Stopping Off in SLO

Everything in Santa Barbara was booked. We found a hotel an hour and half North in San Luis Obispo. Jonathan and I have always liked SLO. It is a charming college town, and great stopping off point on any trip to Southern California. We have never stayed there before, and aside from some consistently good cafe experiences, we didn't know what to expect.

After our recent visit, I think SLO is also a cost-effective, family-friendly weekend get-away. It is close to Morro Bay, a beautiful seaside town, it has some great restaurants, and plenty of hotels less than $100 a night.

We stayed at the Vagabond Inn. We called directly and got the AAA discount. It was a clean serviceable hotel, and we all enjoyed the shower and the bathtub.

We arrived there at 6 pm, and then after getting cleaned up headed to a taqueria recommended by the person working the front desk. Our dinner was great, although Caleb insisted on acting up, and he and I ended up in the car for most of dinner.

The next morning we woke early and went to the Apple Farm Restaurant & Bakery, which was refreshingly kitsch. The restaurant is a popular place for traditional brunch fare, but as long as you arrive before 9:30 am, the wait isn't too bad. After 9:30 am it is a 40 minute wait.

The restaurant had a treasure chest for the kids, coloring at the table, and the service was really quick -- all good things for dining with small children.

I think we'll plan a future trip to SLO where it is the focus instead of the stopping off point on the way to Southern California.

Fun in Santa Barbara with Kids

Dusty from our camping adventure, our day in Santa Barbara was marvelous. We could have planned a couple of components of the day more efficiently, still we all had fun.

We started our day at the Santa Barbara Farmer's Market. The plus side of the market is that the Santa Barbara Certified Farmers Market website is wonderful. It allows you to easily find a Market any day of the week in Santa Barbara County. The negative is that many of our Northern California farmers markets are much better. The Market had a lot of fresh produce, and flowers ... but lacked in food vendors and butchers. I had hoped to buy our dinner fixings there, but came away empty handed.

From the Farmers Market we headed to the Santa Barbara Roasting Company for breakfast. It is a crunchy, granola coffee house, with tasty pastries and excellent coffee. Our boys were less than well behaved, so we had to cut our visit short, and finish our breakfast in the car. 

We then headed to a State Beach. I had picked El Capitan State Beach, 10 miles North of Santa Barbara. However Jonathan and I didn't discuss where lunch was located. He had found a kid friendly restaurant that we thought was in Santa Barbara, but was actually 10 miles South in Carpenteria near Carpenteria State Beach ... see the lack of efficiency.

It was a cloudy but mild day in Santa Barbara. The temperatures were in the mid 70s, which had two benefits -- first, we were very comfortable at the beach, we didn't even need to bring out our umbrella, and second, there were very few people at the beach. After splashing in the waves, and playing in the sand, Jonathan, Xander and Caleb then took advantage of the outdoor showers to soap up and remove some of their camping dust. I used the sink to wash my face, and untangle my hair.

We then drove twenty miles to The Beach Grill at Padaro which is the best kid friendly restaurant we have ever been to. I am not understating how wonderful this place is for families. It is right on the beach, and has plenty of outdoor picnic seating. It has a bridge over a river of sand. In the river of sand it has tons of beach toys, shovels, buckets, dump trucks and bulldozers. The boys gleefully hopped between playing in the sand, and eating lunch at the picnic table.

The food was great. Often when a restaurant targets families, the food is not the highlight ... but both Jonathan and my "pub fare" lunches were crave worthy.

The other surprise, is that the train runs right next to the restaurant. So, at the end of lunch when the Amtrak train rushed by, both our boys screamed with joy.

We called our trip short, and headed to a hotel in San Luis Obispo on Saturday night. We are still figuring out how with better planning we can do this trip again soon. It might be camping at a private campsite, or it might be booking a cheap hotel, but the wonderful day we had in Santa Barbara was worth repeating.

Los Padres National Forest - What No Showers?

Before the boys, Jonathan and I called ourselves the slowest of the elite hikers. We climbed mountains, clung to the sides of cliffs, hiked under waterfalls, trekked through the wilderness in any weather -- of course the real elite hikers always passed us on the trail. We camped in the outback, carried 50 lb backpacks, purified our water from a stream, cooked our dinners, left no footprints, and came out of the woods greasy haired, dirty, but happy.

Boy those days are over. Last month we went on our first car camping trip with the boys. I called it a success, and then I happily planned our trip to Los Padres National Forest. We stayed in Los Prietos Campground, a beautiful location in the Santa Ynez Mountains near Lake Chumash, and only 23 minutes from downtown Santa Barbara. Even better, I was able to reserve on a weekend only a month out.

