Road Trip to Creston

It went really well! We didn't even have to break out the DVD player. We had originally planned to stop in San Jose at an amusement park/zoo and wear the kids out. I realized last night that the amusement park portion was only open on the weekend during December, and neither Jim nor I was that excited about going to a zoo. Unfortunately, there weren't many kid friendly places open between San Francisco and Creston.

Once we got everything loaded into the Gold Behemoth, we set the kids up with some cold drinks and snacks and set off at about 9:30. By the time we hit the San Jose area and got near the zoo, both kids were having a great time entertaining themselves. We decided to skip the zoo and keep going until either the kids got fussy or it was time to stop for lunch.

Shortly thereafter, Lily had to go to the bathroom, so we stopped in Gilroy (the Garlic town) at a little garlic store off the highway. They had a lot of neat stuff in there! After a bathroom break, we bought some garlic stuffed olives, garlic chips, a lip gloss for Lily, some lollies for the kids, and some terrifying hot sauce from one of Jim's colleagues called "ANALize this!" They had some other ones, like "Fire in and Fire out!" and "See Dick Burn." You get the general idea.

After our pit stop, we hit the road and headed toward Salinas, where Jim and I always stop for In-n-Out burgers. We did briefly debate eating somewhere else, since we had In-n-Out on Wednesday, but both of us knew what the outcome would be. Lily only wanted the french fries, but Jack immediately grabbed his burger and said "BIG BITE!" A man at the next table saw him and pointed him out to his buddies, because he kept saying "BIG BITE!" each time he ate some burger.

The kids started to get a little fussy about twenty minuted before we drove into Atascadero. Poor Lily got car sick and threw up into my (giant) soda cup. Jim foolishly took the cup away too soon, so Lily also ended up throwing up on her jacket and into the open carry on bag that was stored on the floor under her feet. Yuck. It was my happy job to clean up all of the vomit as soon as we arrived in Creston, of course! Fortunately, she didn't get it on the car.

The kids immediately settled in with their Grandpa and Grandma. Lily was in heaven because Grandma played Polly Pocket with her for what I'm sure seemed like hours to Grandma! Jack entertained himself with a wooden train and some foam toys, but his favorite activity was the bus that winds up and goes. He shrieked with joy every time that it ran and said "FUNNY!" I think he wore Grandpa out making the bus go about 100 times in a row.

We all slept in the rig, which Jim named the "Night Night Truck." Both kids did fairly well, although Lily wanted to go to sleep in the big bed and had to be moved later, and Jack woke up twice, and wanted to stay with us the second time. The first time he woke up, I think he was confused because he didn't know where he was. When we was in bed with us, he kept reaching his hand up and patting my cheek throughout the night to make sure I was there.