Carpeteria – Days Two & Three

(Continued from Day 1)

Day 2

The next morning was Meg’s birthday – following their family tradition, I played The Beatles “Birthday” for her upon waking up.  Patty made “birthday pancakes.”  Megan opened her presents.  Joe loves his mom like a bee likes “neckter.”

After breakfast, we made our first trek to the beach.  Upon arrival, we turned the little ones loose.  Joe and Sophia promptly got to playing on a mound of tar.  Unbeknownst to me, the mound was actively seeping and Sophie got stuck.  I had to pull her off of the tar, leaving her little sandals behind (if only for a short time).

I took Lilo for a walk (really, a run) down the beach.  She fetched the tennis ball a few times before running far, far from me.  Yeah, yeah, I caught up and leashed her.  I can’t blame her – It’s not too often that she gets to run that free.  Even after catching her, I wanted to help her (and me) get some exercise.  We took off at a full sprint, which something I don’t do all that often.  That section of the beach had an occasional “pot hole” – two inch deep pools of water that you can’t really see until you’re right on top of them. 

Yes, I hit one.  What followed was one of those moments that occurs right before someone falls…  You know, those long, lunging steps as the knees buckle under gravity.  In retrospect, it would have probably been better to have just gone down – I wouldn’t still be aching under strained muscles.  The mildly-sprained ankle was unavoidable at that point though.

Back at the towels, the kids sat down for a snack and I rested my hobbled body.

I relaxed under the umbrella after burying Joe in the sand.  Some accented beach-goers and their little girl stopped by and struck up a conversation.  Their occasional flips to foreign language piqued Patty’s curiosity and she couldn’t help but ask if they “were from around here.” “No. We’re from San Jose,” the woman replied to Patty’s disappointment.  This was obviously not the answer she was looking for…  It sounded to me like Dutch, but I was getting a South African vibe, so maybe it was Afrikaans.Their little girl, who was the same age as Sophia (20 months), was instantly intrigued by Joe’s head popping out of the sand.  She went over and started playing with him after some coaxing from her mom.

After our visitors departed, Sophie was eager to reclaim her brother.

The day went as beach days go, and when dinner time rolled around, we went to The Palms.

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Part of me feels like it’s the icon of a by-gone era.  The atmosphere was similar to The Sizzler during it’s decline.  The receptionist was rude, and the wait staff aloof, but when push came to shove, they gave us four raw steaks for a reasonable price – that’s their thing: you grill your own.  Also on the “plus” side were the croutons, which were pleasantly crisped with copious amounts of butter.

Day 3

The next day came and it would be Mike and Patty’s last with us.  Whereas I lost in-laws, Meg gained hers as my Mom and Grandma Doris made the drive up to spend a day/night/day with us.  I made bacon during breakfast.  As a treat, I tossed Lilo’s food in some of the drippings.  Don’t do that.

We again loaded up our beach supplies and headed toward the beach.  Joe went right back to being buried again.

The seals were birthing at the rookery, causing a section of the beach to be closed off.  We walked over in the designated area and took a look.  I don’t have any pictures for you because you really couldn’t make anything out – the seals camouflaged so well on the rocks.  Funny thing, evolution.

My Mom and Grandma arrived around noon and laid with us in the sun for a few hours.  Grandma talked about how much she loved bringing my mom (and uncles) here when they were younger.  She napped on a towel dressed in long pants, a long shirt, and a wide brimmed hat – the sun touched no part of her skin save the soles of her upturned feet.  You’d have to know her to understand that it wasn’t that weird.

Meg and I went back to camp to get started on planning dinner – penne and sausage in some kind of configuration.  We still needed to figure out the sauce and ultimately settled for jarred.  Hey – it’s camping… you’ve got to make some sacrifices!  The trip to the store faciliated another run by Robitaille’s – and this time milk chocolate honeycomb was on the menu, and Megan got her annual fill.  The Pyromid again served as the heating device for the meat.  Great little thing that is… 

Ang and Lucila showed up after a long anticipated arrival.

We all argued politics (really, economics) around the campfire until we bored Megan to sleep.  We settled off to bed eager to get another beach morning in before having to trek home.

See you in Day Four.