Day # 37 - Las Vegas

We got up and ready relatively quickly given our late night out. We were headed for the Lied Childrens' Museum and wanted to get there shortly after it opened to avoid a weekend crowd. We arrived around 10:30 and were disappointed to discover that their hours had changed and they didn’t open until 12:00. Bummer! This was our second major disappointment in as many days!
The fortunate thing is that the museum is connected to a fabulous public library and the kids enjoyed playing and reading in the children’s section (there were numerous puzzles and other things to keep them occupied). There were several other families that we met who had also been surprised by the opening time! The children’s librarian was very sweet. She let the kids all record the books that they were reading in their local “summer readers” program and then collect some small prizes for their efforts.
We made it down stairs to the museum as it was opening. Since we are Cincinnati Museum Center members, we were admitted free here as well (you know how much I love free!). While it was a really nice facility (I know I will sound jaded when I say this) and it is rated as one of the best Childrens museums in the country, it didn’t hold a candle to the Exploratorium in San Francisco. But the kids enjoyed themselves at the museum anyway and there was plenty of hands-on excitement to keep them busy. The highlight of the day was the” grossology” exhibit. We played a life-sized version of the game operation using salad tongs and rubber bones and organs. AJ loved making it buzz! The girls were thrilled to learn about snot and how to make a person barf. Tony couldn’t resist making the display robot burp over and over and over again- who doesn’t like a good burp or fart joke? In the nature section the girls thought the wind tunnel was cool and they stood in the tube and felt hurricane force winds. They had some really nice hair afterwards! There were several interactive craft stations the kids liked along the way and they all had their faces painted before we left.

We went back to the camper for lunch and to put the kids down for a nap. Nana graciously offered to hang out at the camper during naps so that Tony and I could enjoy a little break at the casino. We had planned to go out to dinner one night instead, but decided we would rather spend the evenings showing the kids the sights. So we headed out with my birthday money in tow to play the slots and enjoy an adult beverage or two. I am too cheap to gamble real money and I prefer to not have to really think about my gambling, so that is why I stick to the slots. So after, Tony and I enjoyed a couple of $2 hot dogs and several beers, we hit the gaming floor of Circus Circus. We were surprised that you could no longer actually feed quarters into the machines. They now conveniently take bills and accept credit cards – yikes! We were still able to actually pull the levers of the slot machines though. When you cash out now, you receive a ticket that you can swipe into another machine or take to the cashier. How sad is it that you cannot hear the sounds of your winnings being dispensed in little clang clangs anymore? Anyway we amused ourselves for a couple of hours and when I won $50 we stopped and cashed out. We didn’t really come out that far ahead after what we put in, but we had a little fun for a few hours.

We headed back to the camper to collect Alice and the kids. We decided to take in the pirate show at Treasure Island (or TI as it is now called). In the interest of time, we decided to take a taxi there. Since there are 6 of us and standard taxis can only take 5 passengers by Nevada law, we have to take 2 cabs. One of the things about Vegas is there are always limo companies and guys with 15 passenger vans that will shuttle you betwen casinos for a few bucks a person. A gentleman in a very nice tricked out Escalade offered to take us to TI us so we jumped at the chance. The girls thought this was huge fun. As Nellie (?) played in the background, Sarah was jammin’ out and acting like she could rap along. She said she was “rollin’ with her homies” (she has been watching entirely too many Disney “Buddies” movies and has started talking like B Dog.)

We arrived at TI in no time and in style. Tony had wanted to go to a nice buffet while we were in Vegas and the one at Treasure Island is excellent. The Prime Rib, Crab Legs, and made-to-order pasta; was all excellent. I enjoyed some very good peel-and-eat shrimp and Tony ventured to the asian and mexian areas for some good pad thai and tamales. It was a fair bit more expensive than the one at Circus Circus, but the quality was also much higher. The highlight of the meal though had to be the desert station. In addition to many yummy looking choices they were spinning fresh cotton candy! The kids were beside themselves.