Well, so you know there are no showers, paid or otherwise, for the Santa Barbara Ranger District, and there are no sinks in the bathroom, and some campsites don't have access to water. It never occurred to me that a shower (even five miles from our campsite) wasn't standard issue for any campground. No wonder there was availability.

But we are tough, rugged, experienced campers...

With two boys under five, one still not potty trained, we apparently are not. We stayed only one night at Los Padres National Forest. The location was awesome, we didn't even mind the black flies at all, and our boys (especially Caleb) loved it.

But Saturday after a day at the beach with scummy teeth, covered in saltwater, sand and camp dust, we gave up on camping and found a hotel. On Thursday I'll write about our fun in Santa Barbara. But lesson learned, car camping with kids requires certain amenities, and those amenities are not always a given.

Road Trip

Before kids, one of Jonathan and my favorite things to do was to go on a road trip. We even drove from San Francisco to Washington, DC when we were in our early twenties. We used to make mix tapes, and plan our stops along the way, exploring small towns and the countryside.

Tomorrow we head to Santa Barbara for our camping trip. It will be the boys' longest road trip to date. With two boys under five, we are planning for a slightly longer trip than the estimated five and half hours.

We figure a road trip is like flying, except that you can make a lot of pit stops. We plan to leave between 10 and 11 am, and we hope the boys will nap along the way. We are taking Highway 101 which is pretty boring between Salinas and San Luis Obispo. We plan to stop in San Luis Obispo for a break. Wish us luck.

Take the Kids Out to the Ballgame

Xander was turning 4 this summer, and Kate and I decided that it was the right age to take him to his first San Francisco Giants baseball game. When it came time to choosing which game he would go to, I had an alterior motive: May 18th was Tim Lincecum bobblehead day.

Tim Lincecum is by far the most impressive pitcher that I've ever followed as a fan. He has a consistent 94 mph fastball, a phenomenal curve ball, and a 74 mph change-up that makes batters look foolish. He's only in his third season and there is the potential for Lincecum to have one of those rare, legendary careers. I wanted a Tim Lincecum bobblehead, and with Xander there we'd have two.

From a kid-friendly game perspective, this wasn't the best choice however. The game was sold out - so very crowded and no room to move around at our seats - and we needed to get there early. If you are going to take young kids to a major league game, it's best to look for games that aren't sold out and are a little less hectic. Often times there are mid-week afternoon games, especially on the West Coast (giving teams more time to get to the next city after the game is over), and those are good choices for the kids.

A good decision we made was to go for bleacher seats. In the outfield, there is a lot of open space to walk around, there are things to see and do such as hopping on the SF Cable Car...and then...there's the Coca Cola slide. Since we got to the game early, we had some time before the game started and I introduced Xander to the slide. Within that neon green and red Coca Cola bottle in left field there are actually two slides. One is high up and goes straight down, and the other is shorter and is twisty. However, Xander is only tall enough for the twisty slide. We must have gone down the twisty slide about 8 times.

When the game started, Xander had his hot dog and coke (I was trying to buy a water from the coke machine, but a coke came out instead) and we were ready to go. The only problem was that Xander didn't have much of an attention span for the game. I expected this, to an extent. I knew we wouldn't make 9 innings, but thought we could at least get through 2 or 3 innings before he would lose interest and would need to take a break. He made it through 1. Back to the slide we went. We also walked around the stadium, and he did enjoy that. Rather than go back to our seats, we went to the standing room only area and watched some of the game from there. Including a lot of walking around and playing, we made it through 6 innings and left. Although he wasn't interested in the game itself, he had a great time.

Another great choice for kids is Minor League Baseball. We are very fortunate to live just a few minutes from where the Single A (lowest level, whereas AAA is the highest) San Jose Giants play, and last weekend I took both Xander and Caleb to a game. We went with their best friend, Jonas, and his dad.

Minor League Baseball is very affordable and it's often easy to get free tickets, and it's very kid friendly. There is plenty of room to move around, all of the seats are great, and there are lots of things for the kids to do. The kids got their picture taken with the San Jose Giants mascot, and for a few extra dollars they got to jump around in the bouncy houses and hit beany softballs off of a tee.

There's also something to be said for the atmosphere, which is very unique to A or AA minor league baseball. While I did not partake, especially since I was minding two little boys, my favorite in-game promotion was the "Beer Batter". If the SJ Giants got the designated "Beer Batter" out, all beer was 1/2 price for the next inning. Sure enough, the Beer Batter struck out. Everyone else seemed to make a break for the concessions, which just opened up more space for us.

Here again, we didn't watch more than 2 or 3 innings, but both boys really had a great time at the game and are asking when they get to go back. I'll look forward to taking them both to more baseball games next year, especially when they will be a year older and can appreciate the baseball just a little bit more.

