Cross Another One Off the Bucket List

We had a whirlwind way-too-short long-weekend at Lake Tahoe. The main purpose of the trip was to go to my great-aunt's 100th birthday family reunion. Had I known how lovely the trip would be, I would have planned for a few more days.

We have not been on a "road trip" with our kids in a number of years, possibly because of those lingering distasteful memories of the back seat bickering. But guess what? At 14 and 19, they don't bicker any more (except for one small incident which shall appear later in this post). They talked about music and guitars and games, and seemed more like friends than brothers. It's what every mother desires and I am oh-so-grateful for this.

Sigh.

I did elect to ride in the back seat for much of the trip, behind the handy husband driver. This was a leg room issue, not an Idon'twanttositnexttomybrother issue. It was such a great trip, we are almost considering going to the Grand Canyon next year, but we might need a bigger car for that. We could rent a van! We've never had a van....ooh, I'm distracted here...back to the point.

I have lots of pictures and family things to talk about which will wait for another post, because I am so excited about what we did Monday morning. "We" meaning Frank, Ernest and Me. The Handy Husband is averse to heights and chose to stay earth bound to watch us, but the rest of us crossed off another item on the bucket list... PARAGLIDING!

It was totally AWESOME. 5 STARS to North Tahoe Watersports. 1400 feet, 15 minutes, the Magnum experience. We had some debate about the time and height...Frank was always my more cautious child and didn't want to go so high, but you could only get the longer time with the higher height so Ernest and I won out.

On the boat, they asked who wanted to go first. Ernest said, "we do!" The little girl in the other party said "no." So they loaded us up first. Way to go, no time to get scared.

We took off so fast!

Kinda high? The view was incredible.

That little moment of brotherly bickering? Ernest was swinging his legs and Frank didn't like the shaking. I can't blame him. Looking up, it looks a lot higher! Looking down, it was like the best google map ever!

For me, this was my greatest moment since when? Kissing the Blarney Stone? I confess, I was a little nervous. I'd had a horrible headache the night before (I blame the hike back from Vikingsholm, which will be in another post.) But when I woke up headache free the next morning, I said, "Self, you have to do this. You will regret it if you don't." Sometimes my Self needs a little talking too. And I was right.

Oh, it was amazing...

Frank thought we were landing just in time.

Ernest and I would have gone up again if we'd had the chance.

And Self? She felt so great! So Self, how are you? Self had the best time. Self could not stop talking about how awesome it was! Self wants to go again!



Here's to new adventures!

Tales from the Hotel Del

Oh, I love hotels, especially hotels with character and personality. Hotels where you know you are at that one unique place in the world, and there is no carbon copy in another town.

We started off with a beautiful garden view.


After I enjoyed the view, I turned on the computer. Where had I been all day? My jaw dropped...
"Handy Husband," I cried, interrupting his fun. "You need to flip to the news RIGHT NOW!" Me telling him to flip channels is quite unusual. "Yes, dear." No, he really wasn't going to watch one of these. He said he was just looking.


Then I turned to look at him lying on the bed, and the bed looked awfully small.


I exaggerated a little, but I'm not a computer artist. I had booked a king. I had proof on my Orbitz receipt. However, the Orbitz room was quite a bit cheaper than the hotel website, so who knows?? Anyway, Julian at the front desk changed our room with no problems. I didn't mind giving up the patio for the king size bed. This bay-view room was on the third floor, so we rode the brass elevator. Scroll down on that link - it's the 2nd picture. While the uniforms have since been updated, I swear it is the same man!


Corporate Secretaries were having a big beach party. We enjoyed their band from a distance.

We didn't find any ghosts. But we did find "dessert" at the ENO wine bar. Here's a Smalltown Mom Useful Tidbit. Yes, I know what that acronym spells --- Wine by the bottle is 25% off if you get it to go. The man behind the counter was so knowledgeable, but not in the snooty snobby way I have grown to hate. He was more like a wine detective or a wine doctor...asked a few questions.... poured a few samples... and arrived at a perfect prescription. The first night: an Argentine white. The second, a Baxter 2003 syrah.

Ahhh, the evenings.... Lovely...

Nikigator

Here's a short aside to my San Diego travelog. Jenn commented on the Niki de Saint Phalle mosaic sculptures in Balboa Park, which reminded me of these pictures from our 2002 trip. Little Frank and Even Littler Ernest loved the Nikigator.




In researching this blog post, I found there is a Niki de Saint Phalle sculpture garden in Escondido. I'd love to see that the next time I'm there. Which will be soon, once Ernest learns there are Segway tours at the Wild Animal Park.

The Second Day

We went to San Diego on Thursday. Our first stop was Mission San Diego de Acala, yet another mission I'd never seen. That's something to add to my bucket list: visit every California mission. This was the mission I had to build in 4th grade! We made our own adobe bricks, using a mold built of popsicle sticks.

And yes, I found the right place. Hi, Cheri!
Now, I really owed my husband some man-friendly sightseeing. I like old things, so missions and museums are just my cup of tea. But the HH needs to see something mechanical every so often. So our first stop in Balboa Park was the Automotive Museum of course! I learned there is a difference between a hot rod and a street rod. Hot rods are old things--1949 or earlier. This car is neither, but he likes it! Sweet dreams, honey! (Truly, he's going to build his own car. Posts on that later!)
We also went to: Air and Space Museum (car guys seem to like airplanes too), Natural History Museum (the Body Worlds exhibit was incredible -- the HH really wanted to see it, but admitted to being a little freaked out afterwards), Timken Museum (Beautiful and FREE!), and the Art Museum (the Richard Avedon photographs are a must-see). And then we were tired. Darn it, we missed quite a few other museums.

This multiple-didgeridoo-combo is the most unique instrument I've seen in a long time.


After all those museums, our feet hurt, so we rode the park trolley back to the parking lot. Still smiling.


We checked into the Hotel Del Coronado. We had stayed there for one night, oh -- about 20 years ago! (And paid cash, which even 20 years ago freaked them out and they had to find some special form to deal with it.) This time, the credit card was well used.
We drove by many appealing restaurants, but since our feet hurt we had dinner at the hotel. Yes we had food, too, but the drink was just so pretty!

Worth his Weight in Gold

Museum ticket: around $20.

Ernest's weight in gold: $769,824.

Our trip to New York: priceless.