Glamping

Awe, another year camping "glamping" at New Brighton Beach. I wasn't sure how easy it would be to camp this year, with 2 kids and all, but Brandon makes it LOOK easy enough and pretty much does all the work anyway, so I said what the heck. My only complaint ended up being that we didn't stay long enough. With the amount of 'crap' we bring, we should be staying at least a week, not a measly 2 days.

Brandon, looking proud of his pack job (a neighbor camper referred to it as a puzzle...quite fitting)

The view from our campground #22

New Brighton is an amazing campground nestled on the bluff of Capitola. My family has been going there over 20 years on this same weekend during the "Wharf to Wharf " race. My mom runs it every year, along with my aunt Debbie, some other takers partake occasionally. Brandon, Elle (via stroller) and I even ran it a few years ago.

The only draw back to the campground is you have to book a year in advance (and even then, within seconds, the sites are gone). Good thing my mom always remembers January 2nd at 8 am to click away. This year was a particularly special one for me, and Elle especially. I had my sister and my adorable niece stayed the night one night. Kelly, Brad, Tyler and Briana usually only stay for the day (Tyler makes camping a little too difficult for them) but this year they took separate cars so the girls could stay. Elle, had the pleasure of being around great company. Not only were her cousins and "Mimi" there, but a plethora of aunts and uncles all willing and able to play with her (Kelly, Brad, "Reno" Debbie, Debbie, Sandy, David, Kirk and Linda, Lee-Ann, Chuck and "Cobra" the dog, Dax and "Shelby the dog", aka STD). All those people meant lots of help for Brandon and I too.

Reno Debbie "ergo-ing" Harlan so we could unpack

Sandy entertained Elle for hours with felt boards

I was doing some heavy lifting too

Brad, David, Kirk and Lee-Ann lent Brandon a hand setting up the "palace"

Saturday was AMAZING weather, so we soaked every last drop of the sun at the beach. It is only a steep stair walk away too!

Kelly and Briana making the trek (the picture doesn't do it justice)

Mimi and her grands

Elle enjoying time with uncle Brad

wave chasing

Reno Debbie, Briana, Elle and Brad running from the waves

Brad, Tyler and Kelly enjoying the water

Siesta time for Harlan and beer time for Brandon

The boys (Dax, Brandon and Harlan)

Adorable Briana loving the beach

Sandy and Linda building sandcastles with the girls

Cobra and Shelby making quite the dynamic duo

Me feeling left out

Sandy and David sharing some love

Brad and Harlan catching up

Tyler getting buried

The girls too

They loved it!

 

After a great time at the beach, we headed back up the dreaded stairs, and we hit the showers. Yes, they have showers...coin operated ones (25 cents for every 2 min). They also have bathrooms with mirrors, and some with electrical plugs too (if you stand by one long enough you will eventually see my mom there blow drying her hair), hence why I find glamping to be an appropriate term. After we cleaned up, we feasted on delicious appetizers and had an amazing spaghetti dinner (provided by Chuck and Lee-Ann) paired with Caesar salad, garlic bread and pie and s'mores for dessert.

S'mores before bed

Dax with Tyler in the hammock

Harlan enjoying his bath

Once the kiddos went to bed, we enjoyed some cocktails, and some hilarious conversations. The new drink of choice is vodka lemonade. We couldn't get enough of them. So much, that we had a flask on hand so we didn't even have to get up to refill our glasses. We did however, receive a buzz kill phone call from Brad informing Kelly that he had her car keys with him at the house (two cars, remember?). After some phone calls, David saved the day and the drinking continued!

of course the video monitors came along

The wiener roast off

After the late night hot dogs, we all called it a night. The morning would come soon enough. Sooner than we wanted. We slept pretty well until some strange cat moans woke us up in the wee hours of the morning. Not sure if the cat was in heat, injured, or mentally ill, but whatever it was, did not sound good. We officially said good morning around 7 am, just in time for us to bide farewell to the runners. Brandon and I wanted to cook breakfast for everyone, so we got the camping stoves fired up. We made breakfast burritos, pancakes and sausage....yummy! It ended up being a great joint effort and one heck of a feast.

The chef at work (eventually he went into a management role)

The goodness

Mickey Mouse pancakes for the girls

Formula for the boy

After breakfast we sat around the campfire, the girls played some games and had a blast in the hammock. The weather was not very good, so we were waiting for the fog to burn off. It never really happened, so we just hit the beach after awhile anyways.

Elle loving Chuck's sense of humor and giving it right back!

