The second day was really just more driving but with less of a schedule. We drove most of the morning and decided to stop in Reno for lunch. We had a cooler full of sandwhich stuff and yogurt so we just needed a place to picnic. I was impressed with our luck. It took us less than five minutes to find a nice little park after we got off the freeway. Not bad huh? We must have park radar.
And this park was filled with geese and ducks. Randomly we had put the rest of our bread in the car since we figured it wouldn't stay fresh, so we even had something to feed the ducks. I wouldn't recommend driving all the way to Reno, but these ducks were awesome. There were so many that they would come eat out of your hand. Ivory was a little hesitant but I would be too if I met a bird that was bigger than me. It was a good break and the girls all rested well as we left to officially enter California.
Our finishing trip was rather uneventful. California's scenary is definitely better than Nevada and there are some landmarks that are very familiar to me (I grew up taking trips to CA every year). The Call Box is native to California highways. It is simply a phone for travelers to use in case of emergencies. My mother says that she and her brother used to do exactly what the sign says. They would yell "BOX!" everytime they saw a sign. And perchance if they saw a sign that said 'Call Boxes for the next ten miles' you can bet they would call out "BOXES, BOXES, BOXES, etc." for ten whole miles in order to drive my grandparents crazy. I thought this was funny and I started calling out "BOX!" when I saw the signs but Tyler quickly quelled that, but he did take a picture for me.
We finally got to our hotel and quickly unpacked so we could go visit family. Let me tell you that even though the ride to relatives was only a few minutes away, Ivory was not a happy camper about getting back into the car (poor kid). We went over to visit Tim (my uncle), Jeannie, and their two kids Erin (8), and Ethan (4). They have such a fun house and fun kids that the girls were at home at once. We stayed for dinner and then took kids back to bed. Don't worry, there is plenty more to come about family (and pictures too). The girls still love the novelty of the hotels. Ivory likes to bounce on the beds and she makes herself at home wherever she is. As for me, I am still waiting for a good night's sleep to find me. I guess there really is no place like home.
I'm loving reading about your grand adventures. Keep them coming!
ReplyDeleteI LOVE it too! I'm dying to know though if you called Camille about the fish or not?!
ReplyDeleteIt sounds like you are having a grand old time, but I have to admit...I'm glad it's you traveling in the car with three small children and one bigger one;-) than me.
ReplyDeleteI sure hope that good night sleep finds you soon. We should've let you take a good nap on our guest bed on Sunday. Not sure if you noticed on Sunday or since, but we have Ivory's dress here at our house. We'll stick it in the mail to you!
ReplyDeleteStacie, I did finally notice that the dress wasn't around but I hadn't searched for it yet. Thanks for letting me know. We loved seeing you guys, thanks again. And for everyone else, the fish is ALIVE!!
ReplyDeleteI found out an interesting bit of trivia the other day. I was confused at what to call our quarters in California: "Hotel" or "Motel?" I queried multiple individuals with a variety of non-definitive answers. So I went to the ultimate source of knowledge: Wikipedia. (Our children have it so easy without all the encyclopedias to lug around for research…we should make them do more dishes.) Anyway I discovered that “motel” is short for “motor hotel” and the true, incontrovertible characteristic of a motel is that you can drive up to your door—you see motels’ doors face the parking lot, while hotels’ doors open to a corridor or an elevator. So I’m clear here, we stayed in Motels during our vacation.
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