After our sugar buzz, we headed out to grab a spot for the show. It gets very crowded for the shows (that run every 90 minutes) and the sidewalks are actually impassible while the performances are going on. We found a good spot on one of the viewing platforms and waited while the "powers that be" decided whether or not the show could go on as it had gotten a bit windy. They gave the go ahead for the performance and the show was excellent. A little risqué maybe, but hey this is Vegas. The pyrotechnics we incredible and the kids couldn’t believe they actually sunk a ship. Sarah thought it was way cool that the girls (sirens) won the battle with the boys (pirates). We waited for the crowd to disperse a little and decided since we were so close that we would walk up the strip to the Mirage and watch the volcano erupt. We arrived and caught the tail end of the show so we waited 45 minutes for the next one. As we were waiting yet again for another Vegas attraction it occurred to us that we were tired of waiting. So much of our trip thus far has been about us going out and experiencing things that are there. In Vegas, we had to hurry up and wait for the next attraction. We were looking forward to getting back to the attractions being the wonder of nature. The volcano is a fun experience with Polynesian music and more pyrotechnics, so the kids really liked it too. We grabbed a few additional bottles of water and headed over to the taxi stand to get a ride home. We decided since it was getting late to divide up and take 2 taxis back. We once again arrived back to the camper after 10:30. We are planning on staying close to home tomorrow so we can hopefully get a little extra rest.

Day # 36 - Las Vegas

Vegas Baby! We decided to spend our first day visiting Hoover Dam. This was something that Tony was really looking forward too. We got up relatively early and grabbed a bite to eat before heading out of the Circus Circus Campground/parking lot. We had a few housekeeping errands to run, so we took the opportunity to take care of things away from the strip.

When we got to the dam and pulled over at the security check point, we were asked to open our car top luggage carrier. Our small problem was that the keys were back in Vegas in the camper – oops! We were told we couldn’t cross the Dam unless we could open the carrier. We were pretty frustrated. Nowhere in all of the information that we read on the dam did it mention that our vehicle was subject to a search before crossing the dam. We turned around and headed back to Vegas. I was mad, but not at the rangers doing their jobs, I was mad that I now have to live in a country where being free isn’t really free. It was just another reminder of how our lives have changed since 9/11.

Fortunately, Vegas isn’t far from the dam. We decided that we would save the dam visit for our travel day to the Grand Canyon. We will have to come back through the area when we move, so it made more sense than coming back out today. Since we gained a few extra hours to use in Vegas, we decided to cruise the strip and check out the sights. It has been over 10 years since Tony and I were in Sin City, so a lot has changed. The kids (and Nana who was making her first visit to Vegas) couldn’t believe all of the glitz and couldn’t get over the sheer size of the casinos. We pointed out a few of the highlights that we were planning on doing while we were there. Then we headed back to the camper for lunch and naps.

The weather in Vegas is hot, hot, hot. The temp was 107 today! The downside to camping in a hybrid trailer when it is very hot outside is that the camper’s AC can only cool the camper 20 to 25 degrees below the outside temp. It was still 85 degrees in the camper. It’s cooler than outside, but not particularly refreshing.

In planning our first evening in Vegas, we decided to plan a little surprise for AJ’s 3rd birthday. Since he had been so focused on seeing the animals at the Rainforest Café’ when we were in San Francisco, we thought we would take him there for dinner tonight. There is one in the MGM Grand and we called and made a reservation. We told the girls not to say anything to AJ so that it would be a surprise. They had fun making up silly code names for the name of the restaurant so he wouldn’t know where we were going. Vegas, in an attempt to go green put in a monorail system. We decided we would check it out. Circus Circus is at the North end of the strip and MGM is at the south. We thought it would be more fun than taking a taxi. We still had to hike to the Sahara to pick up the train. Having your kids with you in Vegas is an interesting experience. There were numerous families there, yet if you have ever been there you know Vegas is not what I would call kid friendly on the surface. Since the casinos are looking for ways to separate you from your money, they are fraught with stores and restaurants and any gimmick or side show they can come up with to succeed in taking your hard earned cash. Since you can’t legally step foot onto a casino floor if you are under 21, navigating your way through these monsters with kids is interesting. You can walk through the casino, but you must stay in the aisle and you must not stop. You have to keep walking. That sounds easy enough to do unless you have a very inquisitive 3 year old who loves pushing buttons and things that light up. Wrangling him past the slots was no easy task.

