Preparations for Our First Family Roadtrip...

I had an overwhelming desire to go on vacation this summer. I absolutely love vacations; spending quality time with the family, experiencing different parts of the world, eating out, staying in hotels, seeing amazing sights. When I was pregnant with Veena I had initially thought it would be fun to do Rome in March. Veena would be 5 months old, so not very mobile yet and still just on breastmilk. Easy peasy I thought. Then Veena arrived and she had a very different agenda. The first 4-5 months were very, very difficult. She struggled with breastfeeding early on, had difficulty gaining weight, and cried a lot. She was not the easy go lucky breastfeeding champ I had envisioned when I thought going to Rome in March would be a good idea. Then we had an outbreak of measles which sealed the deal of not traveling out of the country for awhile. Once summer rolled around and Veena was doing much better, I just wanted to go. Somewhere. Anywhere. Europe was out; prices are way too expensive in the summer. Considered Arizona to see the Antelope Canyon but heard reports that it is way too hot to be there in the summer. Considered Georgia, but the price to go to Georgia seemed a bit insane to me (close to 3K) and again the weather would be miserable. I remember a friend posting a picture a year back standing in front of huge trees (Thanks Alicia!) and went on google for an insane amount of town. I googled where the Sequoia's were, what other towns were nearby, what there was to do in those towns and how far everything was from each other. Whenever we have planned vacations, Daniel has always encouraged me to look more local, saying there is so much close by we havent even seen yet! He said, "We've seen more things out of the country than in the country!" I always told him there would be time for that but in the back of my mind didnt think there was anything all that amazing closeby. Weeks and weeks of planning later I had an itinerary set and hotels booked!

I started packing for the trip about a week in advance. I was determined to find an effective way of packing that would reduce the amount of luggage we had as well as reduce the amount of time I had to fold and refold our clothes, especially since we would practically be staying at a different hotel each night. I considered a bag for each day as well as a bag for each person. But in the end I decided on 1 suitcase for the whole family for the entire 8 days and I am so glad I did. I washed all our clothes about a week and a half before we left and I picked 8 outfits, 1 set of pjs and 1 extra outfit and 1 extra pjs for Priyana and Sariah. I picked out about 10outfits and 2 spares for Veena. I also picked out 7 outfits for myself and 1 set of pjs and hounded Daniel for days to do the same for himself. For Priyana and Sariah 1 put one outfit (pants, dress, socks and underwear) for each of them into 1 large (Gallon size) ziplock bag so that each day I could just pull out on ziplock bag and they would each have their clothes to put on. Using the roll method I was able to easily fit both outfits into the bag. Veena had her own smaller bag with each of her outfits individually bagged in a smaller ziplock bag. In the end, clothes for all five of us, including swimsuits, sandals, goggles, chargers, hairbrush, toiletries, thermometer, Sariah's nighttime pull ups and first aid stuff fit into 1 large suitcase...

Here is a picture of the clothing prep area...

Here is the pic of everything after it was placed into the suitcase...

I put the swimsuits along with a tube of sunscreen in one of the outside pockets and I put my hair straightener and chargers in a different outside pockets for easy access. That way when we got to each hotel and wanted to swim all we needed was right there. I also packed a small little duffel bag that contained an extra set of outfits for each kid, sunhats, sweaters in case it got cold, and extra diapers. That duffel bag never left the trunk of the car.

Each kid got to pack 1 backpack with anything they wanted to take. My only rule was that whatever they took had to fit into their backpack. Here is what Sariah packed...

Looks like she was concerned about a possible medical emergency on the way. When she wasnt looking I packed a few my little ponies with combs as well as a few miniature princess dolls to keep her busy. She was thrilled to find them in there.

Here is Priyana's bag...

Apparently she's not a kid anymore and only likes to read books. Good thing when she wasnt looking I also packed extra things to keep her occupied. When Sariah pulled out a My Little Pony and a comb, the shock on Priyana's face was almost one of devastation. They of course knew what the other packed.  I took one look at Priyana and said, "Check for something in the front of your backpack. There she found what I added for her and the smile on her face was priceless.

