Back home! Our trip
was nice.  Not fabulous, not horrible (though there were those moments)… just nice, in the way that traveling with small kids evens out to be.  It was a lot of driving in the
car, and sitting around being lazy, or trying to get the kiddo to sleep in
unfamiliar places, and a lot of sun.  Like…
a little more sun than we expected. Which, surprisingly (or not so), lends itself to the lazy by way of lots
of naps. I’m sure our normal skin color
will return soon.

Some notable moments:

Reaching our hotel for the first night and finding out there
was a Goth convention staying there as well. Of course, I had to talk to all the Goths. Practically the entire convention was
planning on overrunning Disneyland the next
day. SO AWESOME! I just wish I could have been there to see
it.

What appeared to be a Mexican Mafia middle-manager (if the
mafia has middle-management) with his two extremely well-groomed, teenage
runners… in DENNY’S. Yep, having
breakfast for dinner. At Denny’s. I guess everyone likes a good Grand Slam.

At the beach a couple of little girls took off without their
parents. A very large portion of the
beach crowd immediately started to help the parents with the search, not least
of which spreading the news up and down so everyone could keep an eye out,
which people sat up and did. The girls
were found very soon after (they, like a lot of kids, had got caught up playing
and just wandered too far). But it was
really touching to see how quickly everyone jumped to help.  Makes you feel a tiny bit better about the
world. *sniff*

Lessons learned:

Two-years-old is just too young for amusement parks. Even ones supposedly geared for younger
children (i.e. Legoland). Can you say,
“overwhelming”?  And of course there is
that extra-special moment at every
amusement park… the one where you’re exhausted, you’re hot (why does it always
seem to be record-breaking heat the one day you go to the park?), your feet
hurt, all you can think about is getting to the car… and it is at that moment you
realize you’re only halfway through the park.  And as you crumple slowly to the ground, watching
the vultures circling slowly up above, the children laughing joyfully as they
sprint by at Olympic marathon speeds, it dawns on you… you are fucking old,
chica.  (Next time I think we’ll just hang
out at the beach.)

Being technology-free is good once in a while.  Except for Tivo. I think Tivo (or it’s equivalent) should be
required for life. In fact, I often wish
I had the ten-second back button in the every day world.  Watching TV without Tivo? Just painful.

            – the
“yes, I’m spoiled” weirdgirl