Cali or Bust: Day Five-Big Bear to Laughlin

The hotel in Big Bear was more like a cabin lodge. It appealed to us because the info online described it as a lake resort, with a private family beach access. We had pictured in our minds each room leading out to the beach, what it ended up being was a motel like building with a trail to the lake from the parking lot. The pool had been winterized and the lake really wasn’t all that appealing. That morning, we took a picture of Big Bear lake, checked out and drove away.

Big Bear was in my husband’s mission area as well, and he had gone there for a few different area meetings. So he showed me around town. We found the church meeting house, built with member funds. It was a pretty nice chapel. We took the windy curvy road down the backside of the mountain towards Lucerne Valley. My hubby had been in that town for awhile on his mission as well, and longed to drive around it. We went to his apartment, only to find a little building outside of a house in the middle of a dirt lot. Then we drove the long lonely road between Lucerne Valley and Barstow. We saw the little member owned restaurant the missionaries would eat at once a week for free.

The long lonely road happened to be a test track area for new model vehicles. My hubby recounted seeing the new VW Bugs while traveling that road. The empty barren fields are also the places they film a lot of commercials for vehicles, you know the ones doing crazy stuff out in a desert.

We made our way to Barstow around lunchtime. Took a few hours for lunch before heading the rest of the way to Laughlin. The hotel in Laughlin was a resort and casino. I got a room for $24! I thought I had done a great job till we called the hotel to get directions. Ya, it wasn’t on the strip in downtown Laughlin. It was 12 miles south of town on the reservation. But overall, it ended up being a nice hotel, if you take into consideration it was a casino, with people smoking everywhere. It was 105 degrees at 6pm. We took some time out to play in the pool before dinner.

 After pool time we went down to the hotel for dinner. We debated where we should go and what we should eat. Fast food, quick and easy and not embarrassing or a nice restaurant, our last night on vacation. We discovered a play area at the hotel for kids. Basically it was a glorified babysitter for parents to drop off their kids so they can go gamble. We decided it wouldn’t hurt to take advantage of it for an hour or two. We fed the kids, dropped them off and hubby and I had a nice quiet meal in a sit down restaurant in the hotel. Daughter #2 even took a nap so it was very quiet and relaxing. The kids had a great time playing too.

The next day would be our last day and the depressing drive back home to regular life. But we made the best of what we had! On Day Six we checked out of the Laughlin hotel and ate at an In N’ Out before heading back home.

We experienced a “Twilight Zone” moment in Bullhead City, AZ. We couldn’t figure out how to get out of the freaking town! We thought we took the right road only after 30 minutes to end up at the bridge that would take us back across the river 15 miles south of town right near our hotel the night before. After another 30 minutes to get back up to the road where we made the wrong turn we got headed out back in the right direction. We started a new book on CD, a John Grisham called “The Innocent Man”. Having listened to other Grisham novels while on long roadtrips we listened to this story, intrigued and horrror struck. But then, after the story was over, an hour from Albuquerque did we listen to the epilogue by John Grisham himself. This was a non-fiction novel. It was based on a true story! That’s when we were even more shocked, while listening I kept finding myself thinking “I can’t believe this happened, I should google about this when I get home” only to remind myself, it’s fiction, NOT true. This story WAS true! Oh, and a few weeks ago I saw a newstory on Fox News Morning that one of the characters from the story was suing John Grisham for slander. Too bad the guy was a total fool! If you haven’t read this book, you should.

We got home around 9pm that night. Hubby was off from work the next day, being that it was his friday off. We enjoyed the day home together, getting things put away, and laundry done, but obviously hubby wasn’t ready for the vacation to be over. We drove around Albuquerque like tourists and spent a good deal of the weekend planning future family vacations!

Cali or Bust: Day Four-Santa Monica to Big Bear

After taking our time getting ready that morning and eating breakfast at the hotel we checked out intent on heading to the beach for a few more hours. We were in Santa Monica, we needed to at least check out the pier! We got to the pier around 9am. The air was cool, there was a slight breeze and a little overcast. We took our time walking up and down the pier, let the kids go on a few arcade rides, the ferris wheel wasn’t open yet.

My Son only wanted to play in the waves. He had enjoyed the water the day before and couldn’t wait to get out there again. My husband bought a boogie board on clearance and was itching to try it out. My Son was excited to watch dad go. We walked back to our car and hiked out across the beach barefoot (man was that sand hot) to the water. Hubby immediately went out to try out his new toy on the waves and the kids were content to watch him and play with this little girl and her sand toys. The girl left with her mom after awhile and the kids couldn’t see dad anymore. They were still slightly afraid of the waves so I felt it was time to teach them the wave tag game. Chase the wave as it goes out, run back in before the wave touches your feet. The loved it.

