Saturday morning we hit the road about 8 am. We were sad our Seaside time went by so quickly, what a wonderful week! (Thanks so much to Ann & Dave for hosting us all again, and spoiling us completely rotten!) We hollered goodbye to the ocean and family, and strapped in for the ride. It took us about 12 hours to get to Sacramento, and the drive down Oregon was beautiful. We crossed the border into California and it almost instantly went desert, besides one beautiful lone mountain smack in the middle of the horizon.
Things have changed in the last couple of decades as far as kids and car-travel. Back in "our'' day, my parents would lay all the seats down in the back and we'd do gymnastics, or lay out in sleeping bags and take a good stretched out nap, or one of my favorites, we'd play 'funeral'. That involved one person weeping, and one person obviously 'playing dead'. One time, my parents handed us a tape deck and a blank cassette and we would record our funny selves for playback. (That was high technology at the time!)
Sometime in the 80s or 90s, parents got all freaked out by all that unsafe un-seat-belted play, and an overzealous legislature fueled and confirmed all our fears, and now all the kids are locked down and restrained within an inch of their lives. And for a decade or so, there was much suffering for both parents and children. (It would be difficult to play the funeral game as you need some physical contact for true mourning!) Then some brainiac at Sony decided they could make money and help kids! And the mini-van DVD was born! Which, of course, we did not have the foresight to insist on when we purchased our Chevy. Thankfully, a couple of years later, the portable DVD player. Which certainly helped pass those long hours even though the screen was far enough away that it was the size of their thumb and the sound quiet enough that only the screaming was ever heard. But the kids were grateful and happy to stare at the mini-entertainment center.
But now, just in time for our 24 hour trip to Santa Barbara, we had gathered enough old iphones and itouches and ipads and nintendo dts, that there was plenty of personal handheld entertainment to go around, and this was truly a lifesaver. I don't think the kids even saw the hours pass! We didn't absolutely ruin the poor things (the children, I mean), they looked up long enough to see the Budweiser truck on fire and the SUV on it's side, the mountains and desert. And for a while we played Rubberneckers and the license plate game. And there were just a whole lot of snacks! But in-between times, those little devices carried us the extra mile.
Crossing into Cali:
We got into Sacramento about 8, and they told us at the hotel it had gotten to 108 degrees that day. Which meant, even at 8 pm, it was still warm enough to hit the pool. So we suited up and jumped in! It was crazy-busy there, but we were happy to have landed.
I'm so grateful for my little family of 6! When you travelocity for a family of 6, they now always set you up in one of those long-term suite hotels, with microwaves and fridges and great big breakfasts. A separate room for the kids to fall asleep so you can unwind with some wine and cable. And all for the cost of a normal hotel room. (And feeding breakfast to 6 is a huge help!)
We lazed around the next day, and then took off for LA to see Grandpa Joe!
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