Travel Update- #5

I have officially spend a summer’s worth of money over the past 2 weeks.  Which would be okay if I didn’t have 4 other trips planned.   And I feel kind of guilty and I’m getting that “oh shit what have I done” pit in my stomach.   But I just keep smothering it with food and wine until I barely notice it.

And I keep telling myself.. it’s not like I took the kids to Savannah for the 100th time and am going overboard.  We are in California.  Thousands of miles from home.  I don’t know when they will ever be back here.  I want to show them EVERYTHING.  I want to do EVERYTHING.  I want to eat EVERYTHING.

So I am.

And I’m spending too much money and Seven is gonna be pissed and my power will probably get cut off.  (oh shit.. I wonder when that is due?  I just went and paid it online… frick! There’s another $500 down the drain!)  And I can’t fit into my clothes and my kids’ teeth are gonna fall out from the ridiculous sugar intake and meager brushing.

But they will remember this forever.  At least I hope they do.   I hope years from now they will say

“Remember that time we rented a convertible and drove up and down the California Coast?  And had cocoa at Pebble Beach?  And walked amongst 2000 year old redwoods?   And remember how mom kept booking other hotels and we kept spending the night in other places so we could do everything longer and not have to drive back to dad’s hotel?  And we spent the night in Monterrey and visited aquarium?  And went to Point Reyes and it was so cold and windy that it felt like winter?  And picnicked on the Pacific Ocean?  And picnicked overlooking San Francisco Bay?  And saw seals?  And otters?  And remember when mom paid that fisherman to take us out on a tour of the Bay and we got to drive the boat under the Golden Gate bridge?   And then we had those huge sundaes from Ghirardelli?  Remember the crabs?  And the chowder?  Remember that restaurant we ate at that was directly over the ocean??    Remember how many animals we saw on the 17-mile drive?  Remember when we bought fresh fruit from the farmers on the side of the road?   Remember mom made us wait in line for an hour just so we could ride a San Francisco trolley?

More likely they will say “Yeah..we went to California once. It was cool”.   But I hope that when those words come out of their mouth..what they really remember is that …  “yes.  we went to California.  And it was a wonderful trip”.

We are here for 2 more days… I wonder what other adventures I can find?    I think I’ll start by taking them to China Town and making them eat Dim Sum

will post LOTS of pics tonight..  on Vacation update 6 !!  {pls click the banner below…if I’m gonna be poor, I may as well be popular ;}