Saturday 4/6/2013
I’m going to start with the oldest and work my way down. As normally the newest blog post is at the top, but this way you will not have to scroll. Look at me being to thoughtful. Saturday. It was run around like you head was cut off and make sure your kid gets to the birthday party and your stuff is all packed for a fun filled adventure week. Yeah, that sort of day. I need a beer. Oh, wait I have about 4 gallons of Guinness left over from the ‘come over and drink beer party’. I should have had an after party for my party. A come over again to drink the rest 😉 Any, I’ve been making my way through the last of the keg. Not too much more – probably another 4 gallons – haahaa. Anywho, we really did have a birthday party to go to. Luckily it was a drop your kid off sort of party so I can go back home and help pack. So I dropped her off at 11 and presto change-o picked her back up at 2. When I dropped her off she had shoes. When I picked her up she had a cat face drawn on, no shoes and was eating what looked like a giant lemon bar. Anywho, the kids were all popping ballons and screaking when they popped. Good times. I tried to leave with out shoes – bad idea. Found her shoes – out back next to the giant slidey inflatable thingy – sort of like a bounce house, but a big slide instead – about 6 feet high, very impressive. Anywho, I had her pirate had, two gold coins, and a purple beaded necklace (can never have too many beads – they are like magic play toys for hours of enjoyment.) Forget the 300 dollar kitchen from the grandparents, do get yourself some beads and your kids will have a hootin good time.
Got her back home, packed up the car. Made some spare room for the dog for the drop off in Hollister (yes like the clothing place). I’m not sure why there is clothing named after a place with cows and horses but ok if that is what is cool…. After popping in Hotel Transylvania to placate the restless we found outselves fumbling for the gate code drop off out dear dog. Fiona walked around the place- no one was home. We found a nice place for the pooch, send off an email, and hoped for the best. On to the beach. Made it to Carmel around 4:45pm and went straight to the Baja Cantina. It was Pebble Beach Food and Wine weekend, so we saw all the people dressed up fancy and us in our shorts and grubby kids. Has the big margarita, one for me and one for the Fiona (on the rocks.) Who knew they had noodle at a taco place. I left the noodles on the top of the minivan on the way out of the parking lot. Some random lady was shouting and had her hands up to stop – Fiona did and the noodles shot off the roof in front of the car exploding on the street. Bummer. Those noodle had at least a stick of butter on them – kept sliding around as I tried to scoop them back into the container. Oh well, that is what we call crunchy noodles kids – hahaa.
Couldn’t get into the house. PopPop and Amah had loads of wine when I called to try and explain that I couldn’t get into the house, but we found a way. The raccoons or rats also found a way to chew a softball-sized hole through the spa cover too. As my mom said, ‘Awe Rats’. Bath for the kids, and moved have the minivan inside for our two night stay. Not a bad start to the vacation.
Sunday April 7, 2013
The little people woke up at 6:30. Poor parents – so much for sleeping in. I’m pretty sure Niamh got up at least once. It was a beautiful day. Walked to town. Pretty different walking to town without a dog. Had a mocha shake at our favorite place in our spot. An everything bagel, warm chocolate, Camomile tea, a coke, 2 brownie bits, and a chocolate croissant. Made it to town in 20 minutes. Made it back in 20 minutes too. Niamh wanted to sit in stroller on the way back from town with Lawson in her lap. Who needs a double stroller with an understanding big sis – that lasted for about 10 minutes. Lawson bit it twice on his knees, but brushed it off like a champ. Walked along the top of the beach. Made it back to the house and the kids got in the swim gear and we all went to the beach. Lawson lasted about 30 mintes. Niamh lasted for an hour. The flies where annoying, and I didn’t find the shovels. The shovels were hiding in the big aluminum box – doh. With summersaults in the sand and a wild pug who covered us with sand it was a pretty good morning. Back to the house we had cheese, fishy crackers, and carrots – that is one heck of a lunch! The day was pretty much done for me by lunch time. We watched the movie brave and then order take home food from Little Napoli. When I got back with food we where facing timing with a jetlagged Darci recently back from Paris. At out food and called Amah and PopPop to see how they were doing. Bath time was wet. Then we watched SquidGirl – a Japanese Anime which is freggin hilarious. Off to bed.
Monday April 8, 2013
Man it was windy today. Howling last night – woke up the Fiona and the Niamh. I didn’t hear a thing – slept like a bear in his cave. I’m missing my beer as the parents have work being done to the house. I’m afraid I didn’t try some scotch when I was there – oh well, next time. Another walk to town with the same order from the same coffee house – not everything bagel, but that is ok. Made it to town in 15 minutes today. Made it back with little incident. Packed up the car and by 10ish were on our way to see the uncle and auntie in San Luis.
Ah, but getting there is so much fun as we when down highway 1. Yes, Fiona does like to back up along highway 1. Oh, wait. The laswon fell asleep pretty much as soon as we started. We started off with Pirates Bands of Misfits the claymation move. It was about 120 minutes from the Carmel house to the elephant seal beach. Lawson woke up, feed him some snacks feed the other monster some snacks. We were going to reach this beach around 12:30. Perfect to have some lunch, go for a walk and take some pictures.
