Adventures with Sue

We met Sue through our friend Jason Hickman when he was visiting last Fall before heading off to Iraq. (Hi Jason) They've been friends since they lived in Boulder, but Sue now lives 5 minutes away in Mill Valley, so it's been great to have a new friend for me to pal around with while Mick's in school.

Here are some more photos from the Half Moon Bay Mavericks Competition we went to back in February (mentioned in a February blog entry)--including shots from our spot on the bluff.

Sue was between jobs that month so she also joined us for lunch at Pacific with Mick on Valentine's Day. The kids and I packed Mick a special lunch, including frosted heart sugar cookies on sticks, and he gave them the book Olive My Love, companion to a Christmas favorite Olive the Other Reindeer. We wouldn't see Mick home at a reasonable hour that night; he was staying late in the lab again to meet another demanding set of deadlines that week.

After lunch and a $40 parking ticket--have to read those SF signs closely; it might look like 2-hour parking weekdays, but not if it also says except for Tuesdays when it's off-limits due to street cleaning--Sue and I took Dane and Aubrey to a windy, cold afternoon at the San Francisco Zoo. There, it was so cold and windy that the zoo was nearly empty of visitors, Sue had to buy a (much-admired) Zoo windbreaker, and the shutters of the antique carousel shelter banged and rattled. Dane and Aubrey got some bang for their buck that day, though. They'd been sent some money by Grammy--or was it Mimi?--so they each had $5. They spent $3 on the zoo train ride and $2 on the carousel, which they got to ride twice as its only patrons. They also got up close with the lions and tigers and penguins, and fell asleep hard on the way home with chocolate hearts melted in their hands.