I also backed a large duffel bag full of food. My kids rarely get "treats." By this I mean, their meals consist mainly of fruits and vegetables. They dont get the typical snacks or treats most American kids get... goldfish, crackers, popsicles, chocolate milk, juice, candy, chips, syrup, whipped cream, etc. It is just not part of our everyday and I hope it never becomes so. When we go on vacation though I let the kids indulge themselves and they love it. I normally pack snacks for them as well as lunch items so that we dont have to eat all our meals out in a restaurant. First off, it wastes too much time that we could be spending sightseeing and second, it can get pricey. I made sure that every hotel we booked included breakfast for us, then we had lunches with us and ate dinner out every night. That has seemed to work well for our family on past vacations. Here are the items I bought before they were put into the duffel bag...

As you can see I also had to get baby food, which Veena has never eaten. I crossed my fingers that she would actually eat it. I also opened all the packages of things such as veggie sticks, cheerios, goldfish and put them in individual snack bags. That way they were all ready to go for each days' adventure. I kept some of the snacks in the glove compartment and side pockets of our car for easy access to throw a cracker at a kid that was talking too much. I am only sort of joking.

The day of our trip I woke up feeling very prepared and excited about our trip. Then I saw it... rain! At first I wasnt worried, I mean its Southern California in July! Then it started pouring and I checked the forecast for each location we were supposed to be at. It was supposed to rain for the first 4 days of our vacation! How is that even possible in Southern California? My initial thought was, we cant go now... this was supposed to be an outdoor vacation. Which meant we planned to be outside in nature pretty much the whole time and we would get soaked. I was really sure there wasn't anyway around it. Luckily for me, the hotels all had a cancellation policy and if I cancelled by 4pm today I wouldnt lose any money. Daniel suggested we cancel. I went back and forth. I really, REALLY wanted to go, but I didnt want to be rained out. I mean, driving in the rain? Nature walks in the rain with two kids and a baby? Didnt sound like fun. I posted on facebook and many of my adventure loving friends advised me not to cancel. I didn't want to cancel, neither did Priyana (Sariah was pretty understanding of the need to cancel due to rain). I thought about how much it would suck if we canceled and then the weather turned out fine. In fact, that exact scenario almost happened to us. The day of Sariah's 4th birthday party it rained. I had been planning this party for over a month and it was an outdoor camping party. It was supposed to rain till 4pm that day; I almost cancelled because I didn't want all the hard work to go to waste. We ended up keeping it as scheduled and the weather report was incorrect... it turned out to be the most perfect weather yet and I was so relieved that we didn't cancel. I believe things happen for a reason; maybe thats a bit of a stretch in this case, but who knows. Either way, we did not cancel our plans. We left that evening when Daniel got home from work for our first stop, a layover in Oxnard. We got there around 10pm. We left all our luggage in the car and merely brought in a tiny bag with our clothes and toothbrushes  for tomorrow. We hung out with Nishen and Geeky for a bit and then went straight to sleep. I just crossed my fingers that the weather would be on our side!

Day 1: Solvang

We got up early in the morning, maybe 6 am, got dressed and got on the road for our first stop, Solvang. I have been wanting to go to Solvang for many, many years. Never made the trip because a 4 hour drive just to see a little town seemed like too much, especially now with little kids. But since we were in the vicinity I definitely wanted it to be a stop on our roadtrip. It actually turned out to be only about an hour from Nishen and Geeky's place. We arrived early and the plan was to go straight to breakfast. I had read online that a Danish speciality, Aebleskiver, was a must have when in Solvang. Apparently they are like a pancake formed into a ball. In Solvang they are served sprinkled with powdered sugar and raspberry jam. So, we headed over to the Solvang Restaurant.

                                                The girls eating their first treat, rice cakes!

