Trip up the Coast

This portion of our trip is the yang in contrast to the yin side of camping and being out in the middle of nowhere. We play tourist and spend beyond our normal budget and stay in hotels and eat out. It would not be Robb's itinerary but he enjoys it once we are there. For me it is showing the kids the places of my childhood memories. Lucky for our sanity we will be breaking up this little excursion with a visit to Robb's sister and family which is always a soul warming experience.

This picture of Jillian pretty much sums up what I am trying to convey.



Few drives are as captivating as the 1 North up the central coast of California.

We visited Solvang and played the obligatory tourist roll.

Look for it.... yes, that is our dorky family riding the trolley bike.



Who could resist sticking their kid in a giant shoe and taking pictures? Not us.



Driving out to see a miniature horse ranch that turned out to be closed we stumbled on a big horn who needed to have his picture taken.



We stopped in Pismo Beach the first night.

Partly for nostalgic reasons, I'll admit, but: I love, love, love Pismo Beach.

We stayed at the The Lighthouse Inn and then went for a magical walk on the beach; walking on the beach in Pismo is one of my all time favorite activities on earth.



I appreciate the flora and fauna of different regions, but usually in passing and as background. This garden so took my breath away I was stopped in my tracks. In Robb's effort to include us in the picture some of the beauty was sacrificed.



Robb and I played badminton, Bobby and Jamie played a game of giant chess and Jillian played mini golf - all on the roof top deck overlooking the ocean, all while we enjoyed some complimentary cookies and watched the sunset.

Then we headed downtown for some clam chowder and sourdough loafs.

Some complimentary waffles and eggs for breakfast and we were on our way.
Not a bad way to introduce the kids to Pismo Beach I say.

We drove up the coast to San Simeon to see Hearst Castle.

After a picnic at the beach and a walk down the pier we proceeded on to the castle.



It was one of those places I had visited as a child and hold as magical.



I believe the kids now share my view.

Bobby and Jamie at least, Jillian snoozed in my backpack for most of the tour.

They bonded with our tour guide and became his personal assistants, here they are - OFF the tour carpet, helping to share the typical menu which they learned in their Jr. Ranger Book.



Next: Monterey.

The hotel isn't worth mentioning but Paprika Cafe serves up some amazing dolmas and hummus!
Did we get a picture there? No, it was pouring rain and we didn't finish dinner until after 9:00pm I won't bore you with a one man business and a gigantic last minute to go order story.

To the old cannery for breakfast. (If I'm not going to mention the hotel then I am certainly not going to mention their idea of complimentary breakfast offerings.)



The following day's trip will either be mentally blocked for survival purposes (think giving birth) or will grow into the folklore of family legend. But probably sometime after my ears stop ringing and my legs quit cramping up unexpectedly.
If you must you can read about it my previous two posts.

Update

I suppose I should finish that last post.

We arrived at our destination safe and sound.

Ok, safe.

It was One in the morning.

Robb took the chains off as we pulled into Carson City which was a quiet relief after the bone rattling jarring they had added to our experience. We had no problem through the city and when we found the driveway piled with snow Robb just gunned it and got as far in as possible.

Hopefully the neighbors understood.

We are staying at the lovely home of some incredibly generous friends who happen to be in Palm Springs. I guess they got the hint about the blizzard. We were a little slower on the uptake.

As I was carrying a delirious mostly asleep Jillian to bed we passed by the jacuzzi tub, I tucked her in and went to get the other kids in bed. She started crying in a few minutes and I went to get here. She was sitting up in bed saying something that took me a little while to decipher; "I want my bath!"

That kids doesn't miss a thing.

She agreed that the morning would be a better time and fell into the pillow instantly asleep. Little did we know that the water had been turned off at the street and would not be available until after some intensive shoveling and investigative work.

Though I didn't find the camera until after Jillian's turn was over you can see that in the end all turned out well....

14 Hours in a Pickup Truck

From my phone so forgive....

We are on a little 'road trip,' we left the rv in cachuma and have been traveling up the coast. The wonderful details to come.

But today:

We have been in the truck for over 12 hours now. We are traveling from northern Ca to Carson City to see family. It is this bad: Robb actually pulled over and put on chains, for the first time in his life. We got almost all the way when they closed the 88 and we had to back track to Jackson. We are just passing through tahoe now and still have over an hour to go.

