Well, we made it, and I’m exhausted. In the space of four days, we drove straight to Carlsbad, went to Legoland, drove to Morro Bay, did lots of cool beach-related stuff, and drove home. If it doesn’t sound like a lot, first take into account the number of traffic jams we endured (one on the way down; countless on the way back up) and the fact that two adults were sleeping (well, OK, attempting to sleep) in a hotel room with three kids.
But aside from the lack of sleep, the fact that my kids can’t get along for more than 45 minutes, and the fact that my sister’s son asks the same questions over and over (“Where are we going, Mommy?” “Are we there yet?”), we had a fabulous time.
Legoland had the usual drawbacks: expensive, bad food and lines. But my sister went off with my six-year-old and her son, so that my son and I could do the stuff that he wanted to do. The six-year-olds were all about rides. My son was all about Legos. We went to the Lego workshop and watched a master Lego-builder at work; my son got his Lego driver’s license; we spent a lot of time admiring Miniland, where the finished works of the master Lego-builders were displayed.
Entire cities (somewhat geographically condensed so that Lombard Street snaked up the hill right by the Financial District), beautifully created Bonsais for foliage (they were real, not made of Lego), and scenes. My hands-down favorite was the inauguration scene. To see the full photo, click on the miniature to the right. It was truly fabulous. Michelle and Barack have brown Lego faces; the Chief Justice is peach. Michelle’s yellow dress. Her daughter’s pink sash. The detail was just fantastic. It clearly took many hours of scrutinizing photos and getting every last important detail. YoYo Ma and his cello. Aretha Franklin’s fantastic hat. Wow.
Some other highlights were, as my son pointed out, the proximity of the Eiffel Tower to Mount Rushmore and the hilarious depiction of Las Vegas, itself a depiction of somewhere else.
The next day we made our way up the coast to Morro Bay. On the way, I did a sort of navigation system roulette by searching for parks and then choosing “sort by distance to travel.” On the list was a national park, intriguingly named Channel Islands National Park. My kids had just gotten their passports at the last national park we visited, so we couldn’t resist one that was only five miles off our charted course. It was a great choice for a side trip: a great beach at the mouth of a harbor, sand dunes, a native plant garden, and a fabulous visitor center all about the Channel Islands. My sister and I hatched a plan to get our families to camp there next year. We’ll see if it happens.
Onward to Morro Bay. Crappy motel, great pizza on paper plates, boogie boarding and bird-watching. The usual Morro Bay experience! The last day we drove up 1 to enjoy the most beautiful piece of coastline in the world, Big Sur. (Long before we had kids, soon after it opened to American tourists, my husband and I went to Vietnam. We were told it was the most beautiful coastline in the world. It was lovely, but about halfway through our trip, he turned to me and said, “Uh, not to be chauvenistic about our home state, but isn’t Big Sur more beautiful than this?”)
We went to Jade Cove, my favorite spot in the area. It has naturally occurring jade in the cove, which very adventurous people dive for. We being only moderately adventurous, we made the climb down (not for the faint of heart or large of waistline), climbed on the excellent boulders, played with hermit crabs, and waded in the crystal-clear water.
What’s a trip to Big Sur without getting stuck behind an RV towing a car? Then stuck in a traffic jam north of Monterey where 1 goes down to 2 lanes? But despite the fact that I arrived home cranky, exhausted, and desperately in need of a vacation so I could rest after my vacation, it was a fabulous time.
