Pinewood Derby Mania & Valentines

Here is the latest and greatest from the Doxeys...

Pinewood Derby Mania. Our home has been abuzz with our latest attempt at winning the Pinewood Derby--in some magical way.

After a few failed attempts, we finally ended up with some promising designs.

Nathan totally designed "Red Vulcan" on his own, helped with sanding, applying two coats of primer, painting it, all the good stuff.

We ended up making John's "Solid Gold" car (he's an unofficial racer until he gets in Scouts) out of the top piece we cut off Nate's car.

Liza had to have a piece of the action, so we made her a Dora car that would hopefully smoke all the boy cars. Unfortunately, we put all the slowest wheels on her car b/c she just wanted a new toy out of the deal anyway.

Ahh the finished products. There were 24 official entrants. Lots of great cars, interesting theories, great designs. No real lemons. All were pretty fast.

When all was said and done, Nathan placed in the top 7 of 24, (we're not sure exactly where... we think 6th). The computer program they use and project on the wall pairs up entrants based on their fastest times, leading up to a showdown with the fastest 8 cars.

We didn't make it to the final 4 cars, but we're all happy. It's kind of like the BCS championship parings. Ha ha.

All the boys got some kind of award John's car ended up being just about even with Nate's car speed wise. This is definitely "learn more and more each year" thing. Next year we're going to go the suspension route I believe.




Mendocino. Julia surprised me really, really well this past Valentines/Presidents Day weekend. We had planned one thing, but when I got home from work she had farmed out the kids to Tom & Hilary which allowed us to break free for a night out for some Israeli/Palestinian/Persian food (passed on the Hookah, loved the Falafel) and then an overnight trip up to Mendocino. Who knew there is a $250 fine in CA for adding your cannabis to your Hookah?

I must say, that this is the first time we have left the kids for an overnighter in about 5 years. We think the last time we were able to do this was seriously in 2004. That is so wrong.



Mendocino is about half way to Portland, up the Northern California coast.

It's not really on the way to anywhere, and it's actually kind of hard to get there. Definitely not a day trip--an overnighter for sure, and certainly a destination.

You can read all about it in the link above, but most of the buildings were built in the mid 1800s and they are almost all restored. Very artsy, quaint and fun. Walking around you see hippies, loners, artists, loggers that look like ZZ Top, city folk like us posing as tourists.

We were there at a really unique time. Down south, about a mile west of Half Moon Bay near Santa Cruz they were having the Mavericks Surfing Competition, where there were 40 foot waves. Up in Mendocino they were only about 20-25 foot waves, which is still gynormo huge and powerful.

The power of those waves was just mesmerizing. It was seriously like watching the fireworks close up. Takes your breath away. You're ooohhing and ahhing. We stopped by Glass Beach, which has pebbled glass instead of sand. Interesting.


Picture it ... the bright green of spring, the turbulent white foam from the pounding waves, black sand or black volcanic rock beaches, huge redwoods, Point Cabrillo Lighthouse, amazing clam chowder. It could really grow on you.

We were planning on doing a lot more biking along a long paved beach path, but those huge waves had washed it out in two major areas.

It was seriously beautiful. Seriously nice to get away for a bit and listen to silence. I know that sounds strange, but our house is pretty loud 24/7. Lots of fun, but man it's nice to take a break and 'Get outta Dodge.'

We learned real quick that a 30 mile road in those parts takes a wee bit longer to travel. It takes like 2.5 hours winding through seemingly endless redwoods. It's all good, but you totally feel like Luke and Leia on their Return of the Jedi land speeders going through the forest.