President's Day Weekend in San Diego

The trip we'd planned to San Diego was intended to be a wedding present to Jesse and Eileen, but they were stranded in JFK by Jet Blue! We made the best of it by spending the weekend with friends and family, but sure did miss you, Jesse and Eileen!


Highlights from the weekend include a wonderful day in La Jolla, fantastic dinners with Susan and Jim, a couple of "big nights out" while they babysat Spencer, a great hike / sunset on the beach at Torrey Pines, hanging out in Laguna Beach with our friends Jon and Alison, checking in with great-grandma Pinky in Rancho Bernardo, and seeing Spencer roll over the for the first time with his cousins 'Bella and 'Enzo at Grandpa Fran's place.




Brunch at Cody's, an outdoor cafe by the cove in La Jolla, near where we were supposed to stay with Jesse and Eileen. We found someone else to rent the cute cottage we'd found and stayed with Susan instead.


The minivan we'd rented still came in handy-- here we are with Susan and Jim on our way to take a hike at Torrey Pines State Park


We hiked the cliffs of Torrey Pines, saw migrating whales and dolphins off shore, and watched the sunset from the beach. Not a bad way to spend the day, huh Spencer? This guy is going to grow up to be a California kid for sure...


We spent a great day in Laguna Beach with our friends Jon and Alison, down from LA. We had burgers at a cafe overlooking the boardwalk and then walked along the beach, looking at the tidepools. The most exciting part was how the minutes kept ticking down on Jon's parking meter... it was just like the real-time TV show "24", but with meter maids instead of terrorists!


It was also neat to stop by and say hello to Great Grandma Pinky in Rancho Bernardo. Spencer's changed just a little since you saw him last, hasn't he Pinky?


We spent our last night hanging out with cousins 'Enzo and 'Bella at Grandpa Fran's place... hanging out with his two active cousins finally inspired Spencer to roll over for the very first time! Click here to see the video...

What a trip... hard to beleive that all of this came together at the last minute. And Jesse and Eileen... this was just a warm-up for the REAL trip sometime down the line!

Click here for the full slideshow and videos, or...

Spencer's Playmates

Spencer is getting more and more interactive each day. It's been particularly fun watching him around other kids... Click here for the full slideshow


Gardner, Theo, and Spencer chill on the couch.

Spencer's Exersaucer Workout

At first it was the Swing. Then the Jumperoo. Now the Exersaucer! Fun for Spencer. Freedom for Mom. Yet another win-win in the Nichols household.
Click here for a short video clip of Spencer's morning workout routine.

The Other Spencer in Germany

The bad news is that Ryan's work required a 1 1/2 week trip to Germany, the longest he's had to be away from Eunice and Spencer since the little guy arrived. The good news is that he was able to meet up over the weekend with the other Spencer, his Deerfield high school buddy from Australia, now doing a post-doc at Cambridge (he collaborates with a scientist in Heidelberg.... what a small world!).

We just got the great news that he and Marnie will be coming to Palo Alto for Spencer to start at Stanford GSB this fall... it will be fantastic to have them so close, and there was a lot of swapping-of-notes for him and Ryan to take care of in Germany!


We decided to swing by the medieval city of Freiburg... perfect for a walk to this lookout point overlooking the black forest.


The rest of the weekend was in Heidelberg. More sausage and beer for dinner and an evening out along the Hauptstrasse on Saturday, and a healthy walk up Philosophenweg on Sunday. Still sinking in that these guys will be in the Bay Area soon!


On this trip Ryan also decided that it was ridiculous to have flown into Frankfurt over a dozen times without ever having seen the city itself. So he spent the night before flying out up in the city... it doesn't have the reputation of being very exciting but I thought it was a nice city... interesting juxtaposition of the modern banking center Frankfurt is today with some ancient remnants of its past.

Still... I was happy to say Auf Wiedersehen, at least for now!