Carmel Vacation

If I were to give this vacation a subtitle it’d be: “Carmel Vacation - Go with the flow”

Flickr Photoset (over 200 photos!)

Sunday, June 22 - We left home around 8:30am and were on schedule for lunch at the Splash Cafe in Pismo Beach (Thanks for the tip, Justin). We weren’t ready for the auto show or the crowds, so it took longer than expected to get lunch and get back on the road. We decided to take the PCH as was recommended to us by some friends last year for the spectacular view…what a mistake.

We stopped by the elephant seal beach and got to see what I’ve only seen on tv. It was incredibly windy, but worth the stop.

The PCH…The scenery was amazing, but the drive wasn’t. We had 2 car sick kids and a marginally car sick mom. Normally, Micah would be up-chucking, but he had Dramamine. Toby puked three times!! The first time, I glanced back and saw that he looked green. Micah already had the big cup to prepare for his own puke, so Cindy grabbed the first thing on hand - a small twelve ounce plastic cup. Needless to say, the cup overflowed with lunch and we had vomit air freshener the rest of the trip.

A hundred yards from where we cleaned up the vomit, the PCH was closed due to fires. We had to take this narrow winding road for over 40 miles through a military base to get to the 101. Our 6-7 hour drive turned into nearly 10 hours, ugh.

We finally made it to the Carmel Wayfarer Inn around 6:30pm. We had room 3, which was a one bedroom suite with two restrooms. I’m definitely coming back to this B & B. We had dinner at the Hog’s Breath Inn, and got back to the room, where the kids journaled (against their will every night), and then went to sleep.

Day 2, June 23 - Monday was cold, but we were determined to go to the beach! I pulled out our swim gear and found…towels, no swim wear. We had gone swimming the day before we left, so our stuff was in our backyard at home drying. We ended up wearing day old clothes and had a go at the beach. It was too cold for full on swimwear anyways. We bought the kids these huge jackets that worked great to keep them warm and to identify them in a crowd. We just went with the flow and had a ton of fun!

Not only was it cold, it was windy. You can see the wind barrier that I built out of our umbrella and some sand. Cindy tried valiantly to get them to nap. We stayed at the beach all day, and had dinner at Jack London’s which was way more kid friendly and better priced than Hog’s Breath.

Day 3, June 24 - We woke up to find the sun breaking through the marine layer. So we made for the beach. We had the usual fun chasing and jumping the whitewash. And of course, we dug a few big ditches. After the beach we went to Katy’s Place to eat breakfast for lunch. I had the best corned beef hash I’ve ever eaten.

After lunch, we headed for the Aquarium. I went to the vending machine for water, and twisted my ankle on the small walkway right before we left. Cindy got me a wheelchair. The thing is, Toby bashed his shin, so was limping around too. It worked out for both of us. Unfortunately, one of the small wheels on the chair became derailed, and we had to abandon it. Apparently, I need to loose more weight…

We ate at Bubba Gump right next to the Aquarium. The kids loved the atmosphere, but the food was only fair. Funny thing about today. We unloaded all our bikes, thinking that we’d ride around Monterey, but it turned out we parked a few blocks from the aquarium, and a block from Bubba Gump. We maybe rode a half a mile if that.

Final Day, June 25 - Our final day was the coldest one yet. We spent the morning loafing around our room (kids watched Pokemon, Cindy and I watched Survivorman), and then checked out around noon. We ate fast food and then parked our car at a bike trail parking area. It turns out the parking lot used to be an old railroad station.

We rode over to the Dennis the Menace Playground and had a blast there. I’ve never seen a playground like it. It was packed with kids but was huge, so it didn’t matter. It had this old train, a huge suspension bridge, and a bunch of slides and climbing feature.

The playground was situated on a lake, so we rode over to the paddle boat rentals and got one for half an hour. We were having fun chasing down these lazy geese.

We then stopped at the old fisherman’s wharf. Of course we had a bunch of free clam chowder samples and had a clam chowder bread bowl - tasty!

Then around 4pm, we rode over to the Aquarium. We had two day for the price of one tickets, so got in for free. Good thing we were all able to walk/hobble around. We stayed here until near closing, and then walked over to a crepe place to grab a light dinner.

Our dinner consisted of three crepes - 1. chocolate & banana, 2. Gnutella & banana, and 3. egg, cheese and turky. Good stuff. After dinner we rode our bikes the couple miles back to our car and loaded up for the long drive home.

