Day Four at Oceanside: Market to Market

It's no secret that vacations can be exhausting. So on Thursday we rested. Charlotte got to sleep in as much as she wanted, and we all had a light breakfast of toast, fruit, and yogurt when she woke up.

After getting cleaned up, we walked to downtown Oceanside to check out the morning's Farmers' Market.

The market ran up one street, and the crowd wasn't too big.

Daphne bought a couple of dresses, and Char got a huge cookie.

I was looking for meat products, but since this was California, my choices seemed limited.

In retrospect I should have at least tried the mushroom jerky, but my inner Iowa Boy just wouldn't let me.

For lunch we drove over to Carlsbad and stopped at Senior Grubby's for a photo op and some grub.

The rest of the afternoon was spent at the beach, but as I said, I left our camera at home. Around 5 we left the sand to wash it off our ourselves, and then we walked downtown again to see the Sunset Market. This market was an entirely different animal. The Sunset Market was all about food. Spanning an X of city streets, there were easily over 50 vendors, and the streets were packed.

This time finding meat was no problem.

The people at LA Gourmet Sausages did a great job of artistically dressing my first meal.

While I was scarfing down my sausage, Charlotte spotted a "balloon artist". Dang! I hate those guys. But Daphne wanted Char to have fun, so she volunteered to stand in line while I brought her food stuff. The first stand I spotted was selling the "Best Fries!" in Oceanside, so I bought our trooper some. Daphne loves fries, and buying these for her made me feel less guilty about not standing in line for a stupid balloon.

The "balloon artist" claimed he could make Disney characters, so I was a bit apprehensive when Char asked for Ariel. But I have to admit, the guy delivered.

More than once a