Felt boards with "Chucky"

   The girls having some vodka lemonades

 my mom was slightly over served

 Chuck and Cobra

climbing the drift wood

it made a neat little cave

After another fun day at the [cold] beach, we headed back up to take showers to get clean and warm. We had leftovers for dinner that were just as delicious as the first time around, if not better. I would like to say that we hooped it up all night again, but this time we were all tired and turned it at 9:30! I know, we should be ashamed of ourselves. I think Debbie was a little disappointed to be going home with so many FULL bottles of wine and champagne. I have to say, I was happy we did go to bed when we did, because we had an early morning meltdown to deal with. Not sure why Elle has the meltdowns she does, but WOW. Nothing like waking up everyone to Elle saying over and over again that she wanted to "run outside". Not sure what was going on in her brain at that moment and I am not sure she did either. Anyone else have a child who does these outrageous tantrums? If so, please speak now!

Anywhoo, we all recovered and laughed about it later (or not). It is always a bummer to have to take down camp. Brandon, once again made it look easy, and I did a lot of supervising. Thank goodness for my mom, and amazing aunts for entertaining Elle, so we could do so. They even took her to the stage and danced with her and acted like monkeys. I took pictures of them from our campground. What troopers they all were.

 Debbie had the best Monkey for sure...

As usual, Harlan was playing on the floor entertaining himself

We finally got out of there around noon, only to get stuck in traffic on hwy 17. It took us an hour to get down the "forest" (as Elle called it) to go 13 or so miles. Gees, but wonders never cease...Elle ended up falling asleep on the drive home.Of course it wasn't in the beginning of the 3 1/2 hour long drive. Instead, it was in the last 15 minutes. Just our luck.

 This really is a first

Thanks to all the campers for another great year!

Disneyland or bust?

Not a bust! It was quite the splendid trip. I say it like that because I was expecting the worst. Those of you who know me and my children well, know that they do not like the car, nor sleep in the car, and my anxiety in the car is the through the roof. However, everyone did great! We ran a tight ship with the intentions of getting there as fast as we could. This meant no REAL bathroom stops (only exit squat stops), eat in the car, and speed as much as possible while maintaining safety, or until the Burgdorf Suburban ( aka"the land yacht") started to shake. It paid off, we made it in 6 1/2 hours.

notice I-5 in the background

We stayed at the Residence Inn Maingate, which was only a 15 walk or a 5 minute shuttle ride away to the Parks. I had not been to Disneyland in 12+ years, and I had never seen California Adventure before. I actually didn't realize they shared a parking lot (well, I believe DCA was built on the old Disneyland parking lot). Anywhoo, we were well equipped for a fun time. We went with the Burgdorf's, Otto and Trudie, and Brandon's sister Tanya and her two boys, Lucas and Wyatt. I should say, this was a generous trip provided by the Burgdorf's.  They just went along for the ride, and let Tanya and Brandon and I make all the decisions. Otto's only requests were that we ride Pirates of The Caribbean and have a nice "civilized" dinner one night (more on that later).

In Cars Land

We spent our first non-travel day at California Adventure (DCA). This was quite the experience. Tanya's friend of a friend, pulled some serious strings and got us an executive tour guide of Cars Land. What is that you ask? Well, a nice "grey haired man in a Hawaiian shirt" named Tom (this is how he described himself so we knew who to look for) met us outside the park and took us straight to Cars Land. He did tell us stuff about the park along the way, like how it took 2+ years to build, etc...Once we arrived in Cars Land, he asked us how many would be riding the rides (not all of us could at a time since baby Harlan was along for the ride :). We told him six, and next thing you know, we bypass all the lines, and enter through side gate entrances and get right on the rides. The longest we waited was 5 minutes. No joke. I have to say, I felt like Hollywood royalty parading by the people waiting in line, while at the same time wondering if we were going to get hit with a churro by the angry commoners. We went on "Mater's Junkyard Jamboree", "Luigi's Flying Tires",

