29 Weeks

Hanna's continuing pregnancy has forced her to spend more and more of her days on the couch or otherwise laying down, and as a result she's been itching for a change of scenery -- at the very least, something to look at other than the bookshelf, the kitchen table, and the trees outside our patio. So, we started this week with a trip to Half Moon Bay and the Pacific Ocean.


Walking is still difficult for the mother-to-be, so we didn't stray far along the beach. Even so, it was pleasant just sitting on a blanket, enjoying the sounds of the ocean, and taking in the sights. All told, we saw several interesting things on little trip, including:

• A Ferrari F430 on the drive out to Half Moon Bay
  
• A pod of dolphins out, like us, enjoying the waves
• A flock of pelicans diving into the ocean, looking for food
• Some surfers braving the cold and the waves

Unfortunately, I wasn't able to take any decent photos of the wildlife with my camera; it made me jealous of the guy a bit up the beach with the nice SLR body and telephoto lens who I'm fairly certain went home with several good photographs. Not everything needs to be recorded, however; sometimes in our haste to document and preserve everything, we forget to simply enjoy them.

In contrast to the sunshine and heat in Mountain View, the coast was overcast, breezy, and a bit chilly. We both enjoyed this; the longer I live in Silicon Valley, the more I'm missing rain. West Virginia gets a lot of both rain and snow, and while the Front Range of the Rockies is very dry, it still gets downpours of snow in the winter and occasional wrath-of-God thunderstorms in the summer. Mountain View is consistently sunny and 70-80 degrees. This may sound nice, but realize that it never seems to change. I enjoy steak, but I wouldn't eat it every day. Sometimes you just want a grilled cheese sandwich and some soup.

On the way back, we again stopped at a local fruit stand and came away with a pile of strawberries, cherries, and local honey.


The strawberries got sliced and frozen; these will be put in the blender with bananas and soy milk to turn into smoothies, which in turn will be put into Hanna to turn into children. The cherries make great snacks for pregnant wives. The honey will almost certainly find its way into tea and onto toast.

One of the things that has always stuck with me from my West Virginia upbringing is the importance of food. Many of my best memories involve sharing food in one fashion or another. Sitting in Aunt Carolyn's kitchen waiting for Thanksgiving dinner or Christmas ham, baked potatoes cooked in the coals of a campfire, sharing pizza and beers during late-night D&D games, Grandma's buttermilk pies, my Mom's pepperoni rolls fresh out of the oven . . . these are some of my favorite memories. You don't need piles of money, or a big house, or a fancy car -- even an F430 -- to feel rich. As far as I'm concerned, if a man has good food and good company to share it with, he can count himself wealthy.