Lawson threw up all over himself about 10 minutes from the beach. I blame Fiona for our carsick kid. However, I’m glad it was one of them – either it was going to be Fiona or Fiona, luckily Lawson saved Fiona from being the person who got car sick and now is the king of car sickness. Needless to say I lost my appetite, and when we arrive spent about 10 minutes taking apart the car seat, and luckily had taken a roll of paper towels with us. Changed Lawson into some new clothes, and set off into the 20 mph wind to look at the seals. There where no male seals. So sad.
We set off again around 1:30ish with Aladdin playing. We stopped at the next gas station for the Fiona and to pick up some munchies and to get rid of the stinky stuff. Sour cream Pringles did the trick along with some fishy crackers. We arrive in San Luis with a very stinky car to the Hampton Inn around 3pm. Fiona set off the clean off the car seat, do some laundry, and I took the smelly wound of kids to the pool. 30 minutes of swimming did the trick. Fiona cleaned up the seat, and took a bath to wash off all the chorine. Back in the van at 4:30ish and started Wreck it Ralph as we drove to a local pizza place, Klondike Pizza. Lawson proceeded to try and eat the outside of a peanut and decided to vomit again for a second time on the table. Poor kid. Nothing a few beers wouldn’t clear up – for me, not for Lawson. I figured I would help him anyway I could and the best way is with me drinking beer. The pizza was good. I bought the drink and the Cheryl/Iain got the pizza.
We are all stuffed into one room on the 1st floor – which is 3rd floor below the lobby since we are on a giant hill. The bed is ok. The Lawson is in a pack-in-play against the door into the room. The Niamhster is on the fold out couch which we didn’t fold out, and the Fiona is snoring away. Off the see the Cheryl and Iain’s place tomorrow and then hopefully more movies and less puke…ah, that would be nice. haahaa
Tuesday April 9, 2013
Got out of the hotel and into the car. The luggage thingy squeaking by the doors and maid carts. The car seat still stinks, but at least the pads are clean. Man there are a lot of loops to put back the pads on this couch for kids to sit in a car… We make out way to Santa Barbara, and stop at McDonalds. We have our regular meal – a cheeseburger meal with largest drink and fries, and a 10-piece chicken with BBQ sauce. We didn’t want to be early to the hotel so went down to state street with the help of Fiona’s malldar. However, I managed to put in an address to the funky little shops so we could get our dear daughter a sweatshirt. We walked around for about 2 hours and visited many shops. We picked up a toy to Lawson, a little caterpillar that moves when you push it down, a blue sweatshirt size 6 for Niamg, and a swimsuit, size 4, that looks like a disco ball. Back in the car and hit some really bad traffic at 3 when we got into LA area. We blow through 2 more movies from Santa Barbara to the Residence Inn. We arrive to the hotel and are on the 5th floor. There is something that sounds like a jet engine in our master room and the master bath leaks. However the room itself, the layout is awesome. Bunk beads for the kids with ensuite bath, a full size fridge, microwave, and kitchen den area, and master bed with ensuite bath. We over look the pool area. The location is good too. The reviews say about a mile from the park, and across the street is a target on one corner, and the other food places. We visit the Outback Steakhouse. I have a big beer, a 22 ounce Sam Adams. I then eat like a pig – a bloomin onion, 5 ounce fillet, wedge salad. I’m stuffed. We stick the kids in the same room – Lawson in a pack in play and Niamh on the top bunk. Lawson can’t help himself from climbing up to the top bunk, also he can by himself climb into the bath. Found him playing happily in the bath fully clothed ready for this bath. I used a coffee mug to rinse them off. People go to bed, I go down and tell the front desk about the leaky toilet, and first class plane accommodations. They agree to move us to a new room if we pack up our stuff. Otherwise, we have to come back from the park at 1pm and move our stuff. No thank you.
Wednesday April 10, 2013
What a crappy night sleept. At least the place had black out blinds. Kids got up at 6:30am. That is early for vacation. Oh well. Waffles and orange juice for breakfast. Out the door at 8:30am to the park. It is 1.4 miles from the hotel to the corner of the park. We proceed to walk about 8 miles for the day in total. I can’t do the exact number as my watch died, but it was a lot of sun and walking. I don’t remember this as a kid, but man there are a lot of people at this place. We get to the park about 9:15, the check out bags, they take out picture at the gate and we are in. I go to California Adventure and have no clue where or what to look at as there is just too much to look at once. We see a huge line for the fast pass for the cars ride. We skip and go check out the wait time – 90 minutes. Wow, guess we had better get out fast pass on. So on the way back Naimh and I do the leaning tire ride. Fiona and Lawson do a balloon ride. On the way back to the fast pass Lawson is really into the bugs at bugs life so the kids and Fiona go into the 9 minute movie and I go into the FP (Fast Pass) line. I’m through the line in 4 minutes, and the movie has not even started yet. However, I screwed up – we need the plastic tickets to print out the FP tickets with a time on when to get back to the ride – DOH! So I hussle down to the movie, and manage to find Fiona and kids. I explain the problem. The movie starts – I’m blind. I stumble and run into benches, walls but luckly no kids as it didn’t seem that crowded. I made my way back out and bingo – have have tickets for 5:55pm to 6:55pm. Hum, that is late, but what the heck we are on vacation! Fiona comes out with the kids. They are screaming and crying – there is a reason it is not packed with kids – apparently it scares them. Bummer. Off to find a calm ride. Ariel is calm right? No. Lawson didn’t think this ride was too hot either, but Niamh loved it. Hummm. Need a calm ride. How about a Ferris Wheel? Oh the way we see Woody and Niamh is too shy to get a photo with him. Laswon loved it! Score one for Lawson! .
