Lisa at Mission San Juan Bautista

Just as granny flew away, my friend Zuzka from the Prague climbers' community came to visit. That is: not quite to visit just us -- Zuzka came to participate in a conference, but since it was starting on Monday, Zuzka had an extra weekend. We were wondering how to show California to somebody in two days. Our state goes far, from rainforests of the mild climate in the north to the southern deserts, with a twelve thousand feet high Sierra Nevada along our eastern border; we have volcanoes and coastal cliffs and deserts and prairies and forests (and cities).

Zuzka at Pt. Lobos

Eventually we took Zuzka on Saturday morning to Mission San Juan Bautista - a piece of California history combined with the famous San Andreas Fault went down well. They also have a pretty garden at the mission; Zuzka is a "flower fan".

Stopping for lunch at Ichiriki sushi, we continued to our favorite Point Lobos. Weather was not playing along, it was foggy and a low tide, and the peninsula was by far not as romantically torn as usual, but perhaps even so it trumped October in Bohemia. We covered what we could; besides Allan Memorial Grove we fit in a whaling mini-museum. Here we were bound to insert an athletic intermezzo, for Tommy had forgotten his backpack at the museum, and we had to return and then catch up with the rest of the expedition.

Zuzka wished to see sequoias, so we routed our evening return trip through Felton with redwoods, which is a coastal species. On our way home we managed to have a Vietnamese soup -- it was late and we would not have been able to cook anything this good and fast at home. I think that our kids have had enough; we adults stayed up and chatted some more, but the combination of our fatigue and Zuzka's jet lag was showing in our social endurance. Off to bed.

To make it up to Zuzka for not including Yosemite in our plans, I had arranged Sunday climbing in Pinnacles with Pavel. After exhausting Saturday, we got up on six thirty on Sunday morning. I had hoped we would sneak out without waking up the children, but to no avail.

Carol on Wet Kiss in Pinnacles

At least, this way I could fix them breakfast before Pavel showed up.

Surprisingly few people milled around at Pinnacles; climbers were apparently enjoying one of the last open weekends in Yosemite. Weather was just right for climbing -- not quite hot or cold, just an ideal situation. One of my dreams came through -- I led on Wet Kiss, which I have been eyeing for a while now. Since I came here and had kids, I haven't got as many opportunities, and I am glad for every little thing. Including my Hippo, who's willing to take care of the kids, so I can get out this way.

Carol at Pinnacles

We managed to climb whole day, and approached home after dark. I must be too used to automatic transmission -- I started getting cramps in my clutch leg, and Pavel had to drive the rest. We dropped Zuzka off without dinner at a station, for practically last train to San Francisco, where she was to be for the conference in the morning.

October advanced in great leaps and I suddenly discovered that only four days were left till Tommy's birthday, while my party organization lags behind. A quick check of the forecast revealed that it may be possible to release the wild life on our yard(s), so I invited all kids I could remember -- and it worked better than I expected. Juniors played together, ate corn dogs and ice cream, and left again. I even managed to clean up all stuff from the yard and go climbing the same evening. Radim has been willing to come to the gym on Fridays, when it's less crowded than on obligatory Tuesdays and Thursdays, and we keep combining it this way. Alas, Radim leaves for good, back to Czech Republic, on fourth of November, to join Gabka and Lukas who are already there.

A toast on Tom's sixth birthday.

On Saturday morning we celebrated Tom's birthday in our family circle. Tom chose his cake, received a few presents (he pre-selected trains from Granny Lída before she left, the second granny had sent him a book; we were uncertain for a long time and eventually Hippo found small balsa airplanes -- we kind of felt over-trained). Tommy had been invited to Tyler's for lunch and celebration (boys have birthdays a few days apart). Party at Tyler's was for boys only, fortunately Lisa had a ballet class re-scheduled for the same time, and we avoided a tantrum.