But as anyone knows, playing at the beach builds up quite an appetite. We were all getting pretty tired of being out in the sun as well. Plus we were heading out to Big Bear that day and wanted to get a jump on the traffic so decided to call it a day at the beach. Of course, only after having some classic beach food-hot dog on a stick and lemonade.

We saw Muscle Beach, and an outdoor chess park that vaguely reminded me of “Harry Potter and the Socerer’s Stone”.

We found our way into main L.A. and made our way to the Los Angeles Temple. I had never seen it before except for pictures. I had always heard it was the 2nd largest but the pictures always made it look so small. This was a huge temple! We walked around the grounds, and talked with a few people. The were excited to see the angel moroni and all the pretty flowers.

We of course left the beach too late and stayed at the temple grounds for too long. We got back on the freeway heading East just in time for rush hour! We went through downtown L.A., saw the skyline.

We headed back to San Bernardino then took a very curvy road up the mountain. It was a beautiful drive, and this time we didn’t go fast because of other drivers. My hubby was familiar with this road having driven it about  six times while on the mission. We stopped at Lake Arrowhead, home of Arrowhead bottled water. We ate dinner at this great little pizza joint and walked out to the lake.

We finally got to our hotel in Big Bear around 10pm that night. We got ready for bed and crashed. Only after discovering we had gotten a pretty good sunburn while at the beach in Santa Monica. My hubby had assured me that because we were at 0 feet elevation as compared to 5500 feet elevation in Albuquerque that it would take a lot longer than we were used to to be burned. Ha, ha. Not so much, he and I both got sunburned. We had put sunscreen on the kids but not on ourselves.

Cali or Bust: Day Three-Glendale to Santa Monica

Day three of our california trip involved shopping, driving and swimming!

We got up, got dressed and got checked out of our hotel. We knew we were going to the beach that day and decided that we should check out the three story Target in Glendale and possibly get some supplies for the beach. We found our way over to the Target and wandered around all three floors for over and hour just for the heck of it. We got a few clearance beach-related items and then went back to the car.

We were told by a co-worker of my husband’s that while in Glendale we needed to try some Baklava. It’s an Armenian desert. Before leaving home we mapquested a few places, so after Target we found the closest one to the Target. My hubby went inside while I stayed in the car with the kids. He came out with his silly little grin and a container with some pastries inside.

After pigging out on pastries we braved the freeway in an attempt to find a “scenic” route to the beach. The map we had was detailed but not as detailed as one would like. We kept missing exits. But along the way I took pictures of some of the cool buildings. I’m not sure, but that might have contributed to missing a few exits too… It’s hard to take pictures while going down the freeway 80+ miles per hour!

We found an exit that would eventually take us to the street we wanted. Mulhallond Dr. It was supposed to be scenic, not too busy. It was definitely scenic, we would have enjoyed it if we could have taken the very curvy road at our speed but sadly we were stressed because of the locals that would ride our tail and pass us at any given moment. The road was so cury and the map not as detailed as we would have liked we kept taking roads we THOUGHT was the correct road only to discover we had somehow managed to take another road instead. During one such detour we came across a street with the same name as my brother-in-law’s nickname.

The kids began to get hungry and we were getting stressed out. The map showed us the road we wanted would connect all the way to a road that would take us to the beach. The road eventually turned to a dirt road, not what we wanted. We went down a hill that happened to be Encino, Ca. My first thought was the movie “Encino-Man” where the teenage boy had to dig his own pool only to discover an iceage caveman. It made me giggle.

We found a McDonald’s and hung out there for a couple of hours letting the kids play. There was only one other boy besides our kids at the playplace. He was about my son’s age and appeared to be of Indian Descent. His mom would often speak to him in their native language. The problem was this boy was MEAN! My daughter was scared to play with him, and although my son didn’t notice and was okay playing with him, this boy was hitting my son. My son laughed, not understanding, but I was really getting upset. The mom would scold him in their native language but he didn’t seem to care. I finally had to ask my son to come sit with me until they left, I was so worried about this boy hurting him.

After a long break we loaded back up into the car intent on the next stop being at the beach. We found a curvy road Topanga Canyon (I think) that lead to the beach. It was a pretty drive, too bad we had to go so fast we could enjoy the landscape.

The canyon ended right at Malibu beach! We found a place to park and walked out. The kids were at first scared of going near the water, worried about sharks. We watched the surfers, and the waves crash in. Daughter #1 found a plastic shovel, and with a cup, the kids built sand castles with daddy. I sat on the beach with Daughter #2 and took pictures. I looked out over the ocean and saw dolphins swimming. It was a beautiful day.

After some time at the beach we drove south to Santa Monica to check in to our hotel. We found one a few miles from the beach but with a pool. The hotels near the beach didn’t have pools. We spent the rest of the evening playing in the hotel pool, eating some yummy japanese food (no sushi!) and watched tv. The next day would include a lot more driving!