We made it onto the monorail and enjoyed the cool ride down to MGM. The Vegas train was very different from the trains in the other major cities we have traveled. In New York, Washington DC and Chicago the trains are a whole different ball game. They are primarily commuter trains and the locals want no part of having “noodle head” tourists in their way. Anyone who has ever ridden an express train in Midtown Manhattan at 5PM will understand this completely. The Vegas monorail was a lot more relaxed and laid back and felt as if it ran at a slower pace. With all of the walking through the casinos and the time spent on the train it took us over an hour to get to the restaurant! We got a chance to check out MGM’s lion habitat along the way. AJ was very excited to have dinner at the Rainforest Café’. He kept saying “Dis AJ’s party.” We enjoyed our dinner and the shows and splurged on a chocolate lava cake for desert. AJ wanted no part of the cake (yum – more for Mommy!) as he was too interested in opening his presents. We had picked up a few small things for him to open while we were on the road.

After dinner, we decided to head out and check out the strip at night. We enjoyed New York, New York and seeing the replica Statue of Liberty and Brooklyn Bridge. We went over to the Bellagio to check out their amazing fountains. They go off every 15 minutes and we stayed for a couple of performances. It was getting pretty late and it was still pretty hot (98 degrees) so we headed for the nearest Monorail stop to head back to the camper. We were pretty hot and tired and hit the sheets as soon as we got back to the camper. It was after 11:00 local time and the kids were troopers! We are looking forward to taking the kids to the Lied Children’s Museum tomorrow

Day # 35 - Calico Ghost Town

Travel days suck. But this one sucked a little less than normal. Abby had been asking for a while to visit a “ghost Town” during our trip. I am not sure what she expected to see. I think my kids are watching too many Scooby Doo videos, but since we were going to go past one of the better Ghost towns today on our way from Bakersfield, CA to Las Vegas, NV, Missy and I decided to stop for a couple of hours and check it out.
The name is Calico Ghost Town and it is right off the interstate just north of Barstow, CA. Calico was settled in 1881 and was home to productive Silver mine. In its heyday it was home to 1,200 people and had 22 saloons – sounds like my kind of town! We paid our 15 bucks and headed up the hill to check out the town. AJ kept telling us he was looking for “spooky goats.” The town itself contains a large number of original buildings and the rest of the buildings were restored in the 50’s by Walter Knott (of Knott’s Berry Farm Fame). He later donated the land to the county for use as a park. The town was interesting but not that exciting. So Missy and I liked it, but the kids were a little bored. There were shops and historical markers but the kids were hot and tired (it was 102 degrees in Calico when we arrived). The one thing that we all really enjoyed was taking a tour of Maggie’s Mine. You can enter one of the shafts and explore a short distance down some of the tunnels. The kids thought it was pretty cool and we liked it too (partly because it was a cool 72 degrees inside). Overall, Calico had several good photo ops, and it was a good way to get out of the car for a few hours to stretch your legs, but I wouldn’t make a special trip.

We found the requisite penny smashing machine and made our pennies before heading back to the car. I wanted to gas up before heading through Death Valley. We paid the highest price yet for gas at 3.34 a gallon. I will be glad to get out of California. We worked our way through the desert and up the mountains towards Las Vegas. There were signs all along the highway warning travelers of the perils of driving through the desert and how to avoid overheating your vehicle. We climbed some pretty steep grades and the temps were over 100 degrees again. I kept my eyes on our gauges and tried to keep the truck in 4th gear. Our 2004 Ford Excursion has performed flawlessly during this trip and it was a workhorse again today.

