Just Me and the Kids

The kids and I have been on the road for the last 2 weeks. We started our journey staying with family in Sacramento for my niece's 5th birthday party and Halloween.

I don't think we have ever collected so much candy! My sister, mom of three, is Master of the Candy Trail for trick or treating. By the end of the evening, we collected about 1/2 of a pillowcase for each child! It seemed crazy compared to any other Halloween Candy Collection experience we have had! Then it hit me, what were we going to do with all of this candy on the road? I knew I didn't want my children, or myself to eat it all, and let's face it, not much room in the van for two huge bags of candy.

My husband and I decided to make our journey a natural foods journey. We have always eaten fairly healthy at home and I am a vegetarian of 15 or so years, but after reading a great book called Natural Cures They Don't Want You to Know About, we agreed that being on the road we could really get lost in the Fast Food and White Bread Jungle. So instead, we have decided to go organic, whole grain, and whole foods, with no additives whenever we shop for food. A great resource is Happy Cow online for traveling the world in search for vegetarian restaurants and health food stores. We are not going to be fanatics, but if we do shop whole foods most of the time, a once in a while trip to a less healthy restaurant, won't be so detrimental to our health or the Earth.

So what to do with the candy? When we reached Capitola (near Santa Cruz), I took out the alarming huge number of full size candy bars (why do people do that?) and packaged them up for my husband for later and told the kids that I would pay 25 cents for each piece of candy they were willing to sell me. I thought the price was high enough that they would let go of most of it, but to my surprise, they sold me only 11 dollars back and wanted to keep the rest. Still, we were off to the toy store with 44 pieces of the candy in the trash. I will admit there were a couple of misguided evenings where the kids and I helped lower the supply as well!

The kids and I really enjoyed our time in Capitola. We stayed right on the beach and were out on it everyday. The kids really enjoyed going through the small town for our walks and stopping by the beach on our way back, getting drenched in the ocean and ending up in the bath rinsing off sand and getting warm again. I enjoyed being back in the area again, as I lived here when I was at UC Santa Cruz. It was interesting to see how so much was the same, and so much was different. Mostly, it had changed now that the price of a small 900 square foot off-the-beach old bungalow house was over $1 million! That definitely had changed the community feel quite a bit. But aside to that disturbing fact, it was good to be back and it was all very relaxing.

Being with the kids as the only parent at this point was not exactly picture perfect. There were many times I would like to forget. Times that I felt stressed on the road. Being in the van, unlike a car, I cannot help my kids in the back. I thought they would understand the concept of this, but really it creates a bit of chaos if one should drop a toy, book or bag of pretzels. If you on the freeway, the only way to handle it is to find a possible exit, and pull over. After the 10th pullover, I admit, I was beginning to lose it. I had my older son help by getting out of his seat for a minute to grab a dropped item and jump back up. But the guilt involved in this is heavy. I am not sure why as when I was growing up, there weren't seat belt laws and I remember a few experiences of rolling around in the back of the station wagon on a winding road. Nonetheless, I grew tired and cranky, which makes the kids tired and cranky and I truly was missing my other half, who regularly gives me my 15 minutes when he gets home at the end of the day to go into a quiet space to breathe and let go. If I need more, I just ask and he will take the kids out for awhile. I can't imagine having to do this for a long time. I sit and count my blessings.

After a few days, we were off to Morro Bay, where (just South in Los Osos) we took the van to Go Westy. We decided to take Highway 1 to see the beautiful California coast. It was gorgeous and the kids were impressed for the first 25 miles, but then we still had to finish the last 75, while twisting and turning and trying to drive around 20mph curves, that if not done correctly would only leave you in the ocean after falling a 50 foot cliff. The kids started complaining, and wondering how much longer it would be. Suffice it to say, if you have never driven a bus, or van for a hundred miles down a winding road while the kids are stuffing their faces with Halloween candy and listening to the Wiggles, you haven't lived! The sunset at the end was definitely worth it all. We watched the sunset as we arrived into Morro Bay while behind the mountains came up a full yellow moon with a huge haze around it. At the beach there were the hottest brightest shades of pink and orange and the midnight blue water collided up to it along the horizon. Oh yes, worth the drive.

While in Morro Bay, the kids and I learned all about estuaries and really enjoyed walking through the small and dead tourist town. The Rock, which is the really the attraction of this town, is always visible and staring back at you in all its natural glory. I was sad to say goodbye so soon, as we only had 1 1/2 days there.

I was excited, though, to pick up the van and learn how to use the bike rack and the awning. With that and the roof rack in place, we were ready to head to Carlsbad, where my cousin lives with his family.

Hint to travelers everywhere: DO NOT, whatever you think, DO NOT TAKE HWY 1 THROUGH LOS ANGELES DURING COMMUTER TRAFFIC! What should have been a 5 hour journey became a 9 hour journey. Yes, I was laughing, crying, and just freaking out. But that is all I am going to say about that.

We did make it to Carlsbad, and thank goodness my patient hosts were up late waiting for my arrival. I was never more grateful for a nice clean bed to sleep in! We have been here a couple of days enjoying the fog (or at least this Washingtonian is) and today we are off to Legoland.
As of now, I am up early and finishing this blog, and happy that I will see my husband, who has been at home working and finishing up move out details at the house, and is flying out to meet us tomorrow! Hurrah!