Room to Spare?

We live in a 1500 square foot house.

Three Bedrooms
Two Full baths
Kitchen
a Dining/Living Great Room
Good sized Backyard

So why is it I find all three of my kids have to be in the 5 square feet I am in at any given moment?

Cali or Bust: Day Two-Barstow to Glendale

I know, I know, finally getting to the rest of the story!

The hotel we stayed at in Barstow had it’s pool under renovation. We told the kids it wasn’t our fault. Son was kinda funny though, every time the pool was out of view he’d say “I hope they have water in the pool now.” We’d tell him that if the hotel and fixed the pool and put water in it we’d go swimming. When we woke up the next morning he threw open the curtains to see the pool exclaiming “I hope there’s water in the pool now!” He looked down and saw that the pool still didn’t have water. He was really bummed. We told him that on that day we would be going to a pool party with our friends and there would DEFINITELY be water in that pool.

On this day we took our time getting out of Barstow. My husband served his mission in San Bernardino and Needles and Barstow were the farthest East. He planned for this day to spend some time exploring the old mission areas. We spent a few hours driving around Apple Valley and Hesperia. Finding the churches and the old apartments. He even showed me the put-put golf a ward member owned and would let them play at for free. We drove around some old neighborhoods and looked at houses on streets with no sidewalks. He showed me the hill that as missionaries on bikes they dreaded riding down because they knew they’d have to ride back up. We looked for one of the apartments he had lived in, but all that was there was a vacant lot. It had been nine years, you just assume that everything will stay the same. It’s sad to think that life goes on after you leave.

Apple Valley and Hesperia had Joshua Trees. Lots of cool, old big joshua trees.

We stopped for donuts and breakfast burritos while in Hesperia then headed towards the city. We took the I-210 so we could drive through San Bernardino. What a desolate, dry, dirty city. As we drove around my hubby would point to different street exit signs and exclaim “I was in that town with such and such companion” and share little tid-bits about each area and companion. One sign he pointed to he said “I was with this one companion that didn’t want to do anything. I spent two weeks in the apartment, I asked to be transferred!”

Then we saw the sign for Rancho Cucomanga. We got off and drove around the city. As much as San Bernardino was dirty, Rancho Cucomanga was pretty. Beautiful streets, huge houses, big, old trees. That was the first place were I thought “this is why people want to live in California”. During the two years of his mission he was in in Rancho Cucomanga twice and Hesperia/Apple Valley twice. Not many missionaries get to be in the same area more than once. Rancho Cucomanga was the mission headquarters. He showed me the neighborhood the Mission President lived in, and we drove up one of the streets that goes up the side of the mountain.

On that street was one of the meeting houses that my husband attended as a missionary.

After a trip down memory lane we drove around Glendale. A few people my husband works with attended CalTech in Glendale and had printed maps of a few places we needed to visit. We found the campus and drove around it, got honked at by a few locals, and we found the arboretum. It was fenced in but looked beautiful from the street view.

We assumed that if we followed a certain road that it would intersect with the street we needed to be on to get to Heather and Paul’s. That’s how it is in Albuquerque, most roads run straight. Sadly, that wasn’t the case. We followed a road till the road ended at a big canyon. We turned and went along the canyon till we somehow found our way to the home of the Rose Bowl in Pasadena. We finally decided we couldn’t take the surface streets and hopped onto the freeway.

We found the hotel we had booked, took one look and decided against it and booked a room at the hotel Heather had originally suggested down the street. We found our way to Heather and Paul’s apartment finally found a space on the street to park and began our visit. It was the first time in 8 1/2 years that we had seen each other. My hubby and Heather and I had classes together. I had classes with Heather and Paul, but we always assumed that Paul and my husband had run into each other while wandering aimlessly around the Snow Building, so we were surprised with they said “nice to meet you” to each other. Our kids got along really well together and it was fun to be able to visit, catch up and watch our kids play.

We tagged along with them at their ward Elder’s Quorum BBQ. My kids were so excited to see a pool with water in it! They didn’t want to do anything else. Daughter #2 and Heather’s Guy Smiley had their first experience in the pool. Guy Smiley took to it nicely, loved every minute of it. Daughter #2 only being 9 weeks old didn’t adjust quite so quickly. We did it slowly, first just the toes. Then a few minutes later up to the ankles, then out. Then to the knees, then out. Then to the bottom, soon we got to the waist and then to the shoulders. She didn’t do a lot of kicking but at least she wasn’t crying!

After the pool we went back to the apartment and enjoyed some more visiting time and some ice cream. Daughter #1 and Little Red were fast friends and liked eating their ice cream together.

Those were all taken by Heather. Along with this cute picture of Daughter #2.

Day Three is full of adventure as we try to drive around a huge city we’ve never been to before with a mapquest map as a guide!