Road Trip 2013

All year we have been anticipating our 15 day road trip to California and back.  We were so busy, though, that we had other things keeping our minds from dwelling on it too much.  I was anxious about how the kids would do with all the driving (I was not ready to hear "Are we there yet?" for hours on end).  I planned our route, made reservations at some RV parks, planned out meals, bought groceries, packed up the camper.... But even up until we left I didn't feel like it was really time to leave.  So much planning, it felt strange to get in the truck and go.

2 days before we left, we had serious truck trouble.  Ryan had to stay up late the 2 nights before we left to fix it (and still get up before dawn to go to work all day).  It wasn't easy chipping away each bearing that had essentially welded themselves to the axle, but at least we didn't have to buy a new axle.  Once again, I was thankful he has super mechanic skills and was able to fix it himself.  Sure did save us a lot of money, and we didn't have to delay the trip. 

We left on a Saturday morning, a little later than planned thanks to the truck troubles.  Our goal was to make it to Carlsbad, NM so we could visit Carlsbad Caverns the next day.  Let me just mention here that there were only 2 things on this trip that I had not seen before, but Ryan hasn't seen any of it.  He's been to San Diego and the beach, but that was it. 

This was our very first night to pull into an RV park with our new (to us) travel trailer and get it all hooked up.  Fortunately, Ryan is a 'jack of all trades' so this was a no brainer for him.  He showed me how to level it out with the jacks and set it all up.  The kids were going crazy from sitting all day, and they enjoyed the small playground the park offered.  We managed to get the kids to bed, since we knew we had a long day ahead.

Carlsbad Caverns was simply amazing.  We took the natural entrance down, which looks like a big hole in the ground.  It was approximately a 1.25 mile walk to the Big Room, all down hill.  Then we did the self guided tour of the Big Room (about a 1.3 mile walk).  Eli was too young for any of the guided tours, so we skipped those.  Because I had to take it slow due to my foot, and the fact that we had 2 kids with us, we were still down there for several hours.  When we finished in the Caverns, we took the elevator up, ate some lunch, then headed back to camp for a break.



Riley was mad that we stopped for a picture, and refused to smile.
He was just ready to get down into that big cave!

Eli was getting tired from all the walking, so he hitched a ride.
Later, Ryan carried Eli on the front and Riley on the back. 
I really wished I had remembered to bring the Boba!

Riley adopted "Batty" and Eli adopted "Batman".  They slept with these each night of the trip.

We returned later that night for the Bat Flight Program.  Since they don't know exactly what time the bats will decide to wake up to find food, the park ranger leading the program shared some facts.  The highlight of the program was the skit they did, with some audience participation.  They needed a "mysterious man" for one of the parts.  Guess who was voted in?  Batman!  A young boy (9-10?) came dressed as Batman, in full costume.  He had to grunt when pointed to for his part, and he did the perfect impression of Batman.  No photos are allowed during the Bat Flight, so as not to disrupt the bats, so we only have our memories of that.  I was actually surprised at how long it took for them to stream out -- we left after 30 minutes and the bats still were coming out of the caves! 

We had to stop and talk to the park ranger, though.  Riley didn't believe Ryan and me when we told him that there was no giant robot bat hanging from the cave ceiling.  He swore he saw one down there, even though we tried our best to explain that is was just shadows.  The park ranger didn't give a straight answer, though, so I'm not really sure what Riley believes now....

Monday morning, we unhooked and hit the road.  We drove through beautiful Cloudcroft, NM, where the temps were only in the low 70's!!  We stopped briefly to let the brakes cool, and enjoyed this view of White Sands in the distance.

You can see White Sands in the distance.
We asked strangers to take photos of the 4 of us at various places on the trip.

Our stop was brief at White Sands, but we had a quick picnic lunch then let the boys play.  They loved rolling down the sand dunes!  We wished we had sleds (or at least cardboard) with us, but we also knew we'd never be able to drag the kids away if we did. 



We continued our drive to stay in Tucson, AZ for the night.  The desert was so hot, and so bland.  We pulled into the Oceanside RV Park in Oceanside, CA just before sunset.  We quickly hooked up, then walked to the beach.  It should have been only an 8 minute walk, but we didn't know where we were going and didn't look at a map.  So after about 20 minutes we finally arrived just in time to see the sun set over the Pacific. 

"Cheese!"  Now can I go play?!

This was the best photo I could get of him.  I'm just sad his face was blurry!
But it captures him at the beach so perfectly, since he was too excited to be still!

 The boys didn't want to leave, but we promised them we would return to spend more time in the sand. 