I was getting a little tired and asked Missy if she could drive for a little while. She had commented a couple of days ago that she had not driven a single mile while we have been in California (and she was happy about that!) so I figured she could deal with the last 50 miles of Cali Freeway. I slept for about an hour and when I awoke, Missy informed me that while I snored, she had the privilege of towing through the only construction we’ve seen in days and down the steep 7% downgrade. Oopps.

We switched and I took us into Vegas during some heavy Friday evening traffic. We are staying at the Circus Circus KOA. We were trying to warn the kids that this part of the trip would be very different kind of camping than all of the picturesque natural parks we have visited so far. The campground was exactly what we expected – it was basically a huge parking lot in back of the casino (over 500 RV sights) with hook-ups. There wasn’t a blade of grass in sight. Sarah our jaded camper commented, “We’re camping on that?” We got ourselves checked in and tried to acclimate ourselves to the 108 degree heat. If one more person tells me it’s a dry heat, I might have to punch them. When you can fry eggs and bacon on the sidewalk that is hot! We were hot and tired so we headed over to the Circus Circus casino to grab a bite at the buffet while we waited for My Mom's plane to get in and for her to catch the hotel shuttle. She is staying in one of the rooms at the casino.

Her shuttle was delayed so we chose to watch some of the Circus acts in the Casino “Midway”. The first act we saw was a juggler who juggled 7 tennis balls at once while walking up a flight of stairs. AJ thought that was fantastic. The second act was a girl who could bend and twist her body in some very unusual ways. We all enjoyed the acts and although they go on all night, we were all getting tired.

One last call to Mom’s cell phone and we discovered she had arrived and just gotten to her room. The kids had been looking forward to seeing their “Nana” so she met in the lobby so they could see her before heading off to the camper for bed. After hugs and kisses all around we went back to the camper. I was beat. I am not sure what zapped everyone’s energy faster, the long drive or arriving to the unreal heat of Vegas in summer. Either way we all fell into bed and were out in minutes.

Day # 34 - Bakersfield, CA

Travel day! I left my heart in San Francisco (and the beautiful weather too). The trip from Petaluma to Bakersfield was extremely hot and uninspiring. We had wanted to get an early start to beat the crazy drivers out of town, but unfortunately I reversed the am/pm on the alarm clock when I reset it after the power issues so we didn’t get quite the start we wanted.

It didn’t take long on the highway in San Francisco's morning rush-hour for Tony to decide to stop for breakfast to let the traffic thin. We found an old fashioned IHOP and grabbed a bite then just to be sure the rush hour traffic had past, we stopped at a Safeway for Ice and Milk.

The scenery on the drive wasn’t much to look at. Everything was extremely dry and barren looking. With the heat, winds and dry plants, I could clearly see why California has such a wildfire problem. Then there are stretches with huge agricultural farms (using A LOT of irrigation) and it was a little interesting to see such a wide variety of things being grown.

Driving through the Midwest you see mostly corn or soy beans. We saw orange groves, grapes, figs, olives, carrots and pistachio farms. Our favorite was the sunflower fields. Miles and miles of happy little sunflower faces smiling at us. We passed many trucks full of local crops. When we stopped for gas, we noticed a fruit stand and went over to see if they had anything that looked good. We picked up some fresh fruit and nuts and had a yummy snack.

We made pretty good time and we got to Bakersfield early enough for a trip to the local Camping World for some RV supplies and a couple of new reclining camp chairs. Neither Tony nor I wanted to cook, so we found a Little Caesar’s Pizza and grabbed some Pizza, Pizza and crazy bread then headed back to the campground for dinner and a quick dip in the pool before bed.

We’re headed to Vegas tomorrow and we’ll meet up with Tony’s mom who is flying in to join us for a few days in Sin City before before we all head to the Grand Canyon.

