Chilly Beach, Chilly Boys

When Southern people think visiting the beach, we think of hours spent splashing and floating the the crystal clear warm waters of the Gulf of Mexico.  Something like this...

(awe, Eli 2 years younger)

We can take the boys out of Alabama, but we can't take the impulse to dive in away.

The boys cannot resist the call of the ocean water.  Even if that water is freezing.


We have made it the beach a couple of time since we arrived on the California coast.


The beach would be far more fun for me if they would stay dry and just play in the sand.


But, alas, it would not be as fun for them.


So we have tried shorts with jackets.  Everything quickly got soaked.

We have tried swim trunks and long sleeve shirts.

Once the shirts get wet, they are useless.




 And well, that has ended up like this.

60 degrees and shirtless, sandy and wet kids.  Now, they didn't seem to care. But, we are quickly becoming, "those parents."

They might eventually retreat to a deep hole to hide from the wind, but they are never "ready" to leave.


I have found that a short sleeved shirt, long sleeved pull over, jacket and jeans keeps me comfortable. So, I pretty much look ridiculous next to them, but I'm warm.

PS - Florida beaches, I miss you.

Day 5: Hanford, CA to Half Moon Bay, CA

We woke to a homemade breakfast and promises of going see the jets.  Nothing beats that.



And see the jets we did.  No one was flying that day, so no take offs or landings, but we were able to see the jets up close.



And Uncle Matt did a great job of explaining what he does to the boys.  They were enthralled, and so was I.



We also got to see all Uncle Matt's gear. Pretty cool.







Me too!


It was the perfect visit.  So grateful to Matt and Elaine for all they do for our country and I'm so glad the boys were able to get this up close view.


We made it on our way with the only interesting part of the drive being the crazy reckless 18-wheeler driver that we were behind.  She was so scary, wildly serving, running oncoming traffic off the road. We ended up having to call the police.  And let it be known the California Highway Patrol doesn't play.  She was pulled over by 4 officers. 

We made it to Half Moon Bay by late afternoon.  We met some friends for dinner at Sam's Chowder House and it was wonderful.  They were in town for the daunting task of house hunting in The Bay Area and I think we all enjoyed the chance to relax.  We headed back to the house and began the settling in for the next two months.

Day 4: Henderson, NV to Hanford, CA

The actual road travel of this day was the hardest.  Slow, stop and go traffic through the desert on roads in disrepair with few stops and even fewer restrooms made for a long day. We were all rapidly approaching our travel limits and the conditions didn't help.

I pulled out the last of my reserves in the road trip prizes bag to entertain the masses.







Our one stop for the day was a sweet reward for the hard travel.



We stopped in Bakersfield at Dewar's.  My mom grew up in Bakersfield.  I have been able to visit a few times, but the last time was with my grandparents in 1994.  So, you know, it had been a few years.  Growing up my grandparents pretty much always candy from here, so for me it was definitely a bit of nostalgia.



We found a spot at the crowded counter and ordered everyone an ice cream treat.





And, yes, I realize that all three boys are wearing white shirts for this messy stop.  I'll have you know Walker's shirt remained completely chocolate free.  I don't want to talk about the other two.

We arrived at Matthew and Elaine's (my bro and SIL) to a home cooked dinner and their adorable puppy.


This is the first time since they have been married that we have lived IN the same country and ON the same side of the country so it was fantastic to actually be able to visit their home!  There were video games and conversation and just a generally relaxing evening with the family.

Day 3: Albuquerque, NM to Henderson, NV

Free hotel breakfast, thank you.



The boys did learn something from all the hotel breakfast.  See, up to this point, I have pretty much made the boys believe that cereal is better dry with your milk in a cup, with a lid.  You know, keeping the messes in check.  Well, now they have decided that cereal with milk on top is actually better. Oh well I think six years is a pretty good run.


We pretty much all agreed that New Mexico had the prettiest scenery of all the states we drove through. Just gorgeous.

For lunch we stopped in Holbrook, Arizona to eat at Joe and Aggie's.


The place was frequented by the Pixar folks when they were making Cars and they were apparently so inspired by this place that Joe and Aggie's receives a credit at the end of the movie.





Now the place is old and isn't anything fancy, but the food was good and the owner (maybe Joe's son?) was so nice and wanted to chat it up about Cars and Pixar.  There was a BBQ festival going on across the street so we were able to walk around and grab a bag (or 2) of cotton candy.

To finish up our Route 66 tour we stopped in Sigelman, Arizona, but the boys were convinced it was Radiator Springs.











We stopped a Lake Mead just before our hotel and while it was a sight to see, but it was so hot it was unbearable.  Colin just marched back to the car and demanded a drink.  I agreed.


We checked in and by this time the travel, dramatic changes in altitude and desert heat was starting to have an effect.  Everyone drank some gatorade, ate some In N Out and headed to bed.  And bonus, while in bed we could hear the Foreigner concert going on at the Casino across the street.  Like well enough for Jason to serenade us with "I Want to Know What Love Is" and "Hot Blooded."  It was pretty hilarious and we were to tired to let the noise distract us from sleeping.

Day 2: Oklahoma City to Albuquerque

Day 2's wake up came at the late hour of 6am.  We were able to get everyone readied, fed and out the door pretty early and still in pretty good moods.

We had hoped to stop at Blessed Mary's in Groom, Texas for lunch.  From what I have read it is a little diner type spot with no prices or cash register.  You just pay what you can and any profits go to charity.  We found it, but it was closed.  So we kind of went to the opposite.



There were animal heads all over the walls, waitresses dressed as cowgirls, a shooting range and a candy counter.

It was perfect, ridiculous, but perfect. {those are $3 suckers they are holding, but we all know the real suckers are not pictured}



We stopped at the Blue Hole in Santa Rosa, New Mexico.  It is a natural spring with crystal clear blue water that goes down for 80 feet.  There were a lot of people just jumping off the diving platform and hoping right back out, because although it was hot outside the water stays at about 60F so it is rather "refreshing".

We just looked, made sure nobody fell in and opted for a Dairy Queen in town to cool us down.

We made it to Albuquerque with enough time to go into old town for dinner and to walk around.  What a neat little area, and best of all it was't hot!

They even had some local kids performing some Native American dances.  This little boy is 6, so it was neat for the boys to see him doing something like this, being that Walker and he are the same age.

The leader kept making a point for everyone to applaud because it had taken him a long time to learn the minute long dance. :)



We returned to the hotel, tucked ourselves in the ridiculously comfortable beds and everyone fell asleep quickly.

Day 1: Alabaster, AL to Oklahoma City, OK

We rose at the painful time of 4:15am in hopes that we could shuffle the kids into the car and they would fall back asleep.

No such luck.  They were far too excited about the adventure.  We stopped for a quick breakfast and watched the sunrise.


We stopped in Memphis to let the boys see the Mississippi River for the first time, and run off a little energy.  At 9am it was already ridiculously hot, so everyone returned to the car without a struggle.

We listened to some Elvis and got them all caught up on his history, right up until Walker starting asking questions about what happen to him and if he was in heaven...umm...well...let's turn up that music.


We stopped in Shawnee, Oklahoma just before arriving at our hotel.  We had an average hamburger in an neat old diner that used telephones for ordering and walked around an old train station.  Just what we needed, but still blazingly hot.

We made it to the hotel just outside of Oklahoma City and took a dip in our private pool (okay the hotel pool, but we did have it to ourselves).


Then we tucked everyone in bed and called the 16 hour day a victory.


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