Catch up. Remy-5

In the first week, we'd sat down with Remy to ask him what sorts of things he wanted to do.

He indicated an interest in shopping. Specifically, he wanted to get "levvy zheen" for his sisters. Levvy Zheen, turns out to be Levi Jeans. I kind of like how he called them Levvys. I am tempted to do the same some days. It just sounds more sophisticated, somehow.

Anyways, he wanted Levvy Zheen, and he wanted to go to "Guilderan Auchlette"

I'll let you steep a bit on that one.

Guilderan Auchlette.

He'd even written it down. That's how I know how it's spelled.

I was at a loss as to what he might want to do.

And then I saw that it was part of a bulleted list::

• TJ Maxx


• Ross


• Guilderan Auchelette

I'll let you steep in this a while.

Got any ideas?

(cue the music from Final Jeopardy)

Aha!

GILROY OUTLETS!

Apparently, their fame had spread all the way to France, and it was something that he wanted to experience.

So at the butt-crack of dawn, we were out the door, a van on a mission to Gilroy, containing one 16 year old boy who does not like to shop, and who made it VERY clear that he didn't know why HE had to come along, and this was DUMB, and he was just going to make our lives (including that of our guest, argh!) hell, to the point where I nearly pulled over (during RUSH HOUR) in the middle of San Jose and kicked him to the curb with a "Find your own damn way home, then!" final cut. But I didn't, you'll be happy to read. I didn't want my Mother of the Year Crown to tarnish, or anything.

We got to the outlets just as they were opening, and I drove around, to give Remy an idea of the lay of the land, and then we made our plan of where we would shop first. And then Skip decided to stay in the car, because he was being an ass, and the rest of us shopped.

First stop: Levi Outlet Store.

In the Levi store, he scored a pair of skinny jeans for his older sister. I hope they fit. Apparently the sizing is different between Europe and US. Who knew? He knew her size there, though, and there was a very helpful clerk who knew the conversion factor. He paid $30 at the outlet, which was a deal, considering that they were $59 in the regular stores. And Remy looked like a cat that ate a canary, because the same jeans would be over $100 in France.

He also scored a very nice Levi t-shirt for himself.

We went to all the hipster-brand stores. But mostly Remy just window-shopped. I don't know if the prices were still a little higher than he hoped, or if he was just not a shopper. I know that I found the prices still really quite high, even though they were 'outlet mall' priced. I wouldn't have bought anything at most of the places we walked into.

But in the Vans store, we did find some value. And Nate and Kelly walked out with new shoes.

Kelly's feet are now nearly as big as mine. And she's only 11! Wah!

After we'd exhausted all the hip stores, it was time for our visit to our favourite eatery.

Skip had really perked up by this point. Maybe it was the nap in the car while we were shopping, maybe it was the multiple refills on his Coke at In-N-Out, or maybe it was just relief that teh shopping portion of the day was nearly done. but he was a happy boy after this point. Remy was intrigued by our talk of the "secret menu" at In-N-Out. We introduced him to Animal Fries, but he didn't go for any of the scary secret burgers, opting for the simple Double-Double.

On the way home, we stopped at a place called Nickel City in Cupertino. It's an old school arcade, where everything runs on nickels.

The boys had a great time shooting things, and had a few really good runs in the win-ticket acquisition. So much so, that they ended up with over 1000 tickets to redeem. Skip decided to use his 400+ tickets to purchase 93 little plastic army men. And then he gave the cashier an aneurysm when he said that he needed to pick out each one individually.

We got home in enough time to grab a snack, and then turn around to get to Kung Fu.

While Skip was having his class, we'd arranged for Remy to have a private lesson.

I think he enjoyed himself. Immensely, even.

Nate may have enjoyed himself during the private lesson, too.

After SKip's class was done, and Remy's private lesson was finished, he was invited to join the class of Yellow and Orange belt adults. And Skip was invited to help teach it.

I think they both enjoyed themselves. Immensely, even.

And after they were all sweaty and tired, we went back to our house (with Cole, too) and played with fire.

It might have been a bit loud. And a bit smoky.

And then we heard sirens, and saw flashing lights, so we ran inside like the cowards we are.

But hey, it's got to be a pretty exciting night if it ends with the fire department getting called, right?

(turns out the fire trucks were responding to a different emergency. But it COULD have been the neighbours finking on us. Really, it could have. There truly was a LOT of smoke and noise.)

A successful end to an ON FIRE day!

Catch up. Remy-4

Sunday. It was Remy's last weekend-day with us, but do not fear. It was spring break, so we actually had three more days of intense tourist-business ahead of us.

Skip was scheduled to be in the band, so Remy got to see him in action.

I wish I could remember what we did after church, but I'm drawing a blank. Maybe we just forced him to sit on the computer, I don't know.

What I do know is that shortly after we got home, I sent the kids out into the front yard to get ready to use a skill they'd need when they ran away to join the circus...

