Russell Beattie

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San Francisco Summers definitely suck. So we took another trip out of The City yesterday to get some sun and only had to drive about 45 minutes south to find it. The eventual destination was the Children's Discovery Museum in San Jose. (On Woz Way, no less... heheh). It was quite fun as it was perfect for Alex's age and kept me pretty entertained as well. Alex was able to climb into the vehicles they have there (a fire engine and ambulance) and there was this really neat interactive water exhibit which was really fun. Lots of plastic balls floating around and being propelled through the air by jets of air and streams of water. I took the little video you see above of Alex playing. Since we usually keep him away from water when out playing at the park, he was in heaven.

If you've got kids of this age, the museum - though a little small - was definitely worth the trip. It brought back fond memories of the Boston Children's Museum for me.

Afterwards we had a Sunday drive up through the 'burbs in San Jose, Sunnyvale, Los Altos, Mountain View and Palo Alto. It's amazing how you can see that even though one city flows into another, how they are all a bit different. I'll never voluntarily live in a neighborhood without sidewalks. Atlanta was like that, ugh, I hate that sort of pedestrian-hostile feel. But that's all there is in Los Altos, which seems nice and woodsy, but was really exclusive and walled off. Cross the line into Mountain View and Palo Alto and there's a completely different vibe. Cute neighborhoods, trees, nice houses, parks, etc.

We eventually took a break for at the Mitchell Playground in Palo Alto and it was so nice. The park was great and it just felt like *Summer*! I'm sitting here at work in East Bay and outside my window it's cold and grey. Yes, it'll be nice in October, but that's like getting your Christmas presents in January. Everyone else is enjoying Summer now and more importantly my body wants to feel Summer now. It's amazing that last year at this time we were in Puertollano, Spain where the temps were easily in the 100s for weeks (the same heat-wave that killed all those people in France). Now I'm back home and I'm freezing. I finally gave up wearing shorts to the office - I was just too cold. The funny thing is that my Mom knew this was going to happen, when I told her I was going back to San Francisco, the first thing she said was, "all you did was complain about San Francisco for four years!" and I, of course, blew her off. "No," I said, "I love San Francisco! Yeah, it gets a little chilly but..." Uh, huh. Someday I'll learn to listen to Mom. ;-)

Anyways, we won't be moving any time soon, but I can definitely see myself eventually getting a house down in the Peninsula or South Bay. San Francisco and Berkeley have so much more culture, but I just prefer the weather down in the Valley. Not that California has "seasons" but at least down there the changes in temperatures would reflect the time of year a bit more... I mean, it's freakin' August!!! I want to be in Shorts and a T-Shirt complaining about the humidity and reaching for a cold one, not *being* the cold one.

;-)

-Russ