April's Life Adventures

Wednesday, July 12, 2006

Continuing on our Journey

July 2 Day 4
We awoke early as usual and hurried to get dressed and jump into the car. Waving goodbye to our friends, we headed down to my Brother's house for a few days. My girls were anxious to play with their cousins, and especially excited to go to church with them! "You mean, I get to go to class with my cousin?!" After church, the kids all played together while my Brother and Sister-in-Law made us a fantastic dinner. This crazy good spicy chicken...mmmmm...

July 3 Day 5
My poor brother had to work on Monday, so we headed off to an adventure without him. His family purchased season passes to the Monterey Bay Aquarium. They also had a couple of guest passes, so we ended up only paying for the kids... yay for discounts! It was actually pretty difficult to hang on to our kids, as they are rarely in a crowd of that size. The cousins showed us around and we were able to see all of the amazing things there. And I swear that they knew the names of every single fish! We touched sting rays, we handled star fish, we saw sharks... We only left the aquarium for lunch, which was at this fantastic Mexican restaurant that was right on the water! Our table had these monster windows that the kids could look out of while we waited for our food. It was really fun to hear them squeal when they would find a sea lion in the water.

When we had visited every single aquarium attraction, and our feet were well worn out, we hopped back into the car after hugging our cousins good bye and started the drive over to fishermen's wharf in Monterey. There was a little traffic backed up to get through this smallish tunnel (it fit about 25 cars), which was built out of tile and concrete, so it was one that had a very nice echo. We opened up the sun roof to make it more fun for the kids, then bleeped the horn. We were bumper to bumper in there, still moving, but slowly. As we meeped along, other cars also began honking. M and L laughed so hard as every single car started honking because Daddy did. As we emerged from the tunnel, they asked if we could go back in.

A little while later, we arrived on Fisherman's wharf where we found pizza by the slice for me and the kids, and a very large sour dough breadbowl with clam chowder for Sultry Husband. We all tasted it and M actually seemed to like the taste... Silly girl! Then we went into my all time favorite store. One of the candy shops on the wharf actually has a taffy pulling machine and makes it's own candy! The girls each got to pick out something that they would like (L insisted on getting gummy sharks because we saw some sharks... M chose some sour fruits). My all time favorite? Caramel apples. There is just something about the tartness of the green apple inside that mixes so well with the sticky sweet of the outside. They have improved upon this carnival classic however, for they first dip the apple in caramel, then chocolate, then roll it in mini M'n'M's. The only thing better would be if they had dipped it in Canadian chocolate and then rolled it in Canadian smarties, but this was tasty just the same.

We finally climbed back into our car and started on our long journey for the night at about 7:30 pm. Which to us was actually 8:30 pm... Not a good omen. We drove and drove, the original plan was to get halfway to Utah by the time we stopped, but we only made it about a third of the way before we looked at the clock and it said 3 am. It was time again to find a small motel in a small town. Lovelock Nevada seems to have many charms, but the best of all was a clean room, with a very comfortable bed, and get this, a clean shower! I knew that the birthplace of my Grandfather would take care of me! It was a total accident that we stopped there!

July 4 Day 6
We awoke around 8. Thankfully, the girls had switched to California time while we were there and they let us sleep. SH was totally exhausted from the drive the night before (I slept for a few hours on the drive), so it was my turn to take the wheel. He napped for a few hours while I kept shushing the kids. We were trying to make it to Evanston Wy by nightfall so we could see some awesome fireworks, but somewhere along the road, we changed our plans. We would go no farther than my parents house (they are not there right now, but my sister is living there while they are gone). We surprised her, as I had forgotten to call and tell her of the change of plans. She still seemed happy to see us, and we all went to bed early without even missing the fireworks. There is just something about driving all day that makes you more tired than you were before. We fell into a blissful sleep in a very comfortable bed with clean sheets... See, I am learning to be less picky as we go! No really, it is a great bed, and a familiar place as I grew up there.

As usual, this has gotten away from me again... Way too long for a blog post! I will continue again tomorrow. For now, I am exhausted just remembering how exhausted I was!

Posted by April_Mommy :: 8:46 AM :: 5 comments