California Dreamin « The Casual Perfectionist

As you may remember, we took a 12-day Road Trip in May!

In May!? It’s almost August now? What?! Where did the time go?

Just as a refresher, here is the route we took and our adventures up to this point:

Anatomy of a Road Trip

Stinky never felt so good.

Chips & Salsa and a side of Nap.

The Holiday Inn of Camping

Grand is a pretty good way to describe it

How do ya like them apples? They didn’t. They were confiscated.

Let’s get on with the next installment of our saga, shall we?

Where did we end off? Oh yes. “It was all we’d hoped it would be…and more.”

And it was!

We drove to California and checked into our first hotel on the 6th of May. We were there for two nights before heading down the coast to stay in another hotel on the beach for a few nights.

A hotel on the beach.

Just typing that out again makes me long for the sand and the soft breezes.

We loved California. Up to this point, there are only three places in the world (so far) that my husband and I have exchanged glances and have said, “We could live here. For real. We could totally live here.”

For those of you keeping track at home:

Where we live now, Colorado.

Santa Fe, New Mexico.

Salzburg, Austria.

Well, add San Diego, CA to the list. We would move there in a heartbeat. Granted, I’d cry buckets if I had to leave Colorado, but I think my tears could be dried by the soft ocean breezes.

Yes, it’s expensive. (But, it’s not cheap where we live now.) Yes, there are earthquakes. (Every location has it’s “thing…”) Yes, there are lots of people. And, now we know why… Because California is incredible!

On our California leg of the trip, we visited LegoLand. This was a specific request by Daddy. He said he Claire would love it. Well, he was right! My sister and brother-in-law joined us in our LegoLand adventures, and we all had a fantastic time!!

In addition to LegoLand, we visited the San Diego Zoo. What a great Zoo! When we first arrived, one of the greeters saw us looking at the posted map and suggested we take the bus tour around the Zoo (it would show us 75% of the zoo, and then we could decide where to focus our energies). At the end of the day, we took the Skyfari (gondola ride) back down across the Zoo, surveying the park from the sky, and it was an awesome end to a lovely visit.

Claire’s favorite excursion, in California and the entire trip, was “picking shells” at the beach. We could do that for hours, and did! It was so much fun to just stroll along the beach and explore. It’s a good thing we don’t live near the beach, or you might never see us again!

The memories we created and the adventures we had in California will last a lifetime. It seems rather insufficient to mention them in a few paragraphs and go on to the next stop, but that’s how it goes. Claire still raves about “picking shells” at the beach, to anyone and everyone that will listen, and it was months ago. This has really made an impression, and I love that the memories are still alive for her. The more she mentions it, the more it just seems like yesterday…and that’s a wonderful thing.

Next stop on our tour? Flagstaff, AZ. Stay tuned!

It’s time for another installment in The Great Road Trip of May 2009 Adventure Saga! It may have been in May, but it just seems like yesterday. We were gone for 12 wonderful days, and I love reliving our adventures!!

You can read about the route we took and our adventures up to this point:

Anatomy of a Road Trip

Stinky never felt so good.

Chips & Salsa and a side of Nap.

The Holiday Inn of Camping

Grand is a pretty good way to describe it

After our stay at The Grand Canyon, we headed to the next destination on our map: California! I have wanted to visit California for as long as I can remember. My husband visited as a child and has had some business trips there, but I just have never had a chance to go. Now that one of my sisters lives there, and my husband had some time-off to burn, this was the perfect excuse to go!

The drive from the canyon was going smoothly, and we switched drivers after a while. It was my turn to drive. We joked that with Momma driving, we’d get there even faster! (But, for the record, I tried to keep things somewhat on the legal side of the speedometer.)

Still, with every mile, we were getting closer to California, and we couldn’t wait!

Off in the distance, I could see a checkpoint of sorts.

“Is that Border Patrol?” I asked, excited to have reached the border…finally!

“Oh no. Our apples!” my hubby said under his breath.

“What? What about our apples?” I asked. “What does Border Patrol have to do with our apples?”

“I don’t think they’re labeled. Oh well. I forgot all about that,” he said.

“Forgot about what?” I asked, my interest piqued.

“You can’t bring unlabeled fruits or vegetables into California,” he said. “And, I think I bought the organic ones this time. There’s no way they’ll let them in…I totally forgot about that.”

“WHAT’S WRONG WITH OUR APPLES!?” Claire calls from the backseat.

“Nothing, Claire, but California has rules. We’ll just tell them about the apples, and they’ll decide what to do.”

“ARE THEY GONNA TAKE OUR APPLES!?” Claire asks, obviously concerned. She loves these apples. I love that she loves these apples.

“Probably, Claire,” Daddy says. “But, that’s okay. We’ll get more apples.”

It’s our turn, so I pull up, roll down the window and smile at the agent.

“Where are you coming from?” the agent asks politely.

“Originally, Colorado, but most recently, The Grand Canyon,” I answer.

“Do you have any fruits or vegetables in the car?”

“Actually, we do. We have some apples from Colorado in the cooler. Do you want me to pop the trunk?”

“Yes, thank you.”

“ARE THEY GONNA TAKE OUR APPLES!?” Claire yells. “HEY! ARE YOU GONNA TAKE OUR APPLES!?”

“It’s okay, Claire. Don’t yell. They’re just doing their jobs. Even if they take the apples, we’ll be fine. It’s no big deal.”

“Ooooh, five green apples. Scary!” I think to myself.

Sure enough, the five green apples had no stickers. They were promptly confiscated and thrown away. Or, maybe someone had them for lunch. I didn’t actually see them go in the trash.

We were sad to see our five little green rejected apples go, but at least the agents were nice about it. We didn’t cause a ruckus, so we were allowed to proceed to California, albeit sans apples.

As we continued into California, we turned on a highway that was stretched out through the desert, for as far as we could see. The road was undulating, curving up and down in waves and dips. It was wild to see and even crazier to drive on! You would see a car coming toward you, and it would disappear, and then reappear again, and then disappear as though swallowed by the earth. It would reappear again at the crest of another hill.

This road was like a roller coaster! Talk about a wild ride! Claire was entertained to no end, and we all had fun, as was evident by the whoas, whees, and ooooohhhhs that accompanied each dip and wave. To be honest, I was glad I was driving, because I’m not sure my stomach could have handled the ride as well from the passenger seat!

As we got closer and closer to the coast, we started to get a glimpse of the ocean. We saw our first palm tree. Our visions of what California was were turning into reality.

After a long day of driving, we made it to our hotel. More of our adventures in California were just moments away from beginning, and we couldn’t wait.