Lizzy goes to ballet to YMCA. It started by inheriting a ballet dress after somebody in the neighborhood, and then we discovered that the most affordable and nearby ballet class is held at our local YMCA. I had already wanted to get a YMCA membership -- when I want to work out at the climbing gym, I spend altogether one and half hour in the car (to exercise for 45 minutes), which I found ineffective.

A shot from Goat Rock: Carol on the rocks near a waterfall in Castle Rock State Park.

My YMCA membership extends access to all my children, and for a small extra fee they may attend some classes. Perhaps this ballet won't produce prima ballerinas, but Lisa likes it and it gives her something to do. Only our Lisa is rather strong-headed and if I want to watch her there, she refuses to do anything. The teacher swore that while I'm gone Lisa cooperates quite willingly, and so Tom and I have to leave her alone. Their outdoor pool is open at the same time, and unlike our own it is heated, and so we can go swimming for half hour or so.

Immediately following Tommy's birthday, Halloween erupts. Kids had various programs at school and pre-school, respectively. Tommy, however, missed the last day before Halloween. On Wednesday he did not feel well, had a fever on Thursday, and I kept him at home. This made it simpler for me, as kindergarten had a joined afternoon class for the morning and afternoon shifts, which would awfully complicate my logistics with Lisa's pre-school (which ends five minutes after Tom's afternoon class would have started) and ballet class (which starts when Tom's class would have ended).

Tom had spent the whole Friday without protesting in front of the TV; perhaps he really needed the rest, although his fever was gone. For Saturday Pavel and Vendula invited me to Castle Rock (our closes sandstone climbing area). My Hippo rode his bike from work on Friday, and thus we were without a second car, but eventually we worked the whole trip so that Hippo with kids dropped me off at a hillside parking lot, where the climbers picked me up again. I only regret that Hippo and the kids did not join us; we climbed next to a waterfall, it's a nice hike and the children would have surely liked the falls (although it was almost dry). Hippo, however, wanted to visit another part of the park, checking out mushrooms (found none), and so we were separated.

At a mushroom(less) hunting hike on Russian Ridge.

At the waterfalls, Pavel and I rappelled down while Vendula and Bara went for a small hike. Unfortunately for us, the area where we were climbing was also the destination of a Korean tourist club. They were friendly, but they crowded one of the routes, where they progressively amassed up to about thirty people, hollering noisily, smoking furiously (somehow I became unused to the smell of cigarettes), fussed with the ropes so that they kept sending down small rocks and dirt (only tiny things, but that was pure luck) -- simply a cultural experience. And they kept multiplying somehow as they were being joined by more club members.

Our Halloween costumes: a Martian and cats.

After some time, Vendula with Bara came to join us; we alternated in climbing easier and harder things. When Pavel led some 5.10c (not quite easy), some morons (not Koreans, for a change) threw a rope from above practically right on his head and then they told him off for him climbing where they chose to be. I don't know -- it seems that Castle Rock is relatively unsafe area on account of higher occurence of cretins.

I made it back home before dark, had a quick dinner, a shower, and then I put on my cat's ears, painted kids' whiskers and we all went to trick-or-treat. Tommy simply refused to be anything else but a cat. Lisa's resolved was chipped by a beautiful dress of a little witch, but eventually went as a cat, too. I issued Sid a pair of tentacles with eyes on each end, and he was a Martian. He tried to improve the costume by wearing his white clean-room overalls, but it was no use. All the neighbors immediately recognized him, greeting him from afar by his name. So now I wonder if my husband is really a Martian and I simply haven't noticed it till now.

To his delight, Tom met right by our house with his school-mate Nicolas, and spent about half of the trick-or-treating running with him. Then we caught up with a larger cluster of neighbors with little kids, where Lisa got stuck with her girl-friends, while Nicolas rushed ahead, and we lost his tracks. Tom was first quite sour, but soon it was clear all the running had tired him out and that he perhaps was not quite fit yet. We reversed our advance and returned home. Even so, our children have scored more than enough treats, mostly sweets, and now we're bound to get fatter (since as a selfless parent I must perform quality control samplings of the treats, and in the health interest of my offspring consume the most chocolatey pieces).