Cars attire ready for the ride

Mater's Junkyard Jamboree

Tanya and Wyatt

Elle LOVED the racers

Brandon and Lucas on Toy Story Mania

Radiator Springs Racers (twice) and "Toy Story Mania". I will say that Radiator Springs racers, is the only one of the Cars Land rides that is worth the hour + long waits. However, that ride can have up to a 4 hour long wait...but if you or your little ones are Cars fans, it is a must! "Soaring over California" is also a must. It is a very chill ride, but you are up in the air, not just sitting in a theater type setting. I say this because poor Wyatt, was a little traumatized by this (we were expecting the latter).
After we went on those rides our tour with Tom was over and we went to dine with the princesses for lunch. Brandon, Trudie, Elle, Harlan and myself all enjoyed fabulously expensive food while Elle got to shake hands (when they weren't in her nervous mouth) and take photos with all of the [over dressed] princesses. I was hot just looking at them. Elle was not overjoyed, but instead very shy and weary of them (very surprising of my otherwise overly social girl). Sleeping Beauty actually got down to her level and asked her questions and complimented her on her dress and buttons (I see Chotchkie's in her future career path) so she really warmed up to her. If you ask her today who her favorite princess was, she would say Sleeping Beauty. Definitely worth the money if you have a daughter who likes to be a princess. After lunch, we went back to the hotel for a nap and a swim and came back for dinner, some more rides, and I even let Elle and Harlan stay up way past their bedtime, for the "World of Color" show... another totally worth it to do!

Burgdorf Family Disneyland Vacation

The next day was Disneyland. It was a beautiful day, and despite not having a Tom, we had pretty small lines. I think we only experienced a quarter of the park though. You really need way more than a day to see all the park has to offer, but you also get a little burnt out on it all (and the kids sure get tired). We went to Adventure Land first and went on Buzz Lightyear Astro Blasters. I sat this one out with Harlan but the rest of the fam went. Elle was a little scared on this one, which was surprising since she had been fearless up until this point. Autotopia, was a hit too (literally). As Brandon said, he and Elle had a blast "slamming into Asian tourists". I could only imagine. Next up was Fantasy Land. Dumbo, Casey's Circus Train and the carousel were among the favorites there.

on the train

on the carousel

The kiddos napping (Elle is asleep under the stuffed animals)

After naps, and the pool we came back to the park to ride Pirates of the Caribbean and have that civilized dinner I mentioned earlier. First up was dinner. Anyone who knows Otto and Brandon, know that they like a beer or cocktail from time to time. Otto was looking forward to that first sip of a cold one once we finally got seated at the New Orleans Cafe. The waiter graciously asked us if we would like some water or lemonade and I said, what about a cocktail? The waiter then said, "oh, only California serves alcohol". Sheer devastation took over the table. In 10 years, I have never seen Otto drink a glass of water (it's usually only coffee or beer). I took a picture to capture the moment.

 The civilized dinner should have taken place outside the gates :( Sadly, Pirates of the Caribbean was a little bit of a let down too. It was not as great as I, nor anyone, remembered. They seemed to have made it longer and changed it to be more Jack Sparrow and less politically incorrect, as I liked it. All in all, it was a great trip full of fond memories. I even survived the 7 1/2 hour drive home!

Harvest

 If you live in Davis you most likely drive a Prius, Subaru or a bike; shop at the co-op; buy organic everything; breastfeed in public; use Toms all natural products (and wear Toms too); are a doctor of some sort (probably a veterinarian ); your idea of high fashion is the wall rack at REI; and you most certainly grow your own vegetables. We only embrace a select few of these traits now, but I am always telling Brandon we are one step away from hairy armpits, petruli oil hair, and ditching the diesel for a bike with a trailer (we are actually in the market for a Burley). All jokes aside, Davis truly is a wonderful "green" community and we are honored to call it home.

Our going green efforts have fallen in the hands of Brandon and our garden. We do compost, although I am not sure we have ever used our own soil to fertilize the garden. I think it all just sits in our big black rotating thing rotting. We recycle as well, but it is mainly for money. Brandon stores it all in garbage cans sorted by plastic, cans, glass, etc., and once it gets to a level of unbearable eye soreness, and crowding, he brings it down to the local recycler, along with all the local  homeless people, and cashes in. He usually gets $100 or so (an entire trailer full) and we put it in Elle's college fund. At this rate she will not be attending UCD or Harvard, it will be beauty school for sure.

Though I don't find the garden to be esthetically pleasing, it is pretty yummy. Today was our first harvest, which Elle helped Brandon with. I watched them while taking the dry clothes down from the clothesline and hanging the wet ones up to dry. Oh, I guess I am doing my green part too!

she is a great helper

very excited to show me this tomato

It really is amazing to eat our own organic vegetables. Now, I get to look for great recipes to use these all up in! Thank you, Davis :)

the crop of the day

Angry Birds

Something you don't see everyday...

Brandon taped our camera to a pole to film inside the owl box out at the ranch. They DO NOT like intruders. Who knew owls hissed? This gives a whole new meaning to the ever so popular "angry birds" phenomena.