Tanner's 8th Birthday Road Trip

Tanner and I took off on his birthday road trip halfway through the day on Thursday. He has been looking forward to this trip for the last couple of weeks. He was very insistent that I pick him up at 11:40 EXACTLY because that was right before he went to lunch. I recently looked up his birth time on his birth certificate for him because he wanted to wear his new stopwatch to school and announce to his class the MINUTE he turned 8. We joked that he would turn 8 at 11:32 and then he “was outta there” right after.

Anyway, I picked him up as directed. We got a quick lunch and hit the road for CA. We drove to Winnemucca, NV the first night and got a hotel room. He got his traditional birthday dinner with Dad (Roundtable this time, pepperoni and bacon deep dish). Followed by a box of candy and The Hobbit on HBO in the hotel room. I was freezing and windy in Winnemucca, so we got on the road pretty quickly the next day. The drive was easy the whole way, no weather to speak of.

We made our traditional pit stop at Scheels in Sparks, NV for lunch. We did a little shopping. Tanner got a new pair of shoes, I was able to contain myself which was pretty impressive in the presence of the largest collection of Under Armor gear in the Western Hemisphere. After lunch we finished up the drive to Grandma Mary’s in time for dinner. We went to Leatherby's where Tanner got a burger and I got an awesome crab sandwich. After dinner he wanted a banana split, which was the size of another meal. He order ½ chocolate and ½ vanilla and he and I didn’t finish it, but we did some serious damage.

We watched the first half of the Warriors game on TV  and then I put him to bed. He was exhausted. He slept from 8 to 7 the next morning. We got up and hung out with Grandma for a bit and then hit the road to Oakland. Uncle Eric hooked us up (as always) at the team hotel and practice facility. We are on the 20^th floor looking out on the Tribune building. We got to go down and tour the practice facility and got to shoot around on the practice floor. While we were there, Coach Jackson came in and introduced himself. He talked to Tanner about his basketball team and was just an awesome guy all the way around. Eric gave us the rest of the tour and then Tanner and I hit the town.

It has been a long time since I have been back in Oakland in a car and it was great to drive around and revisit all of my favorite hometown spots. Tanner said he wanted hotdogs for lunch, so I promised him the best hotdogs in the world. We went to lunch at Kaspers Dogs on MacArthur and Fruitvale. It hasn’t changed AT ALL since my grandpa used to take me there for lunch when I was Tanners age before we picked Grandma up from work. I got my childhood favorite; a cheese dog and a root beer. Tanner of course opted for ketchup only, but agreed that it was the best dog he’d ever had.

After lunch we drove around Oakland for awhile. Tanner was very concerned about all the graffiti. He kept saying, “Dad, I see vandalism!”. I explained that it was a kind of art, which he seemed to appreciate. He has been really in to drawing lately and so I think he looked at it through those eyes. We came back to the room and he spent some time at the window, drawing the Tribune building outside our hotel room window. We’re going to take BART to the Warriors game tonight.

We had a really good time at the game. The Warriors lost unfortunately, but Tanner had a really good time.  We stayed out WAY past bedtime and didn’t get back to the hotel until after 11:00. Uncle Eric hooked Tanner up with some great Warriors gear, including a basketball autographed by the entire team. Grandma Mary and Auntie Sue came to the game as well so we got to spend some time with them also. Tanner woke up this morning at 5:30 with an upset stomach (probably from the dinner of pizza crusts and ice cream). He proceeded to be able to go back to sleep, but I was up at that point. I got an early work out in, we had some breakfast at the hotel and met with Uncle Eric to say goodbye. We got a tour of the rest of the facility and Tanner got to say thank you to his Uncle for a great 8^th Birthday!