Part Tres

Last but not least, we made a couple of beach runs the last couple of days.  The water was a mite chilly, but it was a blast building sand castles, digging holes, boogie boarding and playing football.  After spending about 40 minutes in the water boogie boarding with Dan, I was freezing, but the weather was great and I warmed up fast.

We also went to Ruby's diner on the main drag for milk shakes.  I had a burger the day we left for Las Vegas and I have to say this is one of the best hamburgers that I ever had.  Really, it was like melt in your mouth good.  I am sure it is not good for you, but it is a must if you are anywhere near a Ruby's.

Saturday when everyone left and was driving back home, we made one more stop at the beach.  We were staying over in Las Vegas, so we were not in any big hurry to get on the road.  It turned out to be a great idea.  We spent a few hours just playing around and then hopped in the car and started for home.

What a great vacation.  This summer was absolutely packed full of things--trek, scout camp at Flaming Gorge, Lake Tahoe, Southern California, and Yellowstone.  The Yellowstone entry will come later.  It was an amazing summer--I am sad to see it end, but we have next summer to look forward to with whatever adventures it has in store for us.

Part Dos

On day three we decided to take it easy and just stay at the resort and do all the stuff that was there.  Our kids were excited to go to the pool and swim.  In my experience all kids love the water.  I did as a kid and would have killed to have a swimming pool in my yard.

In the afternoon we were heading to the pool with some of the cousins and they were walking around in the landscaping as we were heading to the pool.  The landscaping was on a steep hill that had several sets of sprinkler heads raised up above the ground by a couple of feet.  One of the little cousins came up to me a minute later and told me that Joaquin had broken one of the sprinkler heads.  I asked Joaquin if this was true and he said it was, but that it only happened because he slip and grabbed the sprinkler head to keep him from rolling down the hill.  I told him that it may have been an accident, but that we still need to tell the groundskeeper so they could fix it.  Well, Joaquin was not happy about this and obviously would have rather let the broken sprinkler go unnoticed.  After that moment  he kind of hung back in the pack and did not say anything and was just looking at the ground.  He then tried to convince me that someone else should take the fall.

Eventually we found a Marriott employee and I could tell that Joaquin would rather just crawl under a rock for awhile.  I told the employee what had happened and Joaquin apologized and Shauna and Joaquin went with the employee to show the employee where the sprinkler was located.  Joaquin was soon back with a renewed spring in his step and I asked him how he felt now.  He said, "I feel so much better."  He proceeded to tell me that he was so happy that he had told the truth.

Great lesson there for all of us, and I am glad that Shauna and I made this a teaching moment.  I would have been so easy just to say it does not matter and walk away, but what kind of lesson would we have taught ourselves and our kids.  I don't know what, if anything he will remember about that experience, but at the very least it has strengthened my resolve to be more truthful in the future.

After swimming, hot tubing, playing tennis, and basketball we headed off with everyone to eat dinner at the Blue Water Grill in Newport.  John and Sandra treated the family to the meal, which was generous indeed.  They are always very giving and want the best for everyone.  The food was delicious I had the Mahi Mahi, Shauna had the salmon, and the kids had fish and chips.

We took some family pictures at the restaurant and then headed back to the villas to prep for the next day at California Adventure and let the cousins play together.  The youngest cousins, Natalie, Luke, Joaquin, Ben, Elena, and Anna where as thick as thieves during the stay--always together and always loud.  It was good to see them have so much fun, although the people staying nearby may have not been so fond of the joy.

Well, the next day we woke up early again and headed for California Adventure.  As we got off the shuttle at the park gate, I was told in no uncertain terms that I should run as fast as I could to the Fastpass line for the Cars ride.  I new that if I did not get those Fastpass tickets that there would a price to pay and it would behoove me not to find out what that price would be.  Problem was I had no idea where I had to go to get these tickets.  I had never been to California Adventure--but off I went running looking for any clue as to where I should go.  Luckily about 20 seconds into my run I saw a long line that was only about 100 yards from the entrance.  I was not sure if this was the line so I kept running until heard people in the line talking about the Cars ride.  I turned around and there was a "Cast Member" holding a sign that signaling that this was the line to get Fastpasses for the Cars ride.  The line moved remarkably fast and I was able to get our tickets for late morning, which worked out mostly well (more on that later).

