We made it. We survived and it was a great trip and I’m very glad we went. However, I did learn some valuable lessons that I will be happy to share with you, no charge.
1) The ocean is very loud. You would think “oh soothing white noise! They sell CD’s of ocean waves crashing!” Eventually (thank goodness) your brain filters out the hurricane-minus-wind cacophony around your tent and it is nice white noise. This only takes about 37 minutes, more if you are a two or four year old that wasn’t properly worn out. Trust me, I counted each of those minutes.
Having a good tent (that sets up in…ahem…under 30 seconds!) and a good husband guy to set up said tent really helped with the whole ocean noise thing. Also the kids actually liked hanging out in there, and Layna and Garyn are becoming great friends. Naomi adopted the “Calvin and Hobbes” book and there was much rejoicing.
2) Beach sand = forever. It feels good and it is awesome to play in, but dude. I’m going to be washing it off my girls scalps until Christmas.
Were you wondering what Layna would look like as a sleepy drunk old guy with a goatee? Well, wonder no more! Naomi spent all of her time playing in the sand, I think she went in the water twice. Once after not giving enough notice and peeing in the sand (which she actually thought was hilarious) and the other time was when I made her go bring something to her dad. She is a sand baby and I’m ok with that.
3) Critters abound on this beautiful planet of ours…both the human and non-human varieties.
Ariel and Volcano Boy! And their pet seaweed dragon, Nori! HaHa, that last one was a lot funnier in my head because I love sushi. Anyways. We also found: sand crabs, a sand worm (think earthworm only wiggling by my toes in the sand…weird), pelicans (that flew in formations over our bit of coast about every 15 minutes. We have the white spots on our van to prove it), fish, sting rays (well we didn’t find it, but an old guy fishing next to us caught one), two snails (one on a flower and one on a fountain), and ants. With the ants, think every bad picnic stereotype and times it by ten. By the last night they were in everyone’s beds.
4) I hate dirt on my kids much more than I thought I did.
When I was planning this trip, it never occurred to me that our campsite would be real dirt, not beach sand. While beach sand is hard to get off, dirt makes you dirty. Our baby walks a lot, but I forgot how much time she still spends on the ground. She reminded me.
I realized that unless something was done, she would be in a chair or in my arms anytime we were at our site. It was magical to find a stretch of really soft fake grass at the San Diego Botanic Gardens where everyone could stretch out and lounge, and the second time we ran to the store I found a mini baby pool (with shade!) which we set up so she could play at the beach and our site. Also finding most of the cool parks within a two mile radius helped a lot.
5) Blogging is bad for my photo storage capacity.
I took over 250 pictures, and also learned a few more lessons, so I’m thinking there might be a “5 things I learned” part two. I’ll keep you posted. Get it? Posted? Whatever. I’m tired and still recovering from this vacation. I’m allowed a bad pun.
Comfy Posy 