Memorial Day Family Beach Ride

It was a home-oriented holiday weekend, but an enjoyable one nonetheless. We spent Saturday and Sunday running a few errands--such as shopping for gear for this summer's planned camping trip to Oregon--and working around the house, particularly in the front and back yards. No major (i.e., day-long) projects, but a little bit more than the usual lawn and garden maintenance. That left the Memorial Day holiday for play. Much to our relief, all three garbage trucks arrived on the early side--and Tony still HAS to see the trucks ALL the trucks if he's not otherwise stuck in school--which allowed us to get a not-late start for the day's main event. Under spectacularly sunny, 75-degree skies, we made a family bike ride along the beach from Playa del Rey to Manhattan Beach and back. (Click here for a map.) A full 12 miles round trip (!), this was far longer than the usual 3-mile loop Tony and I ride around the neighborhood. But Tony did great, finishing the whole ride with smile and without complaint. Meanwhile, Everett did very well in the bike trailer, too. Helping sustain us all was a short break for chili dogs at mile 3, and a longer break for ice cream and visit to Manhattan Beach pier aquarium at the 6-mile turnaround. What a great way to start summer.

New Photos and Year-to-Date Summary

Is a blog really a blog if new entries are never posted? I guess not. To begin to correct that situation, let me offer the following brief, but better than nothing, update of what the Morris family has been up to in 2006.

We basically returned to our normal routine in January and February, after another rain-filled but still enjoyable winter-holidays trip to the extended Bay Area. That trip included not only several days with Audrey's family in San Jose, but also a day trip to Sacramento (rainy, of course) which included visits to the Jelly Belly factory, the state railroad museum, and dinner with our friend Venus. Once back home in LA, it was back to school for Tony and I, and back to the daily routine for Audrey and Everett. We had the usual patches of winter illness pass through, although I somehow managed to escape the worst--must be all the homebrew I've been drinking. (My best New Year's resolution ever: make and drink more beer!) Inspired in part by high gas prices, I did most of my winter, pre-season bike training in the form of bike-commuting to/from work. Among the many benefits, I did not put on the usual 5-10 winter pounds, even with the added beer regimen.

Things got more interesting, and not in a good way, during March and April. First, I crashed at the very end of my first bike race of the season. Not that bad of a crash really, but some severely bruised ribs kept me off the bike for a few weeks. Two months later, I'm still reassessing what kind of a racing schedule to pursue this year. That's largely because in early April, just a couple of weeks after getting back on the bike, to take advantage of Tony and I sharing a Spring Break week, we drove up to my Dad's place in the mountains above Fresno. He had recently returned to Israel for the summer, so we didn't get to see him there. But we had a really nice time nonetheless, including some playtime in the snow. Unfortunately, situated only partway up the mountains as my father's place is (just below 4000 feet), he's very much in poison-oak country. Foolishly, ignorantly, stupidly, etc., I decided to spend a part of one day "clearing brush", which apparently included some of that dreaded poison oak. I spent the next two weeks--the second half of April--in total misery, with a horrific primary rash on both arms and not very pleasant secondary rash across much of the rest of my body, forming something of a map of my lymphatic system. My misery of course translated into the family's misery, and after two truly hellish weeks for all of us, and three trips to the doctor, I finally started to return to normal at the end of the month.

Thankfully, May has (so far) been a much better month for all of us. We've all been more or less healthy. I'm not only back at work but also back riding my bike and brewing beer. Tony and Everett are back in music class, and Tony is also now making great strides week-by-week at baseball (coach pitch this year, not T-ball). Audrey is just as rapidly learning the ins and outs of her long-overdue new sewing machine. And perhaps the biggest news of all: Everett is potty trained (more or less), and thus all ready to begin pre-school in the fall! So with the rains and illnesses of winter finally behind us, we've really been able to get a lot done around the house the past 2-3 weeks, as well as actually have some family fun. This most recently included a Mother's Day trip to the Aquarium of the Pacific in Long Beach.

It is with this newfound sense of optimism and relief that we all now look forward to what promises to be a very welcome and enjoyable summer, with a short trip to San Diego and an extended driving tour to southern Oregon (volcanoes and sand dunes for the boys, breweries for me, birds and wildflowers and maybe a craft store or two for Audrey) already in the works. (Of course, during the month of June, there's a little thing called the World Cup, too.) Until then, you might wish to check out the latest batch of family photos I uploaded to our Flickr site.