Alexis -hint- contains checkbooks, keys to the house in Newport Beach, bills, Luca's birth certificate, etc.) in our hotel room. Completing this leg of our trip put the grand total of traveled miles at a whopping 2,705, which means we've traveled more than 1/100 of the distance from the center of earth to the center of the moon. So there.
We had planned on including the Grand Canyon in our trek, but it got pushed to the return trip to Minneapolis after we saw Bryce Canyon National Park and concluded we'd be disappointed by any and everything else we saw. Our revised drive took us from Park City to Bryce to St. George to Las Vegas to Newport Beach, with Luca cooperating more often than not.
Our southwesterly progress offered particularly beautiful, albeit it foreign and unforgiving scenery, and of course we took a few pictures...
From Sunset Point:
Rocks lit-from-within
Included for scale. See the tiny hikers entering the canyons.
From Bryce Point:
Red Rock Canyon (on the way in and out of BCNF):
Ceiling at the Bellagio: Chihuly's flowers
So SoCal
Visit w/ Great Grandma
We had planned on including the Grand Canyon in our trek, but it got pushed to the return trip to Minneapolis after we saw Bryce Canyon National Park and concluded we'd be disappointed by any and everything else we saw. Our revised drive took us from Park City to Bryce to St. George to Las Vegas to Newport Beach, with Luca cooperating more often than not.
Our southwesterly progress offered particularly beautiful, albeit it foreign and unforgiving scenery, and of course we took a few pictures...
Bryce Canyon National Park
From Sunset Point:
Rocks lit-from-within
Included for scale. See the tiny hikers entering the canyons.From Bryce Point:
Red Rock Canyon (on the way in and out of BCNF):
Las Vegas
Ceiling at the Bellagio: Chihuly's flowersNewport Beach
So SoCal
Visit w/ Great GrandmaVideo Interlude
We will fill in some details shortly, but for now here is a one minute video recap of how and where we spent Tuesday morning through Wednesday evening (thanks to the new version of Google Earth).
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