Day # 33 - San Francisco, CA

We had decided to spend our last day in the city checking out Golden Gate Park. It was an absolutely beautiful day! Before we headed into San Francisco, we had promised the girls that we would go to the petting zoo at the campground first. It was not quite as big as the campground we stayed at when visiting Yosemite, but the kids were still excited to play with the goats. There were 5 baby goats that were very friendly and they let the kids pick them up and hold them. Sarah was really into holding them. Abby wanted to hold a baby goat too, but found them just too wiggly for her liking. AJ of course wants to do anything his sisters do so he actually sat still long enough to hold a baby goat.

After we got washed up, we headed into the city. The kid’s voted for checking out the playground first. The park also contains an awesome carousel as well, so we decided ride the carousel first before playing on the playground. The carousel ride was a bargain at $5 for the whole family. I don’t care how old I am, I think I will always enjoy them! AJ was very excited during the ride and kept bouncing and saying “I ride a horsey” over and over. I thought he was going to fall off. We checked out the playground next. It was a lot of fun. There was a mini playground for toddlers and a much larger series of climbing equipment for the bigger kids. The coolest thing they had was a cement slide cut into the side of a hill that kids were flying down while sitting on pieces of cardboard. It looked like a lot of fun and Abby was anxious to try it out. There was a stack of extra cardboard sitting at the bottom, so Tony took her up to the top of the hill and helped her get started coming down. Sarah joined in on the fun too. Abby must have gone up and down 20 times. A large group of kids had gathered at the top of the hill and it was starting to get a little rowdy (as kids can get when too many of them do not have parental supervision). Tony had just said to me that he didn’t want Abby to go back up unless he went back up too. He was trailing her up to the top when, sure enough, she fell (Abby says a bigger kids pushed her, but Tony didn’t see it) and scraped up her forehead and nose pretty good. Tony felt awful that she fell. To make matters worse, when Tony reached the top of the slide, there was a gentleman standing there laughing. Tony whirled on him and asked him if he thought it was funny that a little girl fell and was crying and the man backed down real quick and apologized. I was glad I didn’t have to bail Tony out of the park jail for beating down a punk dad at the playground.

Needless to say that cut our trip to the park short. Fortunately, no permanent damage was done but Abby does have a nice big bruise in the middle of her forehead. We walked back to our car and headed over to the wharf for lunch and another loaf of yummy bread. The kids were campaigning hard for lunch at the “Rain Forest Café”. We compromised by letting them walk through the store to look at the fish and fake animals and then going to McDonalds. We took their lunch to go and scored an outside table at Boudin Bakery across the street and Tony and I enjoyed another bowl of clam chowder and yummy sourdough for lunch. After lunch we stopped so everyone could make one last “smash penny” in the city. Sarah was fascinated by Alcatraz and really wanted to take the boat ride out there, but with our time constraints and AJ to look after, it just didn’t happen. She was satisfied making an Alcatraz smash penny.

Before getting in our car for a closer at the Golden Gate Bridge, we stopped off at the Museo’ Mechanique. The Museum houses about 2,000 arcade games from the past century. It was amazing to see some of these old arcade games still working. The girls enjoyed making Peppy the clown dance and I liked watching the huge mechanical displays come to life for a quarter. You could also enjoy a more modern game of Pac Man or try your hand at skee-ball. After our quarters were gone, we packed it in and headed out of town. Abby still wanted to see the bridge so we stopped off at Fort Point. Of course AJ fell asleep again and we took turns checking out the scenery from the old battery that protected the inlet to the bay.
After a few pictures of the bridge we headed back to the campground to get ready to break camp for our move to Vegas, baby!