We spent all day Wednesday at Legoland.  The kids had a blast!!  Riley was able to ride everything, but Eli had to miss out on 3 rides because he wasn't tall enough (about 1" short).  This was never an issue, though, since Ryan or I would just take him to another ride.  We were there about 10 hours, and still didn't do everything!  We skipped the longer lines (anything more than 30 minutes) so we'd be able to see more of the park.  There was an awesome display of Star Wars Miniland, and even a life size model of an X Wing fighter made of more than 5,335,200 legos!!

This was a favorite for all 4 of us!  The boys loved to play and get wet. 
Ryan & I enjoyed being able to sit and watch instead of constantly moving!

How many hugs do you think Darth Vader is used to getting?

The boys protected us from the fiery dragon!

 

The life size model that took 32 builders over 3 months to build!

Thursday we decided to take a break from Legoland, and have a quiet day.  We drove up to the Oceanside Farmers Market and enjoyed some delicious peaches and plums!  Then we walked out on the pier before going to Carlsbad to find some lunch.  After a wonderful seafood lunch (I had the Scottish salmon, Ryan had swordfish), we had ice cream at Sub Zero, a place where they make the ice cream, yogurt, or custard to your unique taste and freeze it in front of you using liquid nitrogen!  The boys enjoyed picking out their flavors and add ins and seeing the cloud of 'smoke' before enjoying a cold treat.



Juicy plums at the Oceanside Farmer's Market

The pier in Oceanside.

Fro Yo at Sub Zero, Carlsbad, CA

We then headed back to the camper to change into our suits and head for the beach!  This was our first time to Cali in the "heat" of the summer (it was only about 74 degrees and cloudy while we were there).  The water was still cold, but we all got in the water.  Riley told us that he wasn't cold, that his arms and lips were shaking because "they're just scared".  The boys absolutely loved playing in the waves!!  Eli was knocked over countless times, but he didn't care.  We built sandcastles.  I even had the genius idea to let them bury me in the sand (hey, I get to lay there while they stay busy, what could be better than that?!).  It was a good idea, until I had to try to wash the sand off of me.  The pool at our campground had a warm water outdoor shower, which worked so much better than the cold mister they had at the beach.  Then we swam in the heated pool before getting ready for dinner.  No pics of the afternoon, since I left my camera behind so I could also enjoy the sand and water!  And since my phone crashed, I lost the pics I had on there.
We had 2 different people recommend Pizza Port -- a great pizza place with their own micro brewery!  The place was packed, but Ryan and I enjoyed some local craft brews while waiting for the delicious pizza.  We were disappointed they don't bottle their own brew, but we did buy a few local craft beers to bring home for Ryan's 30th birthday beer tasting party. 

Waiting for pizza!

Friday, we headed back to Legoland to visit the water park!  It was much busier that day since it wasn't mid-week, but not terrible.  We brought the camper this time since we had to check out of the RV park by 11:00.  It was only $5 more for parking, but we were able to park near the entrance in their oversized vehicle parking lot.  Again, no pics of this day since I left my camera behind so I could enjoy the fun in the water with the kids.

Riley told me his favorite part of Legoland was "Everything!!  I liked Legoland water park and the regular park!"  Eli told me his favorite was "Legoland water park!"

Late afternoon, we left Legoland and changed in the camper before heading off to the California desert to visit my brother, his wife, and their 2 kids.  I'll post the rest of our trip in another post:)  This one is long already, and our internet out here in the stix in extremely sloooooooooo....oooow to upload pics.  It took about 4 hours just to upload the ones to this post. 

San Diego and Disneyland!!

We had such a wonderful trip to visit my brother and sister-in-law! I'm still worn out. I never really pictured myself living on the west coast (I am a Texas girl through and through), but I think I could settle for San Diego! It is absolutely beautiful, and I loved the weather (much nicer than this humidity)! The plane rides were much better than I had hoped, with minimal crying and even some napping during part of the flights.

The first beach we visited was dog beach (not sure if that's really the name, but it's what we call it). Riley was super excited, and he couldn't wait to get there! We had to take a short walk from our rental van down the Pacific Coast Highway to get there, and he wanted to run the whole way! As soon as we hit the beach, he took off running towards the water! Even though the water was very cold, he didn't want to stay away. Elijah enjoyed playing in the sand and watching all of the dogs running around. We took my brother's two dogs, Mandi and Wesley, with us, too. Dogs, sand, waves, sunshine, my kids loved it (and so did I)! Riley cried when it was time to leave, and even said he didn't want to go to Disneyland the next day, that he just wanted to stay at the beach! Of course, he changed his mind.

Riley running out to the water and Elijah playing in the sand.

