Travel Log: 16 October 2011

Even though we woke mildly early due to the time change, we were a sleepy, lazy morning bunch. The long, fun filled days were finally taking their toll and we were t i r e d. We woke to the smell of espresso and the sounds of the San Francisco Marathon passing by one block north of our house. (It is my dream to run this marathon someday. Anyone wanna join me? :)!)

Once we s l o w l y got moving, Josh went for another beautiful bike ride while the kids and I played at the beach near our house. I asked them to try their best not to get wet, but for some reason that never works with our three.

Josh had yet to get to enjoy the city with the kids, so for the remainder of this beautiful day they showed him the city through their eyes. They waited in the long weekend tourist traffic to ride the cable cars with him, showed him their favorite shops in Chinatown, walked up, up, and up to Coit Tower, experienced the various street performers by the SF Bay, smelled the sea lions, etc. They also convinced him to take them to the Boudin Bakery for an early dinner. Each of the previous four days they had tried to get their mom to take them there, but for some reason she wouldn't. Dad; however, was easily swayed. :)!

Boudin Bakery brought out the highs and lows of our life. Having any sort of food allergy and dining out at a new restaurant can require a handfull of questions. Today, we've found most restaurants are very up front about all allergy issues, but back then, only 3 years ago, it wasn't as common. In those beginning years of the diagnosis, it was embarassing for our child when we would ask question after question about the food or have to send food back because the restaurant made a mistake by not omitting something that was to be omitted. That happened at Boudin and it took a while to help our child overcome their embarassment. It wasn't "pretty" until that was over.   

But when life was "pretty" again, Josh took some beautiful photos of the kids while the four of them were being incredibly goofy taking photos of each other with our stash of cameras at the table. They were so goofy that they were even entertaining a group of Japanese businessmen walking past. Those men ended up taking pictures of the four of them even. Ha! :)! It's in moments like these that I always think, "This is what it means to be a Cramer." 

I wish I could come up with good examples of what that statement means, "This is what it means to be a Cramer." It's such a heightened level of goofiness it's hard to quantify. Most of you have never had the priviledge of watching home movies or seeing photographs of Josh and his sister interacting together, but if you've spent enough time with either Josh or Maren, I'm certain you know what I'm talking about, :)!

For me, it is also a beautiful reminder. Josh's mom's creativity was out of this world and she passed it onto her children in the most fun and imaginative ways. Even though she is no longer with us, it is in these moments that part of who she was is visible. It encourages me to tell stories of her and who she was to our kids who never got to meet their Grandma. *Sigh* When you're in the midst of a Cramer moment, you'll know and you'll be smiling, too.

We ended this day having racked up another good stash of walking miles but overall had an incredibly restful day. The new week had Josh attending the Web 2.0 Summit Conference and the kids and I getting back to our regularly scheduled homeschool programming. 

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