Thanksgiving in Arizona Part 2: The Scottsdale area seems to be the land of Railroad parks. In two days we ended up in two different parks that both had mini locomotives and carousels. Our first park was the McCormick-Stillman Railroad Park. There were two great playgrounds that were free, and then train rides and the carousel for $1 per ride. 2 kids=$4 for one ride on each and hours of fun in the park. Ok, so maybe a little moola was spent on an ice cream cone or two.......Also fun - Saguaro Lake. You can take a lovely little paddlewheel boat ride around a good portion of the lake. The second railroad park was where we had our family reunion.....but more on that later.

Thanksgiving in Arizona Part 1. If you've never flown on Thanksgiving Day, I highly recommend it. We took a 9 am flight out of Oakland to Phoenix and there was no traffic, no lines.....the only indication it was a holiday weekend was the full flight....but then again it's always full on that route. An hour and a half later, we're in Arizona, enjoying Turkey Day. How does 75 degrees in November sound? Yeah, it was that good. Ry and Si got to visit Keith and Grandma Nancy's house for the first time and meet Biscuit and Buttercup. Ry even got to hold them for a brief moment. They also saw where the Stealth Camera is placed that they got Keith and Nancy for Christmas. It captures awesome photos of unsuspecting critters via motion detection, and Keith often e-mails the photos for their enjoyment. More later on what one can do in 75 degree weather in November.........

For those who are staying in the area for Thanksgiving, a couple of fun things: The Turkey Beach Trot at Ocean Beach looks like a really fun way to start out the day and work up an appetite. Unfortunately, it's too late to actually be a participant this year but it would still be fun to watch. There's a kids' participation option as well. There are also a couple of Sierra Club Hikes on Mt. Tam on Thanksgiving morning. Or just check out Bay Area Hiker and create your own Thanksgiving hike. There are great photos and very detailed descriptions of any trail you can think of......happy hiking!

Ry and Si love rock climbing. They're good at it too. Scott has learned to belay them....Ry can go to the top on a few of the walls at Berkeley Ironworks. This is how they spent their day yesterday while I was fighting my way to the crab counter at 99 Ranch yesterday. It's a light day in bloggerland.

Mmmmm......it's the opening of crab season. Who can resist delicious Dungeness crabs? As we sat at dinner tonight enjoying our homemade garlic crabs, we felt very lucky to be able to partake in this late fall northern California ritual. You can't even imagine the scene at 99 Ranch today with everyone wanting their crab. And luck was with me, as I was waiting patiently for my number 62 to be called (they were on 42), a man came along and changed the signs from $3.49/lb to $2.99/lb! We all thought maybe if we stood there long enough we could wait it out for $1/lb. It was another classic Bay Area moment - being in the largest asian supermarket, waiting to buy crabs with my fellow english- and spanish- and cantonese- and mandarin- and hindi-speaking shoppers, trying to communicate "three large crabs" or "two medium crabs with all the legs" to the fish mongers who also spoke english and spanish and cantonese and mandarin and hindi....yet somehow never at the same time as the person who was ordering. I moved on and picked up my dried anchovies, tobiko, sashimi, fried broadbeans, seaweed, scallion cakes, lumpia, and more before heading home to the delightful crab dinner.

Have you heard that I love music? And all things music-related? So, for your enjoyment, some of my favorite musical links: KPOO Radio is based in San Francisco, caters to the needs of populations traditionally underrepresented in the mainstream media and broadcasts a wide variety of music not typically heard on commercial stations. KPOO streams, so hit the "Hear Us" button from their link above. Pandora is by the people behind the Music Genome Project which is trying to map as many songs as possible (syncopation, rhythm, instrumentation, etc.). You type in an artist or song that you like, and Pandora matches it in as many musical ways as is possible to build a station of just that kind of sound for you. You can give the thumbs up or thumbs down to what they choose, and come up with a radio station tailored exactly to your taste. Track 50 is a site that tracks concert dates in the bay area for the bands you love. Simply let them know who your favorite artists are, and they'll notify you via e-mail when concert dates are scheduled. I've never been spammed by them or heard anything else from them other than concert dates and venues on bands I submitted. And finally, the goofiest and most oddly addictive site of all - Let Them Sing It For You. Type in any words, sentence or phrase and hit the red arrow. Let me know what you think about that one.

Heard from Anthony today.....he's in southern Spain right now. Looks like he's been down the west coast, in Portugal, down to Morrocco, and now will work his way back up the east coast to Barcelona and then on to Paris to come home.....or something like that. Thanks, Anthony, for a quick, easy bloggable item today - I ran short on time. And he swears the snakes are real.

One of Ry and Si's friends at school dressed up as a Rubik's Cube for Halloween....great costume. It reminded me that the three of us went to the Exploratorium last year where they were hosting one of the Rubik's competitions. It was amazing not only to see how quickly they could solve a cube, but how some could solve it one-handed, and some did it blindfolded! So check out this video (about 2 minutes) to see how it's done (just click on the arrow on the picture). Believe me, don't think she can see through the blindfold. We saw several people do this and it was amazing every single time.

There is an official World Cube Association competition coming up at Cal on November 18. This is your chance to see it firsthand. You do know that text in green in the body of the blog is a link, right?

Fun Dia de los Muertos festival today. We thought we'd go early at about 11:30. 10,000 other people had the same thought. By the time we left around 3:00, 200,000 people had joined in (I am prone to exaggeration, but the relationships are what's valuable). Ry and Si had the biggest strawberry piña colada I've ever seen. Mariachis, Peruvian flute players, Mexican rock and roll (including some acid r&r) and many, many beautiful altars. So beautiful, in fact, that Ry took much time to stop and think about grandpa Jean......kind of a bittersweet day.

Dia de los Muertos was a big hit. Ry and Si made chocolates with skeletons and Catrinas with me and at school they made sugar skulls. They also made Pan de Muerto (bread) with Scott. We left out drinks and food offerings along with flowers and candles to help light the way. With all the activity of Halloween, and getting Ry and Si ready to go to Yosemite with their class, we couldn't make all the special foods our relatives would have loved. But it didn't matter. When they woke up Ry and Si were so excited by how much the relatives seem to have eaten! It really looked like they had a big party and were very pleased with our offerings. We had a very special experience putting together our altar, and really got to talk about the relatives we miss and why they were so special. It's a great tradition. There's a big celebration on Sunday in the Fruitvale district, and we plan to be there. Man, I love living in the Bay Area.

Another great no-waste lunchbox option! I don't love it quite as much as laptop lunchboxes just on a practicality level....there's no way to keep things warm or cold....but on a strictly functional and totally cool-looking level, these Stacking Bento Boxes rock! These definitely have to go on my permanent link section. These look good if you know you can go straight to your destination and put it in the fridge - or if you're taking snack to the park.

Finally! I finished Si's costume last Friday, in time for the weekend dress-up activities. Guess it pays to know yourself well enough to plan two months to finish something that could be done in 2 weeks if enough attention was paid to it. Ry's costume was easy....bop into the store, find it, bop out.....he knew exactly what he wanted to be for the last 3 months. He has a book on a day in the life of a police officer (a real one), so he can tell you all the things that happen during a shift in Cambridge, Mass. Si was riding her bike on Saturday afternoon (no training wheels anymore!) and fell and scraped up one knee so we thought that was perfect since mermaids can accidently get too close to coral and get scraped up tails and fins. Anyway, it was a lovely Halloween - a good time was had by all.