We had a bit of a scare when we returned to the campground. We had no power in the camper. Tony checked the post and reset the breakers and nothing in the camper worked. We knew the post had power because the extension cord plugged into the 15-amp outlet running our awning light worked fine but the camper plugs into a 30-amp outlet (think a plug like on an electric clothes dryer in your home) and nothing was working . We tried plugging the camper into the 30-amp outlet on the power post from the empty site next to ours and still had nothing. We were beginning to worry that there had been a brown out while we were gone and that it had fried the power converter (that Tony recently replaced) in the camper that runs all the electrical stuff in the WHOLE camper. We couldn’t imagine desert heat with no power! My handy husband grabbed the Multi-meter he picked up from Harbor Freight and decided to check the power post with the meter. Sure enough the 30 amp breaker in the post was dead and that is why the outlet had no power, it was NOT our power converter. We breathed a sigh of relief and I took the kids to the playground while Tony went to the office to see what could be done about getting the breaker replaced. The kids and I played for a while then took the nightly hayride around the campground. Upon returning back to the camper, Tony had heard from the office that there was no one who could fix the breaker for tonight and the best solution they could offer us was to move to a new site. This was not appealing since we were leaving in the morning anyway. Tony used his cheater plug to plug the campers 30-amp plug into the working 15-amp outlet to give us some power to run the lights/TV for the night so we decided to stay put (you don’t need AC at night in the Bay Area so using the cheater worked for the night). For our trouble, the night manager brought us a bottle of wine to say they were sorry. That brings our wine total to 13 bottles. I don’t think I have ever had so many bottles of wine in my possession at one time – There is nothing wrong with that. We got the kids packed up and ready for bed. We want to try to pull out early in the morning to beat rush hour traffic out of town. San Fran in rush hour pulling a camper = no fun.

Day # 32 - San Francisco, CA

Busy Day! We managed to get everyone up and out the door early this morning! We grabbed a bagel at McDonald’s on our way into town. We arrived at the Exploratorium just before it opened for the day. The ample free parking was a plus in addition to the free admission because we are members of the Cincinnati Museum Center. We are big fans of free! The Exploratorium was amazing! It was like a trip to COSI, only better! There were hundreds of hands on experiments and activities that had not only the kids completely engaged, but the adults as well. It is always a lot of fun to go into a “museum” where everything is meant to be touched and experimented with. The Exploratorium was divided into several different areas to explore. We began in the World of Matter. All of the displays explain some fundamental physical properties that make our world work. A couple of the displays used water. Water is always a big hit with AJ and I had to grab him to keep him from climbing into one of the exhibits. One of them that he really liked was a fountain with different shaped objects that you could place on the spout to make the water come out in different forms. There was another that used a stream of soapy water and allowed the kids to put objects in the water’s path and actually see how the objects affected the current. Then there was the bubble table. Sarah got a huge kick out of making 4 foot wide bubbles. There were sections devoted to color and sight, and another to sound and listening. Abby loved creating her own music. There was the mechanical area with the pendulums and there was also an electricity section. Well…there was far too much to see to describe in this blog. The kids were totally enthralled with the exhibits but also ran from exhibit to exhibit to try and take everything in! After 3 hours the place was starting to get crowded and it became harder and harder to try to keep track of 3 kids going in 3 different directions.

So we decided to head out and work our way over to Fisherman’s Wharf to hop on a cable car for the Powel & Hyde line at the turn around. We were lucky to find reasonable (well, reasonable for downtown San Francisco) parking and we headed over to the cable cars. We only had to wait about 20 minutes to hop on. While we waited, the girls enjoyed watching them turn the trolleys around by hand. Sarah just couldn’t believe that 2 men could turn around a trolley! Once on board, AJ was beside himself. After each stop he would call out “here we go” to us. This was my first ride on a cable car! The hills in San Francisco are legendary and I couldn’t believe the brakes on those old cable cars just didn’t give way and take us all careening down a hill!

