Monday, November 17, 2008

Pretending to be July





It has been spectacular in San Diego weather-wise. We have had these amazing clear days, perfectly still, with 80 degree weather. Yesterday, Andy and I went up to the top of our little mountain here, to the memorial on top of Soledad. you could see so far it was overwhelming. I could see Orange County, Catalina, San Clemente Island and clear to Mexico past Tijuana. It was one of those special days that I will definitely remember for a long time.

The memorial is also a special place, there are thousands of plaques of solders from all branches of the military, young and old dating back to the turn of the century. Again, overwhelming to think of the span of time and people who have fought for this country and its beliefs. Andy was mostly concerned with where these beople were buried. He has seen my dad's resting place and thought the same thing was true here... I had to exaplin to him that this was just a place for remembering those people, and that they were laid to rest elsewhere.

Andy seems to have a special insight when it comes to history and people who are no longer with us. He is always asking me about my dad, and my grandfather, our relationships, and the things we used to do togehter. When he sees me doing things, he often asks, "Did Papa teach you that?" I realize his grasp of this stuff is limited, but it brings me a great satisfaction that he is curious about it. Helps me feel like those people are continuing to live-on in ways that I hadn't anticipated. I guess I didn't have that same interest as a kid and it's great to see improvements on the gene pool.

So later in the day we headed down to the beach. The water was a miraculous 80-something and we set-off to climb around in the tide pools. The kids are getting big enough now to where they are climbing on the rock and gettting pretty adventureous. We saw lots of starfish, sea anenomes, hermit crabs and the like. Katie is definitely the little oceanographer of the family -- she sticks her fingers RIGHT IN THE MIDDLE of those giant anenomes and squeals with delight as they close-up and suck on her finger. Man, even I'm not that brave...

1 comment:

Anonymous said...

That is so sweet that Andrew is asking about the past - whether or not you would like to admit it - Steve you are very sentimental and that tenderness is trickeling down to your children - yes Katie is brave so might make a great snorkeling partner some day!Hard to believe with this weather that its November. Sunday I went for a ride with the top down and its warm warm warm.