Yup. It's a tightrope.

Ahem, Remy. Your purple underpants are showing.

Potential Plum Injury in 3... 2...

She's got nerves of steel, walking out on that tightrope...

Just like her mother, you might say...

Catch up. Remy-3

As Saturday rolled around, we began to realize that our time with our French Exchange student was more than half-gone. This was sort of the last chance to really show him around.

So we got up really early in the morning, and headed out to the coast.

Kelly wanted to show him what SHE likes about California.

And that would be horseback riding on the beach.

Look! Even Nate got in on the action!

But we didn't stay long, because it was time to go up to explore San Francisco!

First, we went to Ghirardelli Square, for sundaes as big as our heads. (and is it me, or are these things shrinking? When we first used to take friends here, those sundaes were MASSIVE, and now they're just looking sort of ordinary...)

It was a windy and blustery day, but it was National Park Week (or something like that), and all the ships at Hyde St. Pier were free to tour.

I've always wanted to peek onto the Balclutha, but I'm too much of a cheap-skate to buy a ticket.

Um, yeah, just a bit windy...

Alcatraz was shrouded with fog. Ooh. Mysterious!

Golden Gate Bridge was looking like it was going to be vanishing pretty soon, too.

We went on a bit of a city hike. Up into the hills, and along Filbert Street (super steep!) and Lombard Street (super bendy). We watched the cars take on the challenges, but we stayed on our feet.

After looking around a bit, we hopped back into the van, and headed for Chinatown for some early supper.

Hello Fortune Cookie Factory. Why yes, I will pay 50 cents to take a photo. Here's a dollar. I want two.

We ran into a little Chinese man who wanted to correct my tourist-guiding (such as it was - I know about 3 facts, and I wasn't even going to go into the details on those because Remy couldn't hardly understand), and so now I know that Waverly Street isn't called Waverly Street by the REAL Chinese, but is something like Temple of Queen of Heaven. And then he told us not to go to the restaurant we were going to go to for supper, because only "ABC" go there. What? ABC? "You know... American Born Chinese" (and he spits on the ground). Um. Yeah. And then he gave us a business card, saying "Here's my card, and a recommendation for supper. You can have it for free", and it said "Call me: Jackie Chan" with a phone number on it. Nowhere on the card did it say anything about where to eat. We just said "Thank you" to our new friend, Jackie Chan, and ran away quickly, taking a different route back to the restaurant.

Yum!

This was in the cabinet behind Remy's head. He found it quite amusing.

We gave him a little taste of Chinatown (and I may have bought a large amount of sparklers and fizzy fireworks, too)

But he seemed more captivated by the TransAmerica building. I guess it's quite the Symbol of San Francisco in Europe, or is prominent in some movie that he's fond of.

On the way out of town, we drove to the coast, hoping that we'd be able to see the Golden Gate Bridge from China Beach.

No luck. It was stolen. Or maybe it's just a figment of our imagination. Heh.

And then I stole some aphid-infested rose buds from the garden at China Beach because the praying mantis egg case hatched, and I needed to feed all the little newly-hatched critters before they ate each other.

Nah, this isn't creepy at all...

Catch up. Remy-2

Thursday, we were back to being busy-busy-busy.

Skip and Remy had a half-day (because of State-wide testing), so I met them at the local sushi place.

Remy assured me he really liked sushi. It was one of his favorites, in fact.

So I was surprised that he couldn't figure out his way around chopsticks.

(les baguettes-chinoise, if you're curious).

it

Oh well.

Once again, Remy was a big hit at the youth event at church. Alas, I didn't get the photo of him crashing mightily when he thought the flimsy plastic fence was something sturdy and strong. He went down with the fence like a ton of bricks. Got a nice bit of road rash, too.

Friday was another half-day at high school. I picked the boys up at 1130 (golly, that's early. Why bother going to school?) and we headed down to Google for one of their legendary Employee Lunches.

Take THAT, chaperones! Who else got to get a private tour of Google? Hmmm?

And on the way home, I stopped at a car dealership, so Remy could see some American Muscle cars.

This hot rod had a nasty oil leak gushing out the far side. I felt compelled to go into the dealership to tell the sales guy that his car was dying out front.

And while we were inside? What about a few more photos...?

Later, I was determined to NOT get taken to task for abandoning Remy, so when the littles got home from school there was NO sitting around. NO snacks! It was time to go outside.

First, some basketball...

Then a hike!

See the sign? Maybe we'll get lucky!

Or maybe we'll just have a nice hike through the woods...

There was almost no water in the lake.

(the water used to come up to the top of that intake pipe under the dock. Sheesh. I guess the city's expecting a flood, and they want to be ready with lots of reservoir space...)

But it still made for some nice photos before heading home.

Man, this is reminding me that the kids are sure missing Remy.