We had a chance to poke around Radiator Springs and hit some of the other rides before we went to the ride.  From my conversations with Dland enthusiasts, it was my understanding the California Adventure had more adult oriented rides and I was in the mood to have an adrenaline rush or two.  The Tower of Terror seemed like it fit the bill and I asked Joaquin if he wanted to go.  I expected a "no", but to my surprise he wanted to go and he was very brave and a great sport.  Others who had been on the ride told him about and he still wanted to go so away we went.  It was not his favorite, but he did not completely hate it.  The picture got lost somewhere along the line, but Joaquin was covered up by the guy in front of him anyway so it would not have done his bravery justice anyway.  Shauna and I went on it again and we did get a better picture.

Before we headed to Cars we all went over to the California Soaring ride, which by all accounts was the favorite to that point.  This is a really well done ride with motion, visual awesomeness and even smells.  I took all three kids on the Ariel ride and of course Ruby and Elena loved it.  This was right up Elena's alley and she would go on it a couple of more times before the end of the day.

Finally, we headed to the Cars ride.  I was with John, Dan, Luke, Joaquin and Ben.  I have to say the animatronics for this ride were spectacular and just like the movie, which is saying something.  The setting was also amazing.  I have spent a fair amount of time in the American Southwest and have to say I could not tell the difference between the sandstone there and the manufactured stuff.  I did not touch it, but visually it was right on.

Wow!  Looks real...except for the car shaped formations. 

Guys ready to burn some rubber.

We lost.  

Sometime during our travels some noticed the Sandra was not amongst us any longer.  After about 30 minutes or so some of us started to worry a bit, so search parties were dispatched.  Shauna even went and asked about paging Sandra.  We looked high and low and could not find her.  After about an hour and half Dave went by the Cars ride and found her waiting there.  She said she had been there for an hour thinking that we would come use our Fastpasses.  I think we must have just missed her when we finished our ride.  It turned fine and Shauna did not have to request a lock down of the park to find her Mom.

California Screamin' was a great ride--I like roller coasters and we got the front row.  Grizzly Rapids was also fun with Joaquin getting soaked to the bone by a large wave that splashed into the raft.  This was not timely, because the sun was not at its zenith and he was getting cold.  We took his shirt off and put on his sweatshirt so that solved the upper body issue, but he was going to have to live with his wet shorts.

Front-row seats!

Grandpa comforting scared kids atop the Ferris wheel.  

Casualty

Bout ready to get wet!

At leaving time, we asked the kids if they needed to use the restroom--and as per usual, there were no takers.  Just as we got the car (in the desert of concrete sans restrooms) Elena said, I need to go pee.  And she did--right there.  Nice....

Family Reunion -- CA 2013 Part Uno

Note: This post should be taken tongue in cheek where appropriate.  I will leave to you at what times to place tongue in cheek.  Remember, tongue planted firmly in cheek...most of the time.    

Here goes on the big-daddy vacation for the summer.  This vacation had been in the works for at least two years since the last Ludwig reunion in 2011.  Grandma and Grandpa wanted this to be a few steps above what has been the norm for past Ludwig reunions.  So, Grandma and Grandpa booked a week at the Marriott Newport Coast Villas.  This location would require some travel for everyone and with small kids it would take some planning to pull it off without the parents jumping out of the car somewhere on I-15.

We decided to travel to St. George the first day and then go the rest of the way to Newport Beach the second day.  My company kindly let us stay in its condo in St. George, which was great and perfect for our kids and allowed us to have a good rest before the fun really began.  When we arrived at the condo the kids thought is was like Christmas morning.  They were running and jumping all over the place despite the fact that is was around 11 o'clock at night.

The next day we woke up rested and went out to a playground on the property to let the kids burn off some energy before we headed to Newport.  It was a beautiful day and we packed the van, again, and headed for California.

