Our drive Sunday afternoon from Arizona to Southern California was our longest stretch of the whole vacation. With Mark joining us, we listened to more music than we had the first week. The tune that kept coming to my head, however, was, "California here I come, right back where I started from..."
We arrived (later than we'd hoped) at our good friend's home in Huntington Beach. They moved from Washington two years ago. A delicious dinner was waiting for us, and we all dug in with gusto. Graham and Henry, born just five days apart and friends since birth, wasted zero time in renewing their bond.
McKell is an outstanding hostess. She went out of her way to make us comfortable and welcome. I need to remember all of her tricks the next time we have company!
After getting the kids to bed, we (of course) stayed up reminiscing and catching up. It's funny how much, and how little, changes in two years.
Bryce and Graham shared a bed that night, which did not end well. As much as I'd love to gloss over the hard times, I think it's good to also note that it wasn't all sunshine and roses. Graham woke up early. Bryce didn't like that, so he made Graham miserable. The rest of us woke up to Graham's sobs and Aubree's tattling. Joyous.
Once we recovered from the rough start, our good humor returned with McKell's excellent breakfast. With bellies full of oatmeal and pancakes, the kids were ready to pack in a lot of playing in the short time we had left. They made the most of every second!
We considered going to the beach right by their house, but it was rainy
and cold (very Seattle-like, ironically), so instead we drove up to the Santa Monica Pier. The ocean was gorgeous, and we were all a bit hypnotized watching the waves and the water.
The attractions on the pier were underwhelming. The kids just wanted to visit the playground we'd seen when we parked, so soon we made our way back in that direction. They had a blast playing on the bars, swings, and rocks.
Mark made it all the way to the top of the rope ladder, but I was too slow to catch it on camera.
I love this picture of Graham. It's so, so HIM!
After the beach we turned inland towards Los Angeles and visited the La Brea Tarpits. I'd been once before when I was Bryce's age, and had vague memories of seeing bubbling tar. The fact that there are these tar pits, right in the center of what is now a big city, where thousands of animals were trapped and preserved, is fascinating.
As you might imagine, seeing the skeletons of the woolly mammoths and the saber-toothed tigers were the parts my kids liked best.
Overall though, it's a museum you can move through rapidly. We used our Pacific Science Membership reciprocity benefits, so we got in for free, which meant we didn't feel bad at all that we left after an hour and a half.
We drove to Woodland Hills, where my dad grew up, grabbed a late lunch, and took our Subway sandwiches to a nearby park. We also drove by the house my dad grew up in (my aunt says it looks completely different now), and saw his neighborhood and elementary school. It made me wish I'd done a better job asking more about his childhood while he was still alive.
Our long day's adventures weren't yet over. After making a quick stop at Sprouts (a grocery store I'd always wanted to visit) to get some fruits and veggies (not something we'd had in abundance after 10 days of traveling), we finally made our way to my Aunt Sue's home. My kids LOVED her house. They were enthralled with her vacuum cleaner, her elliptical machine, her solar panel, her chickens, her cute dog, and most especially her indoor garden.
As always, Sue totally spoiled us. She took us out to our now traditional Mod-Pizza style dinner.
When we got back to her house, she had unlimited ice cream, candies, and girl scout cookies. My kids were ready to move in!
The next morning, Sue had to go to work, and we had to move on, but not before the kids logged in a couple extra miles on the elliptical and "helped" Sue with her solar panel.
We had such a great visit!
When we left Sue's, we turned towards Simi Valley, where my mom grew up. We took one "wrong" turn, and GPS rerouted us through the Santa Susana Pass instead of over the hills on the freeway. That was the best wrong turn of the trip! California is unusually green as a result of unprecedented rain the last few months, and our drive through the curvy canyon was gorgeous.
Our original plan was to spend this day with my Grandma Joni. Unfortunately, over the previous weekend, Grammy had an accident and was in the hospital. Here's what happened... Saturday evening, Grammy had just gotten in her car and put it in reverse, when she heard her phone ringing in the back seat. The phone had been lost for over 24 hours, so she was eager to find it. She opened her door and stepped out, but neglected to put the car back in park. As the car rolled backward, it knocked her over, but her right leg was still stuck in the car. As the car continued backward, it mercifully threw her right leg out, but in the process, the corner of the door cut a large gash on her thigh. Given the circumstances, Grammy was miraculously free of serious injury - no concussion, no broken bones. She was, understandably, quite banged and bruised, and needed time to recuperate.
So, we headed to the hospital to visit her. When we arrived, Grammy was very chipper and happy to have visitors. She was keeping a visitor log by having her guests line up their visitor badges on the cabinet in her room. The addition of our seven badges looked impressive.
We enjoyed our visit, even if it wasn't what we'd anticipated. After Grammy told us the story of how she got hurt, she asked the kids, "What's the lesson in all this?"
Aubree quickly chirped, "Don't lose your phone!"
The kids did a great job staying calm (it helped that I had Nellie in the Ergo on my back), but we knew there was an expiration date on their good behavior, so too soon we said another good-bye.
We stopped at Costco to see about a leaking back tire and learned we needed three new tires (at least the leaking tire was still under warranty). So, we took an extra long lunch break and got the car taken care of.
We finished at Costco just in time to watch my cousin play a baseball game at Moorpark College. I don't think my kids have ever seen a real baseball game before, but they were good sports. Aubree later told me, "Watching baseball isn't so bad, especially if you know one of the players." She paused, remembering she did not, in fact, know my cousin Grant, then amended, "Well, if you're related to one of the players."
The second time my cousin got up to bat, he had a 3-1 count and I told Mark, "He's going to hit a home run, so I'm going to take a picture." I pulled out my camera, snapped a picture as he swung his bat, and the ball sailed over the left field fence! Nailed it!
Just as we were about to reach our limit (mostly napless Nellie), my Aunt Shari (Grant's mom), arrived with two of my younger cousins, Reid (7) and Nash (4). Suddenly, my boys had their second wind. They had a blast playing cars with my cousins. Unfortunately, Nellie was still struggling, so we had to leave before the game ended (though we heard later that Grant scored the winning run in an exciting, extra-innings game).
As evening approached, we made our way to my Aunt Emily's home. Emily wasn't yet home from work, so my cousin Sarah played hostess. While I got Nellie to take a short nap, she took the kids out to their small back-yard mini golf course, then put on a movie for the kids. By that point, we all appreciated a little zone-out time.
When Emily arrived, she made us dinner in her gorgeously remodeled kitchen, and kept the kids brilliantly occupied putting together her Safeway Monopoly game. Who would've guessed they'd be so enthralled hunting for "instant winner" pieces and finding the correct placement for the hundreds of tiny pieces?!
Nellie found her own entertainment. I made the mistake of getting her an M&M from the dispenser, and for the rest of the night she could not leave it alone!
We spent the night at my Grammy's empty home. After we got the kids to bed, Emily came over and we spent a few hours playing games. It was a lot of fun! I really have wonderful extended family.
The next morning it was kind of nice to be on our own for a little while. We were able to pack up and turn north. Before we left, I found a picture of Nellie on the wall.
Okay, so it's actually a picture of my mom when she was Nellie's age, but it could definitely be Nellie with bangs!
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