The next day was our big trip to Disneyland!  Riley could barely contain his excitement as we pulled up!  He still wasn't sure exactly what Disneyland was at that point, but he knew it was exciting since that's where Mickey Mouse lives!

My handsome boys wearing their first trip to Disneyland buttons!

My favorite thing was seeing Riley's face and hearing him whisper "Oh Wow!" as he took everything in!  I also love how Elijah was able to go on nearly every kid's ride we went on!  There weren't many times where we had to take turns watching the kids (that was really only for the big rides).  We met Aladdin, Jasmine, Mary Poppins and Bert, Winnie the Pooh, Tigger, Donald Duck, Chip and Dale, Goofy, Pluto, Pocahontas, and of course the big mouse, Mickey Mouse! 

This was the first time we met Mickey!  We also got to visit him in his house the next day!

Riley was completely exhausted by the end of the first day!  Ryan had to carry him up to our hotel room, and he was pretty much dead weight!  At about 4:00am, he fell off the bed he was sharing with Ryan (I was in the other bed with Elijah).  It woke both of us up, and I rushed over to him to see if he was okay.  He just stood there, still half asleep, and said "yeah".  He went right back to sleep like nothing happened.  It's very funny looking back on it!

Day 2 at Disneyland was just as much fun-filled as the first!  Riley did get scared during the Bug's Life in 4D show, and I had to take him out.  He thought is was hilarious, until the bug "shot" him with a laser (it was really just a little water, but he didn't know that).  He clung to both me and my sister-in-law, Katie, and cried.  Other than that, he loved everything!  Especially his very first roller coaster ride!

We had a very lazy Sunday while trying to recover from two days at Disneyland!  We went to La Jolla Beach, and watched the surfers and grilled hamburgers and turkey dogs.  It was overcast and much cooler, but it was still beautiful!  Elijah loved playing in the sand, and Riley made a sand castle with his daddy (which he soon destroyed!)  He thought it was neat that they found more water under the sand!  I love the goofy look on Elijah's face in the picture below!  Riley loved drawing in the sand!  I have to share two of my favorite pictures.  My favorite of Elijah is to the right, he was just so happy to be at the beach!  The other is of Riley (below right) just sitting and watching the ocean.  He wasn't still very often during the trip (or ever), and I love that I was able to capture this moment of him being still watching the waves!

Monday we shopped at Seaside Village, a quaint outdoor shopping area across from Coronado.  We could see Navy ships across the harbor, and even one heading out to sea!  Riley loved seeing the "big boats"!  Lunch was at In-N-Out Burger, a must on our to-do list since we aren't fortunate enough to have them here in Texas.  Dinner was at a great local Mexican food restaurant.  Now, for those who know me know that is a bold statement!  I do not like Mexican food, which is odd since I come from a family who loves it!  I will eat chicken enchiladas or fajitas, but that's it.  But this restaurant we went to in San Diego was more of a Carribean style Mexican food, rather than the TexMex we have here in Texas.  It was all outdoors, a patio setting surrounded by beautiful flowers.  I had salmon with chipotle mashed potatoes and asparagus.  Yum!!  I ate every bite!

Tuesday was our last full day in San Diego.  We went to Coronado island, and had lunch at a diner with the best ice cream sundaes!  The hard part was choosing which sundae to get, because they all looked so good!  We also visitied Imperial Beach and walked to the end of the long pier.  Fisherman lined the pier while surfers waited for the best waves.  Off in the distance we saw a Navy ship, and some islands.  I had to use my mom's camera to take pictures since I forgot mine at my brother's condo, so I don't have any pictures to share at this time.

We decided to take Riley and Elijah to the beach one more time before we had to leave.  So we went back to get our swimsuits and towels and went to "baby beach".  Obviously, that's not the name of it.  Riley called it "baby beach" when driving by it a couple days before and it just stuck.  This beach had more rocks and shells, and we enjoyed looking for interesting momentos to bring home.  Elijah enjoyed eating the rocks!

To the left is a picture of Ryan, Riley, and my dad wading in the waves. 

Here is Elijah examining one of the many rocks he tried to eat!

This is Riley and me at "baby beach".  I loved watching the pure joy on his face as we experienced new things!  I hope he remembers at least the highlights of this trip!  I know Elijah is too young to remember anything, but we have a ton of pictures to look back on (I have 350+, and that doesn't include any that my parents took)!  Even though we enjoyed our trip to Disneyland and the beaches, the best part was spending time with my brother and sister-in-law, Robbie and Katie!  We don't get to see them often (only 1-2 times a year), so it's always good to be with them!