At the Solvang Restaurant 

           
Truth be told, I wasn't that impressed with the Aebleskivers. It was like a really poorly made donut hole. Maybe my expectations were too high with all the hype I heard about these things. Glad we got to taste them for ourselves since they are a part of Danish history, but next time I think I'll pass.

After breakfast we took a stroll through the main street in Solvang. It was very cute! One of the stores we went to was full of statues... all the disney characters, a bunch of christmas stuff, rock families, and clocks.

We decided to be brave and venture into the store. He is Daniel giving the girls a stern talking to about how to behave in a store full of breakables. We have no pictures of inside the store because we had a tight grip on each kid the entire time. Literally everything around us was breakable. And the items were so darn cute, I could barely resist touching them, let alone the kids. We made it through the entire store without breaking (or buying) anything. We continued to walk around and window shop.

Whats this?!

Next on the agenda was a trip to Sunny Fields Park. We jumped in the car and drove a few miles to reach this pretty fun park. I fed the baby and the girls played for awhile. It was getting pretty hot, but the kids didnt seem to mind and Daniel and I were able to find some shade thankfully. We stayed about an hour...

After we nearly melted in the sun, we headed back to the main street. We were only a bit hungry at this point so Daniel and I decided to share a meal. We ended up at a Garden Cafe. During lunch we saw a horse drawn carriage pass by. 

Veena's was checking out the kids menu. She finally decided on carrots...

                                        Veena's first jarred baby food. She wasnt really a fan. 

After we ate lunch, we decided that our trip wouldnt be complete without some Danish sweets. We had the option of Danishes or ice cream. Daniel and I both opted for the Danishes and they were awesome. The girls opted for the ice cream and I think they'd say they made the right choice.

                         

                                 Dan's a softy and shared his Danish. Not I!
             

The girls even shared their ice cream with each other. How sweet.

After we finished our treats, we headed to our next stop in Solvang: Ostrichland. Yes, you read that right. The land of Osctriches. If you have never fed one of these animals, you must! They are crazy! And apparently they do bite, luckily they didnt bite us.

                                

The girls were a little scared at first and I dont blame them. I didnt even end up feeding the Ostriches because they were pretty strong. 

 Daniel ended up becoming pretty good friends with these guys.

Priyana was the brave one to go first. Feeding the one right next to the "Yes, we like to bite" sign made it more dramatic.

Sariah took a turn trying to feed the Ostrich.

He had to yell at her for not getting it close enough for him to reach.

Aaaah, thats pretty kid. 

Veena really wasnt all that impressed with them.

Along with Ostriches, there were also Emus. The Emus were definitely smaller and a little more gently in their eating habits. The girls were not scared of these guys. Their mother was. 

We left Ostrichland and headed back on the road to San Luis Obispo. All the kids slept, so no crackers had to be thrown at anyone. It took about 2 hours to get to San Luis Obispo and once we got there we learned that gas prices in SLO are way more expensive than in Escondido. $3.99 a gallon! Craziness. I think when I fill up before we left it was under $3.50. 

We checked into our first hotel and the girls were thrilled. They were asking for the hotel the entire time and actually thought the whole road trip was all about staying in hotels. They love hotels; they take after their mother. 

We stayed at the Embassy Suites. The cool thing about the Embassy Suites is that they offer a managers evening reception where snacks and drinks are free from 530-730pm. So, being the cheap asses we are (I mean frugal), we of course enjoyed those free items.

                                           

Despite being on a trip, still had to make sure the girls got their veggies!

After we filled up on some food and drink, we changed our clothes and headed to the pool.

It was going to be Veena's first time in the pool and we were all swooning over how dang cute she looked in her little bathing suit. But, alas, we felt the water was a little too cold for her. So, the girls and I went in while Daniel and Veena watched. The girls were especially excited because the pool was indoors!

We had a great first day. We brought the pack n play, but Veena had no intention of sleeping in it. The girls got to watch shows on the iPad until they fell asleep, another treat only reserved for vacations.