The kids have been troopers, just amazing. They have all fallen asleep now.

We are entering that slap happy stage..... it is better than cranky!

Finding Friends for Kids on the Road

One of the best resources we have found on this trip is Families on the Road. A group from this web site, myself included, are participating in a blog carnival with the goal of providing a resource for anyone interested in traveling full time with a family.

The topic is finding friends for kids on the road. You can check out other people's entries here.

Our standpoint may be a bit unique on this front; we are traveling for a finite amount of time with a combined goal of seeing the sites through new eyes and visiting friends and family from whom we live so far away.

Therefore a good number of our destinations have built in cousins or friends waiting to forge or further friendships with our children.
Times are such that more often than not families and friends are spread out geographically. We have been incredibly lucky to see a few regularly, but there are too many of those whom the years had begun to slip between us.
Busy, busy lives we have been taught to lead.
The trip has been well worth it for us to see our children have the opportunity to spend some quality time with our loved ones and theirs.

This is one aspect of their social circle this year. Another is the friends we make along the way.

As I am writing this my children are up the road with another family of children watching the Lake Cachuma Park ranger try to coax a raccoon out of a garbage can.
We are parked just across from the playground and have spent the past four days watching this new friendship unfold.

Tethered by the constraints of their parents' schedules, mealtimes and rules they keep an eye on the playground and field waiting for signs of other kids. In turn they brave the rain and wind and try to be "kid magnets" (their phrase not mine) to attract playmates. After the first couple play sessions the friendships are cemented and we need only to make sure they return for some sustenance every now and again.


In short, go to a campground and park near a playground and let nature take its course.

Last but certainly not least; their dear friends at home. Postcards, emails, and the occasional phone call are never enough but at least allow them to keep in touch.

I'm confident the skills our children have acquired in making friends at a playground, a museum or a library, with cousins they see a couple times a year and ones they didn't remember, with the children of their parents' childhood friends and people who happen to be camping at the same campground will serve them on this journey of growing up they seem to be speeding along.

cachuma pictures

The kids with their collected trash and recyclables for the Jr. Ranger Program. When I'm not comparing it to a wine tasting adventure the nature center here is really enjoyable. It is very hands on which makes learning fun.



Local CA condors. With a wing span of 9 and 1/2 feet these "beauties" are quite a site to behold.



Favorite toy? Sticks. If only they understood that finding them is half the fun and that we are doing them a favor by not taking any with us.



Robb had the wrong camera with him and this shot does not do the view justice but the idea is there.



I was asked to do my first guest blog. The subject was family camping in Quartzsite; you can see it here: RVParking.com.

Robb has also added to his page so check it out.

Back in PV

No, we didn't head back but Uncle Ted sent some great pictures that I wanted to share!

The kids' table. Uncle Don tried to join them but he was made to come back to our table.



You could not have asked for a more picturesque day, it was gorgeous!





Mindy and Jamie taking a stroll. Jillian and Lucas rode round and round the track just the way we used to!



Nostrovia!

Lake Cachuma

It appears that we have not been paying attention. We arrived at Lake Cachuma and immediately fell in love. We couldn’t wait to tell Mom and Dad about this little slice of heaven outside of Santa Barbara.

It turns out that they have been coming here for years and claim to have been telling us about it all along. Isn’t it amazing how hard it is to relate to something until you experience it for yourself?

Well now we know; it is amazing here. The colors of the hills surrounding us are a patchwork of greens set against the blues and grays of the skies; magnificent.

Robb and I took extreme bocci ball to a whole new level today. We played in the field behind our campsite which is riddled with holes from the ground squirrels. Amazingly we didn't lose a single ball. I blame my loss on my noble effort to preserve our bocci set.

I'll admit I was a little envious as I watched, for the second day in a row, a big group of our neighbors board a private bus destined for a day of local wine tasting. Someday....
We on the other hand attended the Jr. Ranger program and hung out in the nature center, after collecting bags of trash and recyclables. Jealous?

It ended up pouring rain all day yesterday, undeterred Robb fought the impending cabin fever by going out to build a fire. It looked a little sad. Even the neighbor felt bad and brought out a couple fire starters for him.



