Kids, before the swimming classes began.

Lisa with a float pad.

Our first day of vacation was rather hectic (see previous journal). The days following it were no exception; suddenly I had to transcend from comfortable home mornings into high speed chase, operating with the children all day long. But don't get me wrong — I had looked forward to the vacations. Mostly to the fact that I was going to stop being a police force urging everyone to get up, get dressed, brush teeth, pack stuff for school, leave on time, arrive on time, do your homework, hurry to the bathtub, jump in the bed already. I have gotten quite efficient that way, and now I have the time to chat with my offspring and learn interesting things. Tom has been paying attention to the plans of our granny coming back, as he misses her, and at the same time he recognizes simple difficulties of air travel. He wonders if granny would manage to pack all her bags and if she won't get delayed by all those checkpoints. At another opportunity he said that he was looking forward to the Independence Day and that we will bathe again in the natural hot springs (he's got a phenomenal memory, which sometimes complicates the situation).

On the other hand vacations require that I have to take the kids with me everywhere. Shopping (which I hate with a passion) takes me much longer — both getting out of the car, wading through the parking lot, sorting out an argument who's going to push the cart — and then truckling with the cart around the store. And all that with my children being rather reasonable, who don't nag about what they want to buy. Then again, it may have its disadvantages. Tom had interpreted my unwillingness to buy junk stuff as "we have no money", and he did not hesitate to share this information with the school secretary at the end of the year — mommy did not order the Year Book because we're poor. I think I'd rather be considered a forgetful mother (which was the real reason for us missing the ordering deadline) than a social assistance case invoking furtive compassionate glances.

Tom with a float pad.

Girls mostly splashed in the park lagoon.

Never mind, back to the vacations. On the second day of vacations, Tuesday, we recorded another first time — our new swimming classes. We were really happy with those provided at our Community Center last year, and so I signed up again. Kids were happy to see their favorite instructors, but this year's classes are practically entirely staffed with women, who get much less respect with my kids than their manly, muscular counterparts. The fact that juniors did not get to swim much so far this cold summer, played its part — they were rather distracted on their first lesson and did not cooperate much. Fortunately, weather warmed up (practically in sync with start of the swim lessons), and at least I don't have to worry that my snowflakes would freeze in the outdoor pool. And we made our own pool operational and on June 14 even I myself got in it.

After the swim lesson we stopped for a lunch, packed presents for Noemi and Dominik, made birthday cards (Tom for Dominik, Lisa for Noemi) and drove to Redwood City to have a party. Kids rejoiced upon spotting the playground — but mostly when seeing the lagoon. It did not take long and the girls were in water, which ended up by full soaking of Eliška and partial soaking of Lisa and Noemi. The boys were captivated by building a "highway" in the sand, liberally doused with water brought in buckets, but the stayed more or less dry.

Redwood Shores is a kind of windy edge of the bay, the breeze is strong and consistent there. Although it was certainly over eighty degrees, my head ached from two hours spent in the wind (but you can't just wear a wooly hat in such heat). Blanka did not manage to light candles on the birthday cake because of wind — whether she succeeded in lighting wood in the grill is not known, for we had to leave. It's impossible to avoid traffic jams between Redwood Shores and south San Jose, and I still needed to get to my climbing gym that night.

Boys were building a highway.

It's possible to pet a sleeping shark at the Aquarium.

On Wednesday kids had swimming in the morning, then we rushed home to change (kids) and put some dinner into the slow cooker (me), re-configure car to its full capacity of seven seats (me) — and as soon and Vendulka with Pavel's mom Jana and uncle Miloš arrived, we jumped in the bus and sped off to Santa Cruz. We gave a round through the Aquarium, a Thai lunch at Sabieng, and found our way to Simona. Firstly, we have not seen her and her kids for quite a while, and secondly my kids were looking forward to company of their peers, but we also intended to take advantage of parking at Simona's place for our expedition to Boardwalk.

Simona even baked some cake for us — and we did not know it was her birthday — and instead she received a lot of visitors on her birthday, and we took her out to a roller-coaster. It was in Tom's cross-hairs since I had mentioned Boardwalk. Being devious parent, we had denied our underdeveloped poor children the knowledge of cinematographs, aye, even amusement parks and similar frivolities, not speaking about the fact that one such permanent "fair" exists only twenty miles from our house. Tom had been there once long time ago, but his experience of riding a truck-like car on a carousel did not connect with the image of Santa Cruz. In the moment he heard about Boardwalk, he appeared holding an encyclopedia and declared that it is written there the Boardwalk is a roller-coaster, and that he wanted to ride it (the book mentions a historic wooden affair from 1924, which is still in operation).

After entering the Boardwalk I rather directed the kids to a small roller coaster for little kids, so that we could test it. Vendulka refused to go (since she gets queasy even in a car), the visitors did not want to participate either, and in the end it was only Simona, the kids, and I. Margo and Lisa wanted to ride together, Maxi went with Simona, and I with Tom. He really enjoyed it, while I managed to keep the contents of my stomach down; Lisa whimpered already in the first round that she was scared — but the train goes around twice mercilessly.