I get in line with the swinging baskets ferris wheel, and expect Fiona to get in line for non-swinging. Turns out that we have an appointment at 11:30 for Ariel’s Grotto – we are in line at 11am, and there is a 20 minute wait. We almost make it to the front of the ride, but the ride itself seems like it takes to long. I call it and head back to find Fiona still with Lawson at the stollers – she opted to not get on due to ‘motion sickness’. We have already had plenty of this so see no problem with anyone else on the trip getting sick. Had crappy noodles, yummy olives, cheese, salad, and loads of desert., and nice red beer Oh, Niamh just had a chocolate mini cupcake as she was too overwhelmed with the 5 princesses – Ariel, Snow White, Jasmine, Tiani, and Belle – to actually eat anything.
Then we do some other rides – some chair thing that goes up and down, another chair thing that goes in circles. We made it back to Ferris Wheel, which is pretty good I have to say as the swinging baskets are really a lot of fun. Niamh was scared and laughing at the same time. WE hit up a 3D Toy Story game that was a lot pretty good too. We hit up a carousel ride that Lawson really liked. Back to Bugs for a some flea bumper cars, and a ladybug spin ride – Niamh like driving the bumper bar, and both kids loved the ladybug ride. I managed to sneak onto the cars ride with Naimh at 5:55, and she was scared, but we went really fast too which made up for the scary bits. Fiona was supposed to get on too, but the ride broke – oh dear. We ended the day with Disney Junior Theater (a hit), a Monsters Inc ride (ok), and a parade of all the different themes of the park. Oh our way out we get pictures with Maynard the Tow Truck from Cars. We make out way back to the hotel and it late. The kids are in bed at 9, and we get Red Robin – split a burget and salad. I had a sundae 😉 We are in bed by 10:30. Oh, we moved to the 6th floor and look at the Hitlon Garden Inn, joy.
Thursday April 10, 2013
A much better night. We get out the door a bit later, and don’t move as fast. We go to the main bit of the park. Wow there are just as many people here today again. We spot Alice and the Mad Hatter at the front of the park. Just inside we sit down with Mary Poppins who gives Naimh some good advice about listening, and give Pluto a big hug too. Here is the infamous castle. It seemed smaller than what I remember, but then again what I remember is not very good and probably mashed up with all the Disney movies that I’ve seen. Anyway, it is nice and we take a picture in front of it! Off to a Dumbo ride (Niamh’s favorite??? – or so she says.). We do another carousel and Lawson love this one even more than last time! A live Tangled theater play is put on, and we see it from afar as we got to it 10 minutes before it started and there was no place for us inside – so we watched just out side, which was just as good. We do the very scary pirate ride. Lawson didn’t mind, but Niamh was shaking. I assured her no pirates where going to get into our boat – I was right. It was a really good ride – probably have to be 8 or 10 I guess? We have lunch at some a steamboat place – I had a BBQ pork sandwich, Fiona a tasteless salad. Noodles for the kiddies. After lunch Niamh got to do some spins with Rapunzel and play a bit of thumb war too with her. Very cool for her – as Lawson slept in the cart. Off the Madder Horn, which Niamh didn’t like at all. Oh well. We went to another ride in toontown which was more her speed – Go Coaster with Fiona. She liked it much better. Saw the house of Minni Mouse and got a picture too. Lawson woke up so we went to Small World, and stopped to see Merida first. I don’t remember small world but both kids loved it – so imagine we will go it again tomorrow. Headed back to drive some cars at the Autopia. Lawson drove my car, and Niamh Fiona’s. Lawson loved it so much he had a death grip on the wheel and didn’t want to leave the car. Screamed for 5 minutes after the ride was over. Poor lad. There is some star wars stuff that the kids wouldn’t get, but hope to get them into it when they are a bit older. We did an older toy story ride with lazers that was not as good as the 3D one. I would pick the 3D one over this one. On our way out of the park we saw Mickey Mouse which Lawson didn’t understand and Niamh gave a big hug which was nice. We ended the day with a picture of the family with the main sign and flowers in the back ground! We walked back and had some Bucca De Bepo – a cocktail and bass for me, some pizza, and a bit of vanilla ice cream to end the meal. I’ve loaded up the pictures, took a shower, and have taken my advil, so am ready for bed.