Palo Alto Excursion

Jack will fight taking a nap at home to the point where we are both exhausted with each other and no one gets any downtime, just time-outs and escalating frustration. He naps at school each day and is a cranky mess at night if he doesn't have one, so he still clearly needs a nap in the afternoon. And I'm not ready for him to give it up either!

So I've changed my strategy. I try to time our weekend activities around some sort of naptime - whether that's in the stroller and I walk around for at least an hour or travel time in the car with the potential that I park and wait for him to wake up.

With the thought that Jack would nap in the car on the way home, he and I journeyed to Palo Alto this weekend (about a 1/2 hour south of San Francisco) for brunch and a play at the Children's Theater. Palo Alto is a suburb that's next door to Stanford University and the venture capitalists that fund up and coming technology companies. Technology and research dominate the area with many startup and established companies (HP, Stanford Research, etc.) being headquartered there. In 2010, Palo Alto ranked as the 2nd most expensive city for real estate in the United States with a $1.48 million median home price. What's interesting though, is that the homes don't look any different than any other nice suburb - its just that the little Craftsman bungalow on the corner, while well maintained, costs a million dollars.

We ate brunch at Saint Michaels Alley which had a wait list 10 minutes before the doors opened so you know it was good. And then we took in the glorious sunshine and opted to walk/stroll the mile to the theater.

You know you are in the suburbs when your community theater is within 500 feet of a "children's" library, the Girl Scouts "building", and a junior museum and zoo. One in three households has a child under 18 - unlike San Francisco which has the lowest per capita rate of children of any US city.

Big turnout, lots of interaction with the audience

The production was acted by local high school drama students, super interactive, and told the gory story of Little Red Riding Hood (I don't remember slicing up the Wolf to get back Granny and Little Red Riding Hood). They did a great job of getting the kids to participate and even gave each child a prop - plastic flowers which we used throughout the play. There was a big turnout and it was fun to see a roomful of kids simultaneously pretend to be big trees and little mice and big bad wolves.

Afterwards, we strolled the mile back to the car and went even further towards the downtown. We stopped at a yogurt place for a snack. Of course, this was not your typical TCBY. We ended up at an "artisinal yogurt" shoppe where they make batches of organic greek-style yogurt with a variety of chopped fruit and fruit purees. It was delicious and I'm not complaining, but I can't help thinking how fancy food has become in our generation and what a fine little palette Jack will have when he gets older.

Jack, lovey, and bunny rabbit

Then disaster struck. Jack has two loveys that he drags everywhere: a little giraffe lovey and a bunny rabbit. Somewhere in our 2 mile trek we lost bunny rabbit. We cut our sightseeing short, ran back to the car, and frantically drove back to the theatre. No one turned it in so we searched the theatre and surrounding grounds ourselves. I left my name and number in case it turned up. When we got back into the car, I decided to retrace our steps and literally drove in the right lane with my hazard lights on for 1 mile while we slowly scanned the sidewalk. Cars angrily sped past me, gave me the finger, and beeped long and loudly. Found! Laying on the ground was bunny rabbit.

With bunny and lovey in hand, we drove back home. Jack fell asleep about 10 minutes later and then I sat in the Whole Foods parking lot and read the driver's manual and my phone for a hour until he woke up.

When he woke up, he chastised me and told me not to drop bunny again. I promised.