Margo and Lisa on a roller-coaster.

Lisa on a horse.

Only two of us dared to go to the Giant Dipper: Tommy and me. I loaned Lisa to Simona and Vendulka, and sent them off to a horsey merry-go-round. Eventually I discovered at the register that Lisa could not go on the roller-coaster anyway, being too short. Tom and I had to wait in a long line, but Tommy did not mind; he read all the information about the track and all safety instructions. We survived the ride without losing our lunch, but when I saw snapshots of individual customer faces sold at the exit for $20 each, I had to laugh. There were eleven couples cheering with their hands up in the air, and a twelfth pair (Tom and me) with clenched teeth and white knuckles firmly grasping the bar in front of us. There's no way denying we're relatives. Then we all bought ice cream at the end of the marina pier, and time had come to head back home, turn off our casserole with Szeged goulash, and feed the visitors.

On Thursday after swimming we picked up Jana, who did not want to accompany Vendula and Miloš on their trip to Alcatraz. Instead, she had a chance to spend a relaxing day in our company — shopping at Target, swimming in our pool, and so on. I had planned to drop her off again on my way to the climbing gym, and made the attempt. While waiting at a red traffic light, some young man rear-ended us. In the end we found no damage on either car, and felt no injuries, but I had to say that my knees were trembling for quite some time thereafter. I did not even go to the gym — I momentarily lost my will to climb. And our poor visitor had such a horrible experience.

We had planned to stay home on the weekend — my head was still spinning from my first week of vacations with kids, and I longed for some adult company. I wrote to Vanas, Kovars, and Daneks, and invited them over for barbecue, but our arrangements turned out completely chaotic, and soon and abandoned all hope of staying on top of it.

For quite a while now we were aware of kayaks in Elkhorn Slough. Somehow we never noticed it was Fathers' Day and hence everybody was trying to engage daddy to some FUN actions — we had no chance in the first, cheaper, rental place. They just sent us next door, where the rates we little higher, but boats were still available. I imagined that they would issue us kayaks and let us paddle in the lagoon, but I was wrong. A certifiably insane procedure began with renting of wet-suits. I had to admit that a flat oceanic kayak implies that one is sitting more or less in the water and dressing kids in wet-suits was a rather good idea. I personally felt no great urge to put on the smelly rubber. Eventually I discovered they also offered water-proof tops and trousers, and wore them over my own clothes.

Sea lions in Santa Cruz.

Kids in wet-suits.

Then we were to attend a training in paddle technique. I had no idea how long one can drone about the effects of moving forward when paddling forward, and how things change if you do it the other way. After I pointed out numerous times that we were left-handed and needed different paddles, the instructor rather ran away. We were forced to dispatch Hippo to cause a scene at the rental office and demand paddles that could be at least neutralized to be universal. Oh well.

In the end we set out on the lagoon; thanks to the delay with paddles we gladly missed the crowd that had attended the training with us. It was high tide and the wind blew from the ocean, and we were moving into the lagoon like greased lightning. Shores were occupied by sea lions (near the marina, that is) and seals (farther out in the sticks), and sea otters more or less ignored us and proceeded in hunting and preening, and there was always something to watch. By then we had floated close to farm buildings that were the landmark the trainer told us to watch for the point of return. It was a reasonable advice — we had to paddle two miles against the wind and the tide stream; we did not know how we'd fare, but it went well, although we had to stop for rest twice.

I was surprised that Tom paddled rather well; Hippo claimed that he could feel the difference when Tom put his strength to it. Lisa would more or less ride along, but I suspect it may be in part caused by the shape of the kayak. You can only sit right in the center long axis of it, and such position does not give her much opportunity to reach the water surface with a paddle, for she is still very short. I still consider it a successful trip; one more alternative to our usual programs with kids.

Tom paddling on a kayak.

Lisa was mostly riding along — could not reach water with her paddle.

Vedulka showed up in the evening and we all splashed in our pool. Coming back from skiing (yes, one could still ski in the mountain), Pavel and Martin were supposed to stop by, but Martin chickened out somehow. And so I got my wish fulfilled and had adult company, refreshing my spirits and preparing me to face another week of the vacations.

Right on Monday we were to double-wrestle the sequence swimming—riding. Alas, another heat wave had arrived, and we reached Danville by eleven thirty — kids and horses were feeling hot and everything was harder than last time. Hollie also began to demand the pupils to show some effort and results, surprising my offspring a bit. Fortunately it would seem that Hollie is immune to Tom's talking back and Lisa's whimpering. Both kids agreed later that these riding lessons were much more interesting than riding parent-led ponies (an attraction offered at a farm in Half Moon Bay). I'm glad.

The second week of vacations continued with swim lessons every morning, only enhanced by the Community Center's decision to have a new coat of asphalt laid down in their parking lot, which caused a total jam and confusion in the driveway. Apart from that, nothing else got out of hand. Perhaps we may even start really enjoying this summer.