In Appreciation of Airport Security

Every time we go through security at the airport I make it a point to always be friendly and respectful to the TSA agents. Before we travel abroad, I read up on the airport security requirements for the region. I try to prepare everything to make the process as quick and painless as possible. I leave extra time for the security line, and I honestly don't mind the inconvenience. I encourage my boys  to do what the agents ask and to always be polite and say "thank you."

On Tuesday, September 11, 2001, my husband and I were ending our two-week vacation in Europe. We woke up in Venice, and caught an early a.m. flight to Frankfurt. That afternoon we boarded our Lufthansa flight to San Francisco.

Three hours before we were supposed to land in SFO we noticed that the plane on the map was going the wrong way, and the destination had changed. We asked the flight attendants but they wouldn't give us an answer other than that we were being rerouted to Iceland and were heading back to Germany. Some of the attendants were noticeably upset.

When we landed in Iceland, we weren't allowed to depart the plane. While the plane was being refueled some of the passengers were able to successfully sneak a call home on their cell phones.

A Danish family was able to get through. They got this information: four airplanes crashed, and the World Trade Center is gone. It was unbelievable and we couldn't fathom how these stories were connected, or why US airspace was closed for the first time ever.

After about 20 hours on the airplane, and the longest domestic flight in German history we landed in Leipzig, Germany. As we got off the airplane we got a packet of information, and the whole story unfolded.

We stayed up all night and made calls and emails home to make sure our friends, family and coworkers knew we were okay. Many knew we were traveling that day, but until they heard from us couldn't be certain if we were on one of the planes.

We were told to stay in Leipzig, and that there were no hotels in Frankfurt. If we insisted we could fly to Frankfurt, but we would be on our own. We opted to fly to Frankfurt -- we just wanted to get home.

In Frankfurt we were directed to Church Services for housing. The airport minister had called into a radio show, and asked locals to open their homes for the stranded American passengers. The Frankfurt community complied, and no one slept in the airport. The minister quickly placed us. It was amazing how gracious everyone was.

We stayed in Frankfurt until Saturday when we heard that US air space was open again, and went to the airport to see if we could get on the first flight to San Francisco. We were successful. Although other passengers had been placed in front of us, Lufthansa had trouble contacting everyone, and if you showed up you got a seat. The security line took about five hours. It was the most reassuring five hours I have ever spent.

Our flight was the second International flight to land in San Francisco. The airport was empty, no one was out on the streets. 

I think back to September 11 every time I go through a security line. When my bag gets searched, or play dough or stain stick gets confiscated I take it in stride. I don't argue, and I don't give the security people a hard time.  Tomorrow is the eighth anniversary, the day it seemed the world had changed forever.

Each year I think about the heroes, the victims, and the families, and say a special prayer for them ... and I thank the security agents who have such and important and difficult job.

A Zoo at the Zoo?

 

On Labor Day we took the boys to the zoo. Crazy, I know, the zoo on Holidays is... well ... a zoo.

However, even when packed the San Francisco Zoo is civilized. It could be that the zoo is well planned, or it could be that the droves of people were somewhere else (we didn't make it to arachnids or reptiles).  Either way, we had an absolutely perfect day at the zoo on Monday.

The weather was gorgeous. Even when the rest of San Francisco is chilly, the zoo tends to be slightly warmer. The boys were in shorts and t-shirts, and everyone was comfortable. Xander and Caleb have also finally reached an age where they want to see the animals. Back in the day (earlier this year) they just wanted to ride the Little Puffer, and go to the petting zoo.

The animals were in rare form too. In our first few moments at the zoo, the giraffe came right up to the fence, bent down and began drinking water. The otters came right up to the window to greet the spectators too, and the leopard was sleeping against the glass.

We also lucked out with our timing. We saw the otters, penguins, and seal all get fed.

We arrived at the San Francisco Zoo just before noon. The paid parking lot was filled up, so we parked on Sloat. There is usually plenty of free parking on Sloat, but due to the Holiday we ended with a fairly long walk. At this point we were thinking that maybe the zoo was a mistake. We were wrong.

We brought the double stroller, and convinced the boys to ride in it until we got to the zoo. They happily complied which was good for everyone concerned.

Our friend got us a membership for Xander's 4th birthday, so we bypassed the line (about 15 people deep) and headed right to the entrance.

Xander and Caleb had already compiled their wish list ... giraffes and zebras, monkeys, lions and tigers, and bears, and then ride the choo choo train.  We managed to accomplish the wish list without a meltdown. Caleb did have a meltdown when we left the zoo at 4 pm, and then napped the whole way home.

The boys can't wait to go back to the zoo. I think we'll do Boo at the Zoo around Halloween.

Roaring Camp Railroads Revisited

On Sunday before our camping expedition we took Xander and Caleb to Roaring Camp Railroads for a steam train ride through the Redwoods and up Big Bear Mountain.

