California's Riviera

If you ever need to appreciate the good life that Santa Barbara has to offer, pay a visit to the Aquarium of the Pacific in Long Beach. It's like an underwater Chuck E. Cheese with $7 peanut butter and jelly sandwiches instead of pizza. The kids will love it all the same, and be begging for $36 stuffed animals souvenirs in short order, and you'll soon be looking upon that highway to heaven, the northbound Hwy 101, with renewed passion.

Although you'll be tempted to flee the City of Angeles as quickly as possible, we have found one pit stop worth making. Olvera Street's "La Golondrina Cafe" makes a roasted vegetable burrito that tastes like fiesta in De La Guerra Plaza. The guitars sold in the vendor stalls outside the Cafe--not so good (especially when you'll be stuck with said guitar and a 5-year-old child in a moving vehicle for the next hour AT LEAST), but Mr. Churro next door to Cafe--muy bueno.

Promptly after licking the last bits of cinnamon-sugar from your fingertips, return to your vehicle, point the nose northward, and count the minutes until the blessed Pacific Ocean comes into view.

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Lucie and the Problem of Evil

Lucie has suddenly started questioning things. And by things, I mean eternal things. It all started when she asked if I would read her a bedtime story from the Bible storybook. The book opens innocently enough with the story of creation. There are lions and tigers and bears, and naked people being created from dust. (At this point in the story you’d think questions would arise, but no, kids just seem to go along with it at face value. Which is exactly the reason I've had to work so hard to convince Lucie that turtleneck shirts are not actually made from the necks of turtles.) Anyways ... "Do you know why Adam and Eve are sad?" I asked, pointing at the picture of them sorrowfully leaving the garden. "I sure do, " Lucie assured me. "They are sad because they don't have any parents." Impressive, huh? Clearly, she’d been processing and following along. "Well there is that," I prodded her, "and also they have to leave the ...

I and Love and You

The kids and I spent the day road tripping home, and listening to this song on repeat. It perfectly sums up what our lives look like at this very minute, with one foot in California and the other in Maryland, heads spinning with details, dreams and tie cutting. Just can't get enough of those Avett Brothers. The Avett Brothers - I And Love And You (Official Music Video) . Watch more top selected videos about: The Avett Brothers Load the car and write the note. Grab your bag and grab your coat. Tell the ones that need to know. We are headed north. One foot in and one foot back. But it don’t pay to live like that. So I cut the ties and I jumped the track. For never to return. Ahh Brooklyn, Brooklyn take me in. Are you aware the shape I’m in? My hands they shake, my head it spins. Ahh Brooklyn, Brooklyn take me in. . . . Dumbed down and numbed by time and age. Your dreams that catch the world, the cage. The highway sets the travelers stage...

Motherhood - Not for the faint of heart

My picture of hell: one soggy rainy day, two healthy energetic children, three solid days of DVDs, one dog that needs to pee but refuses to get wet, and me. Alone with the carnage and contracted to get 4 hours of work done. And just to frost the cake, Lucie can take off her pooy diaper now, which delights us all, but especially the dog, to no end. These days it is sort of a toss up for who has left the pile on the carpet. Lucie? Dog? The fact that it landed on top of a princess high heel is good indication the culprit was of the two-legged, shoe-loving, Oreo-eating variety, which makes it only slightly less disgusting to remove behind a 28-ply Kleenex. Pray for sunshine.

Montecito Mama

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