Wife Without Borders: A Visit from Nana Kay and Poppa George

After our vacation to the Central Coast we had the week to recover and prepare for Jonathan’s parents to visit. Their visit was pretty low key since I knew their priority was spending time with Forest rather than sight-seeing around California. Plus, Forest was teething (AGAIN!) and we were both tired and cranky so I wasn’t up for anything too exciting. Still, one of the perks of our location means that several fun and interesting things are within a short drive of San Ramon.

Mostly we spent our mornings taking Forest to the park while getting out exploring a bit in the afternoons. We took them around our area to some of the shopping and eating hubs like Danville downtown and Blackhawk Plaza.

Forest loves going out to restaurants:)

Downtown Danville is great for window shopping, people watching, and good eating. Plus the Iron Horse Trail (an old railway turned into a paved hike and bike trail) runs right through the heart of downtown and is actually pretty shady since this neighborhood is a bit more established, so it's a great place to go for a walk on a summer afternoon.

Nana Kay really wanted to participate in Forest’s first zoo outing so they treated our family to a trip to the Oakland Zoo.

For a small zoo, I think it was superb! Perfect for small kiddos, and it’s hill-top setting makes animal viewing a breeze since every exhibit essentially has natural stadium seating.

And it was my first trip to a zoo with a veterinarian (Jon’s dad) so he was full of interesting tid-bits about the animals. Plus, despite being only a 30 minute drive away, Oakland’s climate is usually about 10 degrees cooler than in the valley so we enjoyed perfect temperatures for our excursion.

Forest loved watching the people more so than any of the animals, though he was absolutely delighted by the petting zoo. He was in heaven while the goats lazily laid still while he practiced his ‘soft’ petting skills.

He tries these skills on the dogs all the time but they are never very impressed and usually walk away after the first contact.

Sam is more tolerant than Bailey.

Poor guy! We made sure he got plenty of time to love on the goats.

After the zoo he was pretty wiped out so we just stayed closed to home that evening and let him play in his baby pool.

The next day we headed out to Concannon Winery in Livermore and shared a bottle of wine (or two) on their shady picnic lawn.

That evening we hung out close to the house again and capped off the evening with a trip to the park. It wasn’t an action packed visit but I think we can all agree that the most enjoyable parts were just relaxing and spending quality time with family.