family reunion (Super Dave's Mundanities (DaveChen)) by dave
In honor of the newest member of the Chen clan, Lauren, we’re having a family reunion out on the left coast. On Wednesday we got up really early to catch a couple flights to San Jose. Lynne couldn’t come because of her new job, so it was just me and the kids. At 5 years old they’re really easy to take of these days so it’s no big deal.
The flying was rather sucky because our Chicago-San Jose leg was canceled, so they put us on connecting flights through Denver. And the Denver-San Jose flight was delayed because of mechanical problems. It made for a longer day. We finally landed in San Jose around 4:30 instead of 1. My brother picked us up at the airport, then after a quick stop by his house, we drove off to Monterey, about an hour and a half away. From the time we left the house till the time we got to our hotel, it was about 17 hours of traveling. But the kids were really good, so it wasn’t that bad. They are experienced world travelers.
As I tweeted, our hotel, the Monterey Plaza Hotel is really swank. My parents are notoriously frugal, except when it comes to travel. My mom loves to travel and loves these big family trips, so she goes all out. Our family trips have included Tahiti, Greece & Turkey, and Costa Rica, and my parents have traveled all over the world. Their most exotic trip was a cruise to Antarctica. My dad said there was a lot of barfing (rough seas) and penguin shit.
So our hotel is right on the ocean, on Cannery Row, made famous by the John Steinbeck novel, so there are lots of references to him. My other brother, the English major said it’s a great book, but I wouldn’t know. And supposedly the hotel has a very nice spa. My aunt spent some time in the hot tub, but I haven’t (and won’t) have a chance.
On this trip are me and the kids, my parents, my two brothers and families, 3 of my aunts, an uncle, a cousin and a brother-in-law. The other brother has a 4 yr old and twin 21 month olds, so he also brought along a nanny. A grand total of 30 bazillion people. Or 20. Also a couple other cousins were going to come but canceled. Like I said, my mom loves the big Taiwanese reunions.
Yesterday checked out the world famous Monterey Bay Aquarium, made famous (to me at least) by Star Trek IV. That’s the one where the go back in time to get a whale. It’s very nice, of course. I was mostly watching the kids, so we missed large sections of the aquarium, but the parts we saw were pretty cool, including the sharks and the jellyfish. I’ll post some jellyfish pics & movies if any of mine came out. The jellyfish were the coolest thing I saw. Fish-wise I’d say the National Aquarium in Baltimore is more impressive, but the Monterey Bay has much more kids stuff, so our kids had a lot of fun.
And of course we also ate a lot. I try not to eat that much, but it’s hard to, given the gargantuan portions the restaurants serve. The food has all been very good. Just too much of it.
Today I’m dumping the kids on their grandparents and going to play golf with my brother’s brother-in-law. I like golf, but he’s nuts. On Wednesday he played 3 different courses, including the famous (and expensive) Spanish Bay, and yesterday he played another course. I’ve never played 3 times in one day. We’re going to play Pasatiempo in Santa Cruz. It’s an historic course, designed by Alistair Mackenzie, who also designed August National, home of the Masters. They say Pasatiempo was his favorite course.
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