This brings us to Sunday
We slept in on Sunday. We all got up and got ready in our own sweet time. I told Paul to brush his teeth approximately 300 times. Then on the 301st time he told me that he had brushed his teeth. I told him to show me his toothbrush and of course that let to fumbling and grumbling. Long story short he had lied to me. What he had done was put toothpaste in his mouth and called it a day. He didn't say his tooth was bothering him but that is what I'm going to blame it one. I don't want to accuse him of being a weenie without sufficient proof. (and that was coming later in the day.)
When we checked out of the motel I let Paul turn the card key in. He insisted on performing his transaction via the walk up window instead of going inside. He had attempted to use this window during every encounter we had with the motel people and I told him to go inside every time. But since he ran down the stairs and got to the office 45 seconds before me he was able to get to the window and ring the bell and get the clerk to come to the window. The smug look on Paul's face once he turned the card in through the window was priceless. Tori and I have seen this look on all of her children and we call it the "Kermit Face".
Paul wanted to head straight to my house and go swimming in the pool. I told him that we would be at my house at some point during the day so he needed to relax and actually act like he was on vacation and not in a race to get his body into a pool. Paul said ok, but the look on his face was saying, "Well, Auntie, you are the idiot who took me 100 miles away from home and found the only motel on the west coast that had no swimming pool!"
We drove down to Pacific Coast Highway and we found a dog show going on. I asked the kids if they wanted to stop and watch for a minute and they both said yes. It turned out to be a standard poodle show. There were probably about 75 dogs there and they were all beautiful. They were fluffed and puffed and blow-dried and bowed within an inch of their lives. There were black ones, grey ones, white one and brown ones. They were very tall and very regal. Even though they all had their game faces on you could tell that all of them just couldn't wait for the frou frou stuff to end so that they could go chase a ball somewhere. Of course Paul had to bark at all of them. I told him not to do that because I didn't want him to start "Poodle Riot by the sea 2006", but apparently since I was speaking in a foreign language that Paul couldn't understand he continued his barking. (If anyone is keeping count...So far this weekend Paul has demonstrated his finesse in the art of animal communication by brushing up on his whale speak and finally a brief yet meaningful tete 'a tete with several show poodles.)
There was one poodle who was up on a table with his fluffy hair blowin in the wind. I took Hannah's picture with him and all went well. After telling Paul, no exaggeration, 10 times not to touch the dog, he reached out to touch it and we got yelled at. That was my signal that it was time to go. On the way out we saw a couple of puppies. They were adorable, shaggy and smiling. They could be played with but, naturally Paul was afraid of them.
We got back in to the car, Paul made his "back to your house" announcement, and we headed up the coast. We decided that we were starving by the time we hit Ocean Side. For anyone who doesn't know better that would be about 5 minutes after getting into the car!
I stopped to get gas, $2.89 per gallon, and I saw the "101 Cafe" across the street. It was bulging at the seams with people so I figured that meant it had to be good. We went inside and was fortunate to get to sit right down. Paul ordered chicken fingers and a soda, Hannah got a grilled cheese and a soda and I ordered toast and a chocolate diet coke. (Oxymoron, I know.)
When my soda arrived I thought Hannah was going to scream! "LOOK AT ALL THE CHOCOLATE IN THE BOTTOM OF YOUR GLASS!" I had a fairly large cup and it was about 1/4 full of chocolate syrup. After I stirred it all up it looked like I had a cup of mud. Pretty much tasted like it too.
We went down Pacific Coast Highway a little further and we decided to take a walk on the Oceanside Pier. I found a place to park, which was amazing since there was some type of event going on at the beach. Paul was half way to the middle of the pier before Hannah had her shoes on. It was obvious that since this was the last day of vacation Paul figured that he didn't have to listen to me even a little bit.
The Oceanside pier is cool in the fact that it is made out of wooden slats as opposed to cement like the Huntington Beach pier. Hannah and I enjoyed looking at the water under our feet. There was a Ruby's restaurant at the end of the pier and Paul wanted to eat there. I reminded him that less than 20 minutes ago we were eating breakfast. No matter. He wanted to eat at Ruby's and he was not going to leave until we did. I told him that he might get cold and lonely and his mother would miss him but if that was what he wanted to do then fine. We took a couple of pictures and then he grumbled all the way back to the car.
After the pier we jumped on the freeway and fortunately sailed right through the border patrol. There was no one even working there, it looked like a ghost town. Where are the minute men when you need them?
I got off of the freeway at Dana Point and we took Pacific Coast Highway for the rest of our journey. We saw a See's Candy store and it was decided unanimously that we should stop and get some breakfast candy. Everyone got their sample and two pieces of their choice. We took pictures in front of the store and got back into the car.
We wound up in Newport/Balboa and it only took us 3 times around the block to find a parking place. We fed the parking meter, one of Paul's favorite parts of the entire vacation, and we were off to have some fun. I asked Paul if he wanted to go on the "horrible cruise" and he said yes. Hannah asked if it was really a horrible cruise then why would we want to go on it?? I explained to her that when Paul was little he confused the word "harbor" with "horrible" and thus he referred to it as a "horrible cruise" but it was actually quite lovely. Right when we got to the boardwalk I heard the announcement for the last call for the harbor cruise. S0 we jumped in line and bought our tickets and went out to the dock and that is when I discovered that I had purchased tickets for the wrong boat. I wanted to go on the nice, two story boat that has a small snack bar and a restroom. The boat we had tickets for looked like someone had just pulled it out of a dry dock and flung it in the water. The seats were all tattered and paint was peeling. Paul was already on the boat and there was no way I would have convinced him that we needed to get off of this boat and get on another one so I decided to stay on this boat and consider it an adventure.
