Jake had to work (as always) on Labor Day and I still wanted to take advantage of the holiday with the kids, so I decided to be adventurous and take the kids to Pismo Beach, which is only two hours away. I thought, sure it will be an easy day trip, just me and the boys. I was missing the beach and really wanted to have a fun and relaxing time. So Monday morning we ate breakfast, packed up all of our things and headed out of town. I have been to Pismo beach and surrounding beaches many times before, but not since high school and for some reason I thought it was an easy drive. Well, no Sir. I thought there was only one mountain range to pass through, but there were several. After driving along a two-way highway behind very slow trucks, I drove through mountain range after mountain range. I thought I was being sneaky by taking a shortcut near the end and it ended up being switchbacks for 45 minutes! I was so nervous the boys would get car sick as I was getting dizzy on such a swerved highway. But they actually did great the whole trip there. We had plenty of toys, books and snacks to keep them entertained. (I can't wait for the day when I have a big car with DVD players!) That is life though isn't it, when we think something will be so easy, it ends up being more difficult then we thought. And when we try to take short-cuts, it usually ends up setting us back.
When we finally arrived at the beach it was all worth it because it was the most gorgeous day! For the rest of the day I had so much fun with the boys. It was nice to have a beach day alone with them, but it was also lonely. It would have been fun to have had a friend there with me! But I'm grateful for the memory we created together. We played in the ocean, built sand castles, walked along the pier, sunbathed, ate at a great oceanfront pizza place with a live band playing and visited the aquarium! This aquarium was not very large but it was awesome because everything was hands on! For boys that is gold. They were able to pet the sharks, hold sea stars, touch sea urchins and crabs. They were in heaven. I was relieved because Jonathon was more about the aquarium then the beach and I was not sure if there was one near by.
After a fun and long afternoon at the beach we packed up, cleaned up, and were ready to head home. We waited until around 6pm to start heading out so I would miss traffic. Boy was I wrong. This was the beginning to a loooong night back home. Traffic lasted all the way through the mountains, bumper to bumper. It was sooo ridiculous. Why did everyone have to come to the beach like us, can't they stay home one labor day? ;)
While in traffic I heard a rattling noise under my car. A man honked at me, pulled over with me and said something was hanging underneath my car. The plastic undertray beneath my car that catches oil and things had ripped and was dragging. He tried to pull it off but part of it was still screwed in tightly. So he said drive slow (which wasn't a problem in traffic) and he said to beware, he was afraid it would come off and hit the person behind me. So, freaked out, I called Jake on my phone, which was almost dead (yeah... have no car cell charger) and asked him what I should do. I didn't want to pull over and call our car insurance in the dark out in the middle of no where, and by this point Caleb was crying because he was tired. So, finally after I got through the mountain ranges, about one hour from home I pulled over to the nearest gas station. By this point it's almost ten at night. The boys were asleep in their pajamas and I had to wake them up, carry them inside, and ask for help. It was an answer to our prayers that two handymen were around and after 45 minutes working underneath my car, they fixed it. I wanted to tip them but they said no (I'm sure they felt sorry for me as we probably looked distressed) so I bought them some Gatorades and and poptarts and we all sat on the curb and rested together ha-ha.
We didn't arrive home until 11 pm. I left Pismo at 6:30. So a two hour drive took us 4 1/2. Boo. I've learned my lesson not to travel alone again. It just isn't safe, to be out of town in an unfamiliar place alone, because things can happen. When we pulled up to the house Jake was sitting on the grass in our front yard. He and my mom were freaking out since no one had spoken to me for a few hours. Boy were we glad to be home and go to bed. Hope everyone else had a good labor day that wasn't so.... laborious! The end :)
Cell phone pictures of our day:
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