The drive was largely uneventful until we stopped in Primm, Nevada for Lunch and ate at a Greek place that had food that tasted like wood chips--it was not good unless you are of the beaver variety.  Do yourself a big favor and just skip Primm altogether if you can help it.  If you think Las Vegas is a waste of space, I cannot imagine you would find Primm to be especially breathtaking. It is one of those border towns that specializes in cheap trappings and crappy food to get gamblers to show up and blow their wad.

Lovely Primm.

After Primm came the Los Angeles metro area, which basically starts right when you leave Primm--so you guessed it--LA traffic starts their too.  We managed decent time and really took off when we got on the toll road, but we paid for it later when we got off.

We finally made it to the condos late in the afternoon and they did not disappoint.  The Marriott Newport Coast Villas sit on a bluff overlooking Crystal Cove State Park and beach.  It is not right on the ocean like some of the Marriott resorts, but this is a minor difficultly considering most of our time was spent at other places than the beach.

Pool 

Laney eating on balcony. 

Grandma and some grand kids enjoying the view.

Mike and Terry, happy couple.  

Ludwigs seeing who can break something first.

Good looking crew. 

Eighties are back.

View to a chill.  

The kids had a great time seeing their cousins and this seems to be the best part for them.  As long as they have their cousins to pal around with, life is good.  Shauna made an expensive trip to the Albertson's in Corona Del Mar were the shopping carts are made by Maserati and Mclaren.  

Saw one or a dozen of these parked on the street.

The next day was Sunday and we went to the Newport beach ward that was swarming with visitors and probably three times its normal size.  The kids had a tough time paying attention while sitting so irresistibly close to their fun cousins.  Some guy behind us even piped up and told them to be quite.

That evening the parents prepped for Disneyland the next day getting everything ready to roll.  Now, I had not been to Disneyland since I was eight so I was largely unaware (the number of amateur Disneyland blogs out there should have been my first clue) of the massive number of Disney devotees there are in the world. Really, Disney essentially has a religious following of millions of people clad in mouse ears and paying ridiculous amounts of money to sit with a college girl dressed up as Snow White--not to mention the price just to get into the park.

I mean, one morning I found myself sprinting through California Adventure to someplace I had never been, like I was being chased by the devil himself, just to wait in line to get "Fastpass" tickets to the Cars ride, just so we could then wait in line to get on the ride (albeit a much shorter line).  Want something to eat?  Oh, let's take a look at our payment plans.  It was fun, but I am convinced that parents who claim they are going to Disney for their children are putting up a half-hearted effort to disguise the truth, which is they were really the ones who wanted to come to Dland and they are only using their kids as a weak disguise so they don't look dumb. There are some brave souls who, through self introspection or just because the don't care, have abandoned the parent facade and have come out of the Dland closet admitting to themselves, and the world, that they are in fact Dland freaks. But of course they get a pass because they are at Dland and everyone at Dland is a freak -- except me and my family of course.  It seems like our kids can have just as much fun with a stick and some poison berries so long as they are with their cousins.  It is the parents who have created the Dland mythos.

Okay, at Dland the kids did have fun (except Laney on Space Mountain) minor mistake taking her on this, she begged for us to stop the ride and curled up in a ball in Shauna's lap until the horror was over.  The Pirates of the Caribbean and Indian Jones were hits as were splash mountain and Star Tours.  We saw a lady lose her lunch when she slipped on a puddle of water near the cafeteria at Space Mountain throwing her newly purchased lunch into the air.  Dland folks came over to comfort and have her sign a lawsuit waiver after giving her free lunch and telling her that that lunch was in the same tax bracket as Mitt Romney.  After this we saw another lady lose her lunch shortly after exiting Space Mountain--only once you drive the lunch off the lot its value is severely diminished--so there were no Dland "Cast Members" hanging about comforting this poor profit center..I mean human being.

Happy, post Indiana Jones. 

Taking it all in.

I was also very proud of our kids because of their remarkable restraint and discernment.  Prior to entering the Park we told our kids that they could choose one souvenir so they had better choose wisely.  Well, time and again they would consider some item at a store and determine it was not what they wanted.  (Setting expectations ahead of time has proven to be one of the best parenting devises I have ever found.  It might be the only one I am good at.)  They finally each found something they really liked and have each treated it remarkably well.

I will post more parts as they become available.