When we checked out of the motel I let Paul turn the card key in. He insisted on performing his transaction via the walk up window instead of going inside. He had attempted to use this window during every encounter we had with the motel people and I told him to go inside every time. But since he ran down the stairs and got to the office 45 seconds before me he was able to get to the window and ring the bell and get the clerk to come to the window. The smug look on Paul's face once he turned the card in through the window was priceless. Tori and I have seen this look on all of her children and we call it the "Kermit Face".
Paul wanted to head straight to my house and go swimming in the pool. I told him that we would be at my house at some point during the day so he needed to relax and actually act like he was on vacation and not in a race to get his body into a pool. Paul said ok, but the look on his face was saying, "Well, Auntie, you are the idiot who took me 100 miles away from home and found the only motel on the west coast that had no swimming pool!"
We drove down to Pacific Coast Highway and we found a dog show going on. I asked the kids if they wanted to stop and watch for a minute and they both said yes. It turned out to be a standard poodle show. There were probably about 75 dogs there and they were all beautiful. They were fluffed and puffed and blow-dried and bowed within an inch of their lives. There were black ones, grey ones, white one and brown ones. They were very tall and very regal. Even though they all had their game faces on you could tell that all of them just couldn't wait for the frou frou stuff to end so that they could go chase a ball somewhere. Of course Paul had to bark at all of them. I told him not to do that because I didn't want him to start "Poodle Riot by the sea 2006", but apparently since I was speaking in a foreign language that Paul couldn't understand he continued his barking. (If anyone is keeping count...So far this weekend Paul has demonstrated his finesse in the art of animal communication by brushing up on his whale speak and finally a brief yet meaningful tete 'a tete with several show poodles.)
There was one poodle who was up on a table with his fluffy hair blowin in the wind. I took Hannah's picture with him and all went well. After telling Paul, no exaggeration, 10 times not to touch the dog, he reached out to touch it and we got yelled at. That was my signal that it was time to go. On the way out we saw a couple of puppies. They were adorable, shaggy and smiling. They could be played with but, naturally Paul was afraid of them.
We got back in to the car, Paul made his "back to your house" announcement, and we headed up the coast. We decided that we were starving by the time we hit Ocean Side. For anyone who doesn't know better that would be about 5 minutes after getting into the car!
I stopped to get gas, $2.89 per gallon, and I saw the "101 Cafe" across the street. It was bulging at the seams with people so I figured that meant it had to be good. We went inside and was fortunate to get to sit right down. Paul ordered chicken fingers and a soda, Hannah got a grilled cheese and a soda and I ordered toast and a chocolate diet coke. (Oxymoron, I know.)
When my soda arrived I thought Hannah was going to scream! "LOOK AT ALL THE CHOCOLATE IN THE BOTTOM OF YOUR GLASS!" I had a fairly large cup and it was about 1/4 full of chocolate syrup. After I stirred it all up it looked like I had a cup of mud. Pretty much tasted like it too.
We went down Pacific Coast Highway a little further and we decided to take a walk on the Oceanside Pier. I found a place to park, which was amazing since there was some type of event going on at the beach. Paul was half way to the middle of the pier before Hannah had her shoes on. It was obvious that since this was the last day of vacation Paul figured that he didn't have to listen to me even a little bit.
The Oceanside pier is cool in the fact that it is made out of wooden slats as opposed to cement like the Huntington Beach pier. Hannah and I enjoyed looking at the water under our feet. There was a Ruby's restaurant at the end of the pier and Paul wanted to eat there. I reminded him that less than 20 minutes ago we were eating breakfast. No matter. He wanted to eat at Ruby's and he was not going to leave until we did. I told him that he might get cold and lonely and his mother would miss him but if that was what he wanted to do then fine. We took a couple of pictures and then he grumbled all the way back to the car.
After the pier we jumped on the freeway and fortunately sailed right through the border patrol. There was no one even working there, it looked like a ghost town. Where are the minute men when you need them?
I got off of the freeway at Dana Point and we took Pacific Coast Highway for the rest of our journey. We saw a See's Candy store and it was decided unanimously that we should stop and get some breakfast candy. Everyone got their sample and two pieces of their choice. We took pictures in front of the store and got back into the car.
We wound up in Newport/Balboa and it only took us 3 times around the block to find a parking place. We fed the parking meter, one of Paul's favorite parts of the entire vacation, and we were off to have some fun. I asked Paul if he wanted to go on the "horrible cruise" and he said yes. Hannah asked if it was really a horrible cruise then why would we want to go on it?? I explained to her that when Paul was little he confused the word "harbor" with "horrible" and thus he referred to it as a "horrible cruise" but it was actually quite lovely. Right when we got to the boardwalk I heard the announcement for the last call for the harbor cruise. S0 we jumped in line and bought our tickets and went out to the dock and that is when I discovered that I had purchased tickets for the wrong boat. I wanted to go on the nice, two story boat that has a small snack bar and a restroom. The boat we had tickets for looked like someone had just pulled it out of a dry dock and flung it in the water. The seats were all tattered and paint was peeling. Paul was already on the boat and there was no way I would have convinced him that we needed to get off of this boat and get on another one so I decided to stay on this boat and consider it an adventure.
posted by Tami Wyatt at 1:24 PM
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