Let's Watch Races

Quinn's other new fascination is with race-cars. This is largely due to watching the movie "Cars" far to many times. The local dirt track had its season opener tonight. Wendy was having a "Girl's night" with friends. So, I thought Quinn might enjoy going to the races as a "Guy's night". He was very excited to see the race cars zooming around the close oval. He even wore his ear-plugs after a few minutes of listening to the roar of the engines. After about an hour and a half, the sand at the base of the grandstand became more interesting than the cars. I know that this is our cue to get moving.

The Island of Sodor

Last weekend we drove through the first big downpour in SoCal in several months to go spend a few days in Ventura. The real point of the trip was a DAY OUT WITH THOMAS (as in Thomas the Tank Engine, he's the cheeky one!) at the Fillmore Historical Railway.

We checked into a Motel 6, watched some baseball (Quinn kept saying "Let's watch races!") and the next day dawned beautiful and sunny. The drive from Ventura to Fillmore passes strawberry fields, fruit trees, and small towns. It feels very much like a mix between the area around Rainbow and the Salinas Valley.

Our first glimpse of Thomas on the railroad tracks elicited the expected excited chatter from the back seat. At last we parked, put on sunscreen, and headed over to the tracks. From that point on I think Quinn simply got overwhelmed by all the people, the full sized trains, the enormous tent full of everything Thomas, and the play areas full of the Brio-style trains and tracks where swarms of children rolled the little wooden trains around with varying degrees of politeness. When it was our turn to get on the big train for our ride with Thomas, Quinn was not ready to leave the play area. Oh the tragedy of not being able to understand the significance of a ride on Thomas! Maybe we should have skipped the train ride. In any event after a prolonged storm of tears, Quinn agreed to get on the train and enjoyed looking at all the railway debris piled up around the tracks and we talked about the fields of crops near the end of our trip.

By this time, dude was completely exhausted. We played with the trains a little longer and then packed ourselves back into the car for the scenic drive back. Instead of heading directly back to Ventura, we wound our way over a ridge and down into the Ojai valley, past Lake Casitas, and then around the backside of Carpinteria and Santa Barbara. Quinn slept almost the whole time. We couldn't believe how beautiful the drive was and resolved to return again sometime. Ojai is a gorgeous, artsy little town and the backside of Santa Barbara revealed Rancho Santa Fe-style compounds and beautiful homes with million dollar views. Amazing.

That afternoon we surfed C street and had fun jockeying with the locals while Quinn played in the sand and got to know the feeling of seaweed on his fingers. We tried surfing again Sunday morning by the tide was very low and the crowds had gotten 10 times larger. ah well, better luck next time.

Amazing Albuquerque

We just got back into town after a trip to Albuquerque to see Wendy's grandparents, Warren and Dorothy. They are amazing. Warren is 88 and Dorothy will be 88 in June. They are active, social, travel all over the place, and both still drive. Quinn had a blast.


We went hiking up the Sandia Mountains and discovered that the trail we hiked last year in January (see the old website) had 4ft of snow on it in some places. After some hemming and hawing and watching Scott go into some holes up to his hips, we decided to attack the trail and follow other people's footprints up to the tramway. Again, we had a great lunch at the restaurant on the top and took the tram back to the base. Quinn slept almost the whole time we were gone.

The next day we all went to Petroglyph National Monument and Quinn wowed his great-grandparents by hiking up a pretty steep trail all on his own. The steps often required him to do some scrambling but that only seemed to spice up the adventure for him. We had a great time and went out for a great dinner where Quinn again wowed the crowd, this time by consuming a plate of fettucini in about 5 minutes.


On Saturday we drove over to Santa Fe and into the snow! A spring storm was rolling through and the white stuff was actually sticking on the ground. In fact, as we were walking around the central plaza, great big clumps of it came whirling down. Quinn was happy and then he got cold and decidedly unhappy. After a warm lunch and several rides up and down in a glass elevator we were ready to head back along the scenic route. Quinn passed out and we came back into Albuquerque through the edges of the Sandias. The way the snow-dusted trees marched up the sides of the foothills into the busy sky was so lovely.

Then we had to head home. A wonderful time with wondeful people, we are so lucky to have such great family.