After our so-so Day Out with Thomas experience in late July, I wanted to revisit Roaring Camp. While I didn't think a twenty-minute ride on Thomas the Tank Engine was worth the price of admission, the thought of an hour and 15 minute ride through the Redwoods on a 19th Century steam train seemed like fun. I was right!

Roaring Camp Railroads is located in Felton, Calif., near Santa Cruz. Roaring Camp operates two lines - a beach train to Santa Cruz and a narrow gauge train through the Redwoods. Although we originally thought we would take the beach train, we decided it would be too much for the boys to combine it with our first camping trip. The beach train takes you into Santa Cruz, and gives you one to five hours at the beach depending on your return trip.

The train ride is on the expensive side, $19.50 for adults and $13.50 for children (children under three ride free). But if your kids love trains like my boys do, it is well worth it.

It was a warm day, and we opted to sit upfront in an open air car. The ride through the redwoods and up the mountain was mostly in shade, so this was a good choice.

The Conductor narrates the entire journey, with stories about the trees and railroad. We learned that a fire in 1977 took out a trestle bridge, and Roaring Camp needed to reroute the line to switch backs up Big Bear Mountain.  We past the burned out trestle, and then began this process of moving forward, and backward up a mountain, as the engineer got off the train and turned the switch ... totally cool!

Caleb did have a blow-out diaper on the trip - I can't wait for him to be potty trained. There is a rest stop about 30 minutes into the ride, and there is a public bathroom. Although there really are no facilities for a diaper change, so the 30 or so women in line for the restroom had to pass me doing a messy stand-up diaper change by the sink.

Aside from that, it was an absolutely wonderful trip, and the boys had a fantastic time. They are already talking about doing it again.

Camping at Big Basin

Add camping to the list of fun activities we can do with our boys. Xander and Caleb survived their first camping experience, and are both excited to go again. Yippee!

For the most part our night at Big Basin Redwoods State Park was a success.

We headed out of the house on Sunday morning ...  I left a little too much to the last minute, and forgot some items. Some we did without, or were able to buy along the way like sweatshirts and long pants for the boys, bug spray (we discovered an organic lotion that works like a charm), dish soap, a lighter, and a serving spoon.

The major oversight was Xander's favorite stuffed animal Bear. I should not have trusted a four-year-old to bring it, and it was a running theme of our night in the tent. "I miss Bear. I can't sleep without Bear. Do you think Bear is okay?"

We started our day off at the Campbell Farmer's Market. We bought fresh lunch and dinner supplies there, like Afghani spinach pie, sauerkraut for the sausages, and carrot cake.  I wasn't sure if we would be able to build a fire, so I skipped s'mores this time.

Before going to Big Basin, we also stopped and rode the train at Roaring Camp Railroads (I'll write about that trip on Thursday).

By the time we got to camp, Xander and Caleb were sound asleep in the car, allowing us to set everything up, without worrying about our little helpers. We couldn't have planned it any better.

Big Basin is located off of Highway 9 in the Santa Cruz Mountains. You can approach it from two directions. From Saratoga the road is narrow and windy ... from Boulder Creek, the road is much wider (still windy).

Once we were there we learned that all the campsites are near a creek bed, so mosquitoes are a problem. That was when we realized we forget mosquito repellent, and bought Sun Bug from the campground store. It contains citronella and was effective in preventing bites where we applied it. I must have missed Caleb's neck, and one of Xander's ears.

The campground was very quiet, only at about half capacity, one of the benefits of checking in on a Sunday and out on a Monday. We were located next to another family with a five-year-old boy, and a two-year-old girl. The boy was into trains, and Xander and Caleb made fast friends. 

We were allowed to build a fire, and bought firewood (and a lighter) from the ranger. The fire was fun, but also our biggest challenge of the night. Both boys wanted to help by putting the wood on the fire, of course that seemed like great fun to the preschool set. Jonathan and I had to educate on fire safety, and Xander still ended up with a time out at around 8 pm. He can break glass with his squeal, and I'm certain folks thought we were doing more than taking him in the tent and giving him a good talking to.

Big Basin doesn't have a bear issue, so we were able to store all of our food in the car. This would have worked great if Jonathan hadn't of slept with his keys. In the middle of the night he accidentally opened the trunk, and a raccoon got in. We had raccoon footprints on the cooler, between the car seats, and in the front. The raccoon got into a bag with a leftover muffin. I had everything else sealed in plastic crates or in the cooler, so it could have been much worse.

Everyone slept well, although Jonathan and I will be investing in foam pads for the tent. We're getting much too old.

Our next camping trip is a little more than two weeks away. Our one night adventure was a good trial run, and we feel much more prepared.