To make it up to the kids for leaving them for 4 days (although this seems to have gone very well.. making Valentine's, playdates, good food), Patricia brought them down to meet us in LA for a long Presidents' Day weekend. We snatched them from LAX on Saturday afternoon and went straight to the Getty-- stunningly beautiful. A clear day, surrounded by hills and sea, amazing architecture. Apart from a quick round of Rembrandt's drawings, none of us could bring ourselves to go inside so we had a glass of wine outside while the kids played on stones and fountains and the sun went down over the Pacific. Then inside for some Impressionists and photography before heading for Pasadena and collapsing in our room for Fantastic Mr Fox and a Thai take-out picnic.
On Sunday we headed for Kidspace, a delightful hands-on kids' science museum with indoor and outdoor fun. Eliot made huge strides doing some fast triking while Anselm found some climbing buddies. We met Christine for lunch in town, then headed up to Ben's place at Rincon Point for the night. Saw in the sunset at the beach, then the boys went foraging-- while the kids watched March of the Penguins on Ben's cool new projector system, we put together a feast of baked goat cheese salad,grilled fish, Israeli couscous (so-called, I never saw it there).
Today Anselm and I took an early beach walk to see the surfers handle the tail end of the monster dawn waves for which Rincon is famous. Late breakfast of crepes, then a huge treat-- took Ben's Tesla out for a test drive on Highway 101. My first time driving a sports car! We started with Ben in the driver's seat so I got to experience the full acceleration (which I would not have dared to do). Very fun. Then on to Santa Barbara to introduce the kids to the city. We visited the wonderful park on Garden St and were interviewed by some TV person about how great Santa Barbara is (it has just been voted 6th best city to live in.. which seemed very plausible this beautiful day). Then a good lunch and coffee, and a stop on Goleta Beach for Anselm to do some rock climbing-- he is obsessed! Exciting to look up and see the buildings of UCSB where I will be spending much of the fall. Everyone seemed enthusiastic about coming back for longer.
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