We headed out just before 7pm, and the kids crashed right away. Our plan was to make a mad dash for home while the boys slept. This was hindered by a freeway closure on the 101 and then another closure on the 5 freeway, just 20 miles away from our house. We still made decent time and got home at 12:25 am. Five and a half hours from Carmel to home. Not bad. I was hoping to break five, but good enough.

Dads play while kids take a break

My kids have taken to bombing down this large hill at my parent’s house. The hill ends in a culdesac, where the boys swoop around, barely avoiding parked cars and trash bins. As a parent it’s heart stopping to watch. Micah (7 years old) had called it a day, so Emmanuel took Micah’s bike for a spin. Inspired by him, I took up Juliette’s (Emmanuel’s daugher’s) bike for a short run down the hill. Since her bike is a bit more fragile, I didn’t go too far up, fearing a wheel failure. Emmanuel came flying down the hill with my 5 year old, Toby, and my dad followed him. Thanks for the pictures, Moses.

And here’s the Flickr Album

Camping at Dogwood in Lake Arrowhead

Quote of the weekend: “This is madness.” by Cindy while siting around the campfire at night.

Flickr Photoset, Emmanuel’s Flickr Photoset

Friday started out kinda sketchy. At home, it was overcast with intermittent thunderstorms in the forecast. By the time we got to the base of the mountains it was raining hard. When we got above 5,000 feet we had 10 feet visibility with the rain, hail and snow taking turns. There was no way we were going to attempt setting up camp in this weather. The thermostat only reached 44 degrees on the last day as we were leaving. Most of the time it was in the mid 30’s.

We stopped into town to decide what to do. Emmanuel found a bed and breakfast that had a two bedroom suite, which worked out really well for us.

Others of our group arrived at the campsite a couple hours after us and came to the same conclusion. They found a 3 bedroom cottage less than half a mile away from our place. We ended up keeping this cottage for the remainder of the trip, and as each night progressed, more people stayed here.

Saturday morning - the kids were amazed at the snow. A few of us went to scout out the campsite. It had stopped snowing, but was still very foggy, cold, and wet. We decided to go for it.

We pitched our tents, and half the group decided to stay at the campsite. The rest would stay at the cottage. Our kids stayed at the cottage to play with all the other kids, and Cindy and I spent the night in the tent. Cindy froze.

None of us were fully prepared for snow. Most of the kid’s feet were freezing in their sneakers. Saturday night twelve of us camped. Sunday night only four of us did - Stephen, Kelly, Jon and myself.

On Sunday - we all met at the cottage and spent the day in the cottage and in the Village. Lake Arrowhead must be at a little lower elevation, because it was only partly cloudy and windy. We went into the village and walked around during the day. It’d be a great place to vacation in the spring/summer.

Since we brought up our mountain bikes, we had to ride. Emmanuel went to Unified Ride Shop, which was a 100 yards from our cottage, and they set us up with maps and directions. The trails were OHV (Off Highway Vehicle) trails. We rode the motorcycle single track which was quite a bit of fun and had the added thrill of possibly being run down by a flying motorcycle. I was exhausted from the cold from the campsite, so barely survived.

All in all, we had alot of fun. The kids had a blast playing with everyone. We had an adventure. And I’m still thawing out two days later.

Fruit!

How many apricots can you see? I planted an apricot tree a couple years ago that has not given any fruit. I told it that if it didn’t bear fruit this year, I’d cut it down. I guess it heard me. I’m home early, because my air conditioner has a leak, and was out back with the AC contractor when I wandered over to the tree and saw fruit! Very cool. There’s always a silver lining. I’ve been losing sleep over the AC, because it could be a potential nightmare and huge cost for my family.

Children Safety Signs

I’ve been wanting to do this for awhile, and have been talking to my kids about it. The boys are learning to ride safely on the road in front of our house, so any extra visibility is good. I already got them some high reflective safety vests.

Toby, the 5 year old, got us mobilized after dinner. Initially, we were planning to buy self standing signs like these, but we went to Smart & Final on the way home from dinner, and they only had the flat ones. I had some pvc from another project, so I made some frames for the signs. Should be annoying enough to be noticed. Cindy reminded me that when I was single, I hated when parents would use similar signs. I thought it was selfishly hogging the road. Now I understand…