He finally got it going, after the novelty of playing in the pouring rain had waned and the kids had changed into warm jammies and we settled into a game of Bananagrams. I dutifully suited back up and brought a glass of wine out to enjoy the fruits, or flames, of his labor. But when I noticed my glass was more full than when I started, (did I mention it was raining REALLY hard?)

No worries, we snuggled in to watch Harry Potter, Year Three; we are in the middle of a marathon, taking advantage of having full hook-ups.

We woke up to sunshine and playmates abound! Our trip into Solvang can wait until tomorrow, a campground full of kids and sunshine is hard to beat!

P.V.

For as much fun as we had during our time in PV the pictures don't do it justice. Our time was short but we managed to see quite a lot of friends and family. For as much as we fit in we feel like we really got to sit and have some real conversations with the people we visited; the main goal of our trip.

I'm so sorry we missed those of you who we did and I hope the opportunity to mend this will present itself soon!

We got to go to Tomoko and Kirby's new house, we got to love and play with the happiest little girl in the world, we got to sit and laugh and catch up with our dear friends. And this is the one and only picture we managed to take. Yep, that is my love bug miss Kaitlin: the blurry object in front.



Aunt Katie and Uncle Ted hosted a delicious and enjoyable brunch, always the generous hosts. We were so honored to have everyone take the time to come hang out with us, especially Maria who had quite the drive to do so! We missed Sergio and Marco who were home sick, and Mike of course, but that would have been a REALLY long drive :) No pictures of us 'grown-ups' but who am I kidding, we know who people really want to see!
Here are the kids with cousins, second cousins? Ok my cousins' kids, we don't know the exact title so we settled on just cousins.



Dinner at the Moore's was a blast. This is Faye and Mike's Kate with Jamie and Jillian. The girls were in barbie, princess heaven.



This is the only shot with Jack in it. He and Bobby disappeared into a wii marathon but did manage to surface for dinner.
Faye made the most delicious dinner and we had so much fun. Any pictures of that? Of course not. At least we didn't climb any trees this time :)



After a lovely picnic at Point Vicente The Branconiers' took us on a tour of Terranea, we walked down to the beach and through the caves by the cliffs, the quintessential P.V. landscape; absolutely breathtaking. Here are some of us in the cave.



Did we get the adorable picture of my kids and their "kids" playing monopoly? Or the girls giving Jillian a bath after she "accidentally" fell down in the tub when they were all washing feet?
No.
The reason I share this is not for the people in it but just to show the furniture in the background. This was my childhood furniture, then it passed down to Trish and then to Danielle, oh the memories I have of it!



Not one picture with the GREAT Uncle Don.
We were just too busy chatting!
We so appreciate everything about you, as does everyone who is lucky enough to know you.
But really, not one picture together!?!

It was a highly enjoyable whirlwind and we are grateful to our many hosts!

San Clemente Camping

The same alcove that Jamie and Daddy love so much. Bobby and Jillian wanted their turn for a picture.


A relished lazy day filled with reading, snuggling, board games, and a campfire.




We snuck in one more visit with my brother and family, Robb's wings, super bowl, skate ramps, club houses; good times.
I'm sorry for the goofy picture of Jimmy T, but in my defense, he was trying to be silly.

Through the Years

When Jamie was a week old we moved up to the San Clemente Campground. Robb used to walk her down on the beach while I grabbed some much needed sleep.
Here they are at about one week.



We were back when Jimmy T was born and a six month old Jamie apparently remembered the soothing walks, here she is sound asleep in the same alcove on the way up from the beach.



And though we have been back a few times since, we finally go the picture to go with the trip.

Wild Animal Park

Really you should be impressed with this excursion.

For some reason all the memories I have of going to the zoo take place in unbearable heat with unmentionable smells and dirt.

Robb tends to think of the defeated look in the eyes of animals not meant to live in tiny little cages.






But with this park's reputation, the cool weather and the off season non-crowds, we managed to get over preconceived terrors and surprise the kids with a trip to the Wild Animal Park.

It was awesome!
Believe it or not I am being VERY conservative with the amount of pictures I am sharing. Robb got some amazing shots and as the kids were watching over my shoulder they thought that quite a few more should be added.

But really, how many people truly need to see a lion peeing, even if it is a really good shot?










My page arrangement leaves something to be desired but I tried to do this post while the kids were awake and chaos is slowly descending around me....