We hopped off the trolley 2 blocks from China Town for a little sightseeing and to grab some lunch. We were a little disappointed that the restaurant we wanted to eat at closes completely for 2 hours between lunch and dinner. We were looking forward to some good Dim Sum. Obviously, it wasn’t too hard to find another Chinese restaurant nearby! Lunch itself was an interesting experience. Sarah loves to go to Chinese restaurants to eat plain white rice. Little miss picky loves plain everything, especially rice. She talks about “Chinese rice” as if it is a delicacy. It makes us laugh! Abby hates Chinese food (well she thinks she does because we can’t ever get her to try it!). When making plans for our day, all we heard from her was that she didn’t want to eat Chinatown! Tony headed off her hungry grumpies with a hot dog from a street vendor before we hopped on the trolley. We did order some plain lo-mein noodles for her and were pleasantly surprised when she tried them and liked them! Sarah did try some sweet and sour chicken. She was NOT impressed. AJ responded to all offers of food with a polite “no fank you” and happily played with his chop sticks the whole time. As Tony was paying the check and we were gathering up our things to leave, in walked a woman with a heavy New York accent. She walked over to one of the waitresses (who was Chinese) and asked where Chinatown was. Even Sarah let out a big laugh on that one. The waitress was very patient and just pointed out the window and said “out there.” All I could say was “wow!” After lunch we were on a mission to find The Golden Gate Fortune Cookie Bakery. It is located on an alley in Chinatown. Alleys are not on conventional city maps. As we were strolling down a street, I happened to look down and noticed a brass plaque on the sidewalk that was a map of Chinatown’s alleys. Fortunately for us (ha ha) we found the bakery and were fascinated to watch the cookies being made. We picked up a fresh bag of cookies to bring back with us. As we were wandering around Chinatown, we encountered a “man” coming out of a retro furniture store. His leather vest, flamboyant hair, tattoos and piercings were not his most unusual accessory – it was the ball python he had wrapped around his arm. He happily introduced our family to his girl Cleo – you know Cleopatra. Sarah, seemingly in disbelief, commented she had never seen a guy walking around with a snake before. Tony told her that the thing about visiting a big city was you not only get to see the cool stuff, but you get to see the weird stuff too. How else do you explain that to an 8 year old?

It was getting pretty late in the afternoon and AJ was beat! We also wanted to get a move on before rush hour got too bad. We hiked our way back uphill to pick up another cable car to take us back over to get our car. The entire way back Abby kept asking what we were going to do next. She really wanted to see the Golden Gate Bridge. Tony promised her he would let her see it on the way back to the camper. We pulled into the lot at the visitor’s center only to discover Abby was fast asleep after such a busy day! AJ was also out for the count, so Sarah and I got out and took a quick look. As we pulled into the lot of the campground, Abby woke up and scolded Tony for not taking her to the bridge! That kid has the memory of an elephant! We made some dinner and tried to get everyone to bed to rest up for our last day in the city.

Day # 31 - Napa Valley, CA

Today was a lower key day than yesterday. I would have liked to go back into San Francisco today, but it was apparent early this morning that everyone was pretty tired. We have traveled a long way and are far from home, and while there are still a couple of things I want to take the kids to see, I figured a slower paced day would be nice.

When we were planning this trip, Missy and I wanted to spend a day in Wine country while we were here. It was one of the many things we considered and discounted due to time. If we had included time for everything we wanted to do on this trip, we might never make it back home. But for whatever reason the wine country visit was one of the things she “held on to”. So I figured if we don’t want to deal with traffic, ferries, taxis and parking today, maybe we could drive over to a couple wineries.

So after a late breakfast, we piled in the car. We were low on food and staple supplies so a trip to the local Wal-Mart was needed. After that we found the address for V. Sattui (http://www.vsattui.com/) Winery in Napa Valley and put it into the GPS. The V. Sattui Winery is a favorite of Missy’s and mine. 10 years ago when we were last out here we fell in love with a mildly sweet blush wine they make called “Gamay Rouge”. Regrettably it is not available east of the Rocky Mountains unless you order it direct and have it shipped. In addition to having a nice tasting room where they pour generous samples, they have a very nice deli with all kinds of high quality meats, cheeses, breads, crackers, fruit as well as a nice sandwich bar.

