Vacation to Southern California

Well, I've been delinquent in keeping this silly blog up to date. But now I feel compelled to divulge the details of the family vacation last week to sunny Southern California. Cathy's sister Chris and her lovable husband Jurgen (he's all GERMAN, baby) live in San Pedro, one of the dozens of bedroom communities in the Los Angeles area. It's quite a nice little spot within walking distance of the beach. They invited us down for a stay, so Cathy took our little boys Noah and Logan, plus our adult kids April and Kevin, and trekked out with the Suburban last Monday. In the meantime, I still had to work, so on Wednesday night I cheated and flew down to meet them. Cathy says I still owe her for that drive she made without me.

They broke up the trip on Monday by dropping by my daughter Robyn's place in Cedar City and staying the night. Cathy got to play with our lovable granddaughter Kassidy (fondly known as "Butch"), and the kids got to sleep on the floor. Robyn and Kevin have a nice little place there in Cedar City, waiting out the days until Kevin is accepted into pharmacy school somewhere in Podunk, North Dakota.

On Tuesday they finished the drive to LA, probably stopping to see the giant ball of yarn and the amazing Upside Down City somewhere along the way. Wednesday before I arrived they went down to the beach for a while. Then Wednesday night, Jurgen and Chris took us to a wonderful restauraunt right on the coast called The Admiral Risty. We got a table facing the ocean and we watched the sunset while we ate. The food was great. Cathy got her customary burned piece of beefsteak (which even burned was marvelous) and I had a seafood medley over pasta. Jurgen footed the bill, which was probably even more than filling the Suburban with gas. If you can imagine that.

On Thursday we walked up to a park that overlooks the ocean, and played with the kids for a while and tried out Jurgen's evil stunt kite, which took Kevin and me a good hour to master. We were so frustrated we pitched the damn thing into the sea when we were done. It's just not worth it. There was enough fog out on the water that we couldn't see Catalina Island. But I know it was there.

Then we drove North up to Huntington Beach and spent the day. It was breezy and even a little cool, but plenty of sun. The older kids tried Boogie Boards out in the surf, and the little ones played in the shallows. Noah could hardly be dragged out of the water at the end of the day. He was off in his little world, slowly drifting down the beach unknowingly until we had to go retrieve him and bring him back closer to us. As usual, he was chatting up every little girl in sight and being a goofball, which girls seem to like. We all left with significant tans and/or sunburns. That evening, Jurgen and Chris went with the older kids to a Dodgers game, and they had a great time. Cathy and I stayed home with the little ones. Baseball doesn't interest me in the least. I thought the Dodgers played for Brooklyn. Shows you how behind I am.

Friday we went to Knott's Berry Farm, which is a scaled-down Disneyland. I remember going there as a kid. They've added some scary roller coasters over the years, but a lot of it is unchanged. Still has Mrs. Knott's famous Chicken Dinner Restaurant (they serve chicken), the train ride through the gold mine mountain, and a live cowboy stunt show. And of course all the jam you'd ever want to buy. I got sick after one lame roller coaster and stayed with Logan most of the day while everyone else did the gut-wrenching rides. Noah has no fear and will go on anything they'll let him. Some rides had a height requirement, and he was mad about that. Cathy kept up with the older kids ride for ride, and I ended up leaving early with Logan and Jurgen. We are, after all, quite old.

Saturday we headed home. We had to negotiate through about 97 different freeways to get back on I-15, and then it was smooth sailing. Lots of nothing between Barstow and Vegas. We decided to stop at Vegas to break up the trip. I got a great rate at a condo complex owned by one of our clients at TimeShareWare. So we stayed at Vacation Village, which was about the nicest place I've ever stayed, and out away from the Strip, which is fine with me. They had a pool, and we went down to play there with kids for a while before settling in to bed.

Sunday we got up and finished the trip home. We got to stop over in Cedar City again, and visited with Robyn and Kevin. Kassidy had just thrown up all over the couch. But she's still cute. We got home and unloaded the car, and then sat around in a stupor until bedtime. It's nice to be home.

I'll upload pictures later, but that's the gist of it!