Summer's here

At least the yachties are. Summer seems to be here late because school got out so late (June 24). Hobbes had a birthday party at school for the first time in his life. However this means that Independence Day occurs on the FIRST weekend of summer vacation, rather than, as it seemed when I was a kid, the middle of summer.

On top of this the southern California weather has been both typically southern Californian and entirely unexpected. The month of June is known to be rather cloudy and chilly around here, but this year "June Gloom" started in mid-May and shows little sign of slowing down. In fact, this evening, as we were heading out to see the fireworks, we were putting on long pants and socks and fleece jackets, and we brought along an extra blanket for Calvin (who, of course, hadn't brought any long pants with him on our trip to the mainland). To watch the fireworks. On July 4th. In the middle of the summer. Now that I think about it, two years ago we were watching the Two Harbors fireworks display from the WMSC dock and it was cold that night, too. How can southern California, the land where it's sunny and hot all the time, manage to screw up the one holiday that's supposed to be sunny and hot? In the past few years, I have been at the beach on Labor Day, Halloween, Thanksgiving, Christmas, New Year's Day and Easter, but I would've avoided the beach today due to the cold, cloudy weather.

Sorry, this is sounding a little snarky. I'm just trying to be funny. We actually had a reasonably good Independence Day. [Editor's Pet Peeve: People who refer to the holiday as July 4th; we're not celebrating July 4th - that comes up in every country, every year. We're celebrating Independence Day. That happened to occur for us on July 4th-ish, 1776*.]

The morning was, as you may have gathered, gray and chilly, so we went over to the Deane Dana Friendship Park. We stopped in the Visitor Center, which captivated the Things with their displays of some local live animals (mostly reptiles and amphibians), then headed down to the playground. This was a little odd because there was a swing there and Calvin jumped on the swing and started swinging.

"Look, Dad, I can swing," he called out.

"Wow," I replied, "when did you learn how to do that?" (We have been trying to get him to swing by himself on and off for a while now.)

"Just now."

"..."

Yes, for some reason, this magical little swing set at the Friendship Park was the catalyst for Calvin swinging. So for the rest of the time we were there, it was a steady stream of "Watch me swing!"; "I can feel the wind in my face!"; "Swinging is fun!"; "I can almost touch those leaves with my feet!". Very hilarious.

After sufficient swinging, we took a short hike (about 1/2 mile - I don't think this will rate an entry on Sweetie's blog), and then it was back to the apartment for some lunch. Afterward, the sun started to break out, so we went to the pool. Hobbes is getting pretty good at swimming underwater, although his crawl is pretty rough. (This was me as a kid.) Calvin's like a little motor boat in the water - he just puts his face down and goes. I got in for a while and let them attempt to drown me in their varied nefarious ways (suddenly I have much sympathy for my Uncle Karl). After a nutritious dinner of Kentucky Fried Chicken - oops, I mean a ND of KFC, we headed out for fireworks.

We were going to the display at Cabrillo Beach, but we didn't want to be packed in with the crowd so a clever use of Google Earth found us a hill overlooking Cabrillo that had an easy route from (and to) the apartment. It was chilly and breezy. We had to park at the bottom of the hill and hike up. At one point we lost track of Calvin, but not for long. We had to suffer through "when are the fireworks going to start?" for about 20 minutes. Finally the fireworks started, and all was right with the Things' world, even though from our vantage point there was a street light in the middle of the display. Because of our clever spot-picking, we were home in about 20 minutes (and that included the walk to the car).

Tomorrow, we drop Hobbes off at the ferry terminal for camp. When he's done, we will pick him up and then leave the next day for Florida for vacation. Coming back from FL, Sweetie will head directly to San Francisco for a class she's teaching, and Calvin will head off for camp. By the time that's all over, it will almost be time for school again. Yeah, summer's here.


*[Okay, since I am related to both Revolutionary War buffs and a Doctor of History, the Continental Congress actually voted to separate from England on July 2, 1776, but the Declaration of Independence was made public on July 4th.]