So on the drive over I had “the talk” with the kids. “No running, no yelling, no screaming, no begging me for money for whatever “thing” they couldn’t live without. Any deviation from these instructions will result in swift punishment”. I got agreement from all 3 kids (AJ doesn’t know what he is agreeing to yet…he just says “yes daddy” because that is what his sisters are saying) so I figure that will buy me about 15 minutes of good behavior.

When we arrived, it was busier than I expected for a Monday. But we only had to wait for a few minutes for a place to open up at the tasting bar. Sarah was interested in why we were getting free wine and why adults seemed to like the stuff. She was grossed out by the “spittoons” on the bar for people who don’t want to swallow the wine. Abby asked the normal questions about the different color wines. AJ just wanted to drink from the water bottle we brought with us so he could be drinking something like Mommy and Daddy are. We tried the Gamay Rouge first and decided we liked it just as well as last time. I didn’t care for the Family Red even though Missy thought it was okay. I liked the Riesling and really liked the White Zinfandel. We agreed to buy a case because the young woman serving us offered to let us mix and match the bottles. Anyone reading this who is a serious wine connoisseur will see that our tastes in wine are pretty basic. And I admit freely that I would prefer a scotch & soda to a glass of wine most days. Still, last time out here we wished we had taken several bottles home with us…so what the heck.

By this time, Abby and AJ we getting restless so we went over to the deli and bought some cheese, dry salami, crackers and homemade cookies for a snack and headed out to the picnic grove. The kids ate their cookies and a few crackers and Missy and I had the cheese and salami on the fresh baked crackers. The sun was out and it was a cool 72 degrees. We refrained from opening one of our bottles of wine since we had the kids with us and had to drive back to the campground. But it was still a relaxing way to spend some time. The kids were very well behaved most of the time. Sarah reminded Abby twice that they were not supposed to run around and that she didn’t want to get in trouble. When she wants to, she can set a very good example for her siblings. I told her how proud I was of her on the way back to the car.

Since we had lingered in the picnic grove for a while (and because I didn’t want to risk having to take back the positive praise I just gave my oldest daughter) we decided not to stop at another winery. So we just enjoyed a relaxing drive through Napa. Well, at least I did. Missy and AJ fell asleep shortly after leaving V Sattui. Sarah played her DS and nodded in and out. Abby on the other, had fought sleep the whole way back to the camper but did it quietly. She knew she was disobeying my instructions to close her eyes and sleep. I don’t think she wanted to push her luck by being loud and keeping her brother awake also. Abby is old enough to give up an afternoon nap, but she is so much more pleasant when she takes one. But with Sarah not napping Abby has developed an attitude about her having to nap. Missy and I are trying to be patient with her, but some days it is a struggle. I told her today that I wanted her to nap on the way home so we could have time to go swimming once we got back to the camper and got done with dinner. When she refused, I had a decision to make. I decided to hold my ground today and when we got back I told her she would not be able to swim because she did not nap. That caused the expected amount of crying and stomping feet. But then she made a compromise. Since AJ had gone back to sleep in his bed after we got him out of the car could she sleep now and wake up when he did. She is clever enough not to finish that statement with “…and then can I go swimming?” She just lets is hang there in the air…unsaid. Smart kid.

So Abby slept while Missy did some laundry. I stayed at the camper with the kids and did what every father should do when two of his kids are sleeping and the other is playing quietly outside…I took a nap also.

After all the kids (and Daddy) were awake we walked down to the laundry facility here at the campground. It is right next to the campground arcade that had some good games inside. We played a couple of games and then all went back to make dinner. I grilled some pork chops for dinner and then we all put on our swim suits. It was getting a little cool outside as the sun had begun to get low in the sky and I was glad that the pool here is heated. The water was just warm enough. And there were lots of pool toys for the kids to play with. But by the time we got out, it had gotten cold. Missy had brought cover-ups for the kids, but she and I just had to freeze on the walk back to the camper.

After warming up and getting on our PJ’s it was time for bed. Tomorrow is a big day because we are going back into San Francisco to go to the science museum called “The Exploratorium”. It is supposed to be one of the best in the world.