Some Friends Are Meant to Be!
On Monday of last week, the girls and I tried a highly successful experiment that will definitely be repeated: lessons  at the playground. I had the big girls complete their Khan Academy assignment at home, then we packed a picnic lunch and spent the rest of the day at a large playground across town. Fortunately, having the climb & slide within in easy distance proved motivational rather than distracting. While there, we met a new-to-the-area, new-to-homeschooling, military family! Moms and kids alike hit it off immediately. What was for them supposed to be a quick obstacle course through the playground before biking/jogging home turned into an hour and a half at the playground while Miss R and I talked homeschooling methods, local resources, and local churches. When it came time to part ways, kids in both families were begging us to set up future playdates, and we had already exchanged contact info to do exactly that! Then on Wednesday, we happened to run into them at the library! And on Sunday, they took us up on my invitation to visit our church. I have no doubt we'll be seeing a lot of them in the future!

Adventures with Grandma & Granddad
Grandma and Granddad finally got to visit us out here for a long weekend! The girls were so excited to see them again (it's been a long time!), and we had plenty of adventures planned. We spent all day Friday at the Monterey Bay Aquarium (with a break for lunch on Cannery Row and Nestle Toll House ice cream sandwiches, of course). Since we stayed for the whole day this time, we not only got to show off our favorite exhibits, but we hit all our favorite events too: the sea otters feeding & training, the history of the bay multi-media show in the Tide Pool Amphitheater, the albatross encounter, and the penguin feeding.

The next day was a busy one too, as we attended the Scottish Highland Gathering & Games. Daddy wasn't competing this time, but the girls were pretty excited about getting to watch the women toss cabers! This time we actually spent much more time wandering around the gathering than watching the games. There was so much to see: Irish step dancing demonstration, the clan village (the girls collected clan stamps again), piping and drumming concerts, steak pasties and bangors for lunch (yum!), so many vendors (pottery, textiles, foundries, stone carving, tartans, jewelry, etc.), a sheep dog demonstration, etc. We also enjoyed the living history section of the gathering. We got to watch the Queen presiding over a knighting ceremony, watch a round of a historic medieval battle (armored "knights" going full contact until most of the competitors have been knocked down), listened to a reenactor explain the uses of various medieval weapons, and watch an archery demonstration. This gathering even featured a contingent of Viking reenactors! We got an up close look (and feel, smell, etc.) at herbs, animal furs, runes, and furniture and listened to a gifted storyteller explain the history and practices of the Vikings. (FYI, many Scots, including the particular ones Daddy is descended from, are actually descended from Viking raiders/colonists, so their presence at the gathering does make sense).

Our clan was represented at this gathering!

After church and our usual lunch with friends on Sunday, we took the grandparents to explore the area around Fisherman's Wharf. We took a turn through the Greek festival that happened to be this weekend, then started down the rec trail to admire the coastline and look for wildlife. That evening we spotted harbor seals, sea otters, brown pelicans, cormorants, caspian terns, pigeons, sea gulls, and a handful of additional birds we couldn't find in our field guide. Of course, we couldn't the wharf without picnicking on bread bowls of clam chowder!

For Grandma and Granddad's final morning out here, we headed to Lovers' Point Park, which the girls declared was "the best playground ever!" It doesn't actually have a playground, but it does have fantastic rocks to scramble on and a big grassy area to run around in as well as an unpaved trail along the coast. We spotted all the same animals we did the previous evening as well as a western scrub jay along the trail.

In the course of getting to and from some of these adventures, we also discovered a fun new road trip pastime: reading road signs with great emotion or while doing a voice impression (for example, hearing tiny Dalek voices reading exit signs from the back seat is pretty hilarious).