We took off rather early to head out to Chula Vista and boy, were we cranky. I mean CRANKY! After several days in the car together with limited sleep, close quarters and no alone time at all we were all melting down. In a perfect world, I would have run off by myself and just basked in my own company. But in THIS world, I was heading down to see my Aunt Sandie and cousin Kathy, who I had not seen since I was 7, the age of my cousin Kathy's daughter. I was not exactly at my prime for small talk and hob-nobbing, but our schedule was in place and it was either go or not see them again for another who knows how long. So, I went.
But, in my infinite wisdom, I realized that Kristen had none of the obligations of children or family I did. So, in a 'save yourself!!!' moment I offered to drop her off at a beach while I went down. Tyler Carroll had bragged on a small community called 'Cardiff-by-the-sea', which was about 35 miles north of my Aunt's house, and a well known surf hang out, so I dropped her off and headed to Chula Vista with cranky kids in tow. I can't emphasize enough how cranky the occupants of this car were. I mean, seriously. Lock you and your kids in a small space for days with limited and mostly uncomfortable sleep and let me know how you do. Cranky.
We arrived at 10:30 and it was lovely. Kate had a fantastic time playing with Sydney who, at almost 7 is autistic and in special ed classes in school. With Kate's younger age though, you wouldn't have known and there were no barriers between them. They played imaginary pirates, played on the swing set in her back yard and ran around picking oranges, lemons and grapefruit from the trees. They were lovely. My Aunt played a great hostess and had bought lots of fruit and all the trimmings for burgers and set up a great spot in the back yard for us to picnic in. If I hadn't been so ready to fall asleep, I'm sure it would have been really awesome, but as it was, I wasn't really fit for company. We got there at 10:30, the kids played to their heart's content and then we left again at 2 ish.
We drove back north to pick up Kristen at Cardiff. She had had an amazing time watching and photographing surfer's, walking around the seaside parts of the town and lounging on the shore. Besides her insanely pink skin, she'd had a great day :) We were completely wiped though. I mean totally. This was our most off/down/weird/done day. We drove back up to Altadena, CA to stay with the Bethke's and were immediately at home.
After all of our running and fussing, the Bethke's house was a place of solace. I felt rested as soon as I got there. Rob and Jenny began showing the kids attention and playing with them as soon as we arrived and all the while managed to prepare dinner together. I love the sight of a married couple cooking :) They made us a spread of toppings for a BBQ chicken salad with chips and guac and a bottle of Argentinian Malbec wine. After dinner the kids played with their old puppy, Breka, and then Jack crashed, and Kate fought sleep hard as we attempted to have adult time.
Kristen and I were craving beer, so we went in search at a local grocery store, but couldn't find much better than Miller -the Champagne of beers-, so we went to a local liquor store not knowing what a bad idea that was. It was called "Lindsey Liquor", which sounded safe to me, but I should've had a better look inside before I ventured. I'm sure there wasn't an actual floor down, it was dirty, most of the people inside lacked teeth and there was a guy with a gigantic beer gut in a wife beater standing in the middle of the store just looking creepy. I looked, and then came back out and reported to Kristen what I'd found. And sure enough, as I backed out of my spot, creepy guy was standing in the middle of the store just leering at people and looking creepy. "See.", I said. And we both just bust up laughing.
We finally found a drug store that sold liquor and bought some Fat Tire to bring back. Jenny had made homemade mint brownies and we dug out the last bit of our stash of Djaruum Black Cloves (which are incredibly hard to find any more because of the new law outlawing 'flavored' cigarettes) and we sat around, each with a clove, a beer, and a brownie. Their patio was so peaceful and I fired up my roaster and made them some Ethiopia Yirgecheff as a 'thank you' for their hospitality.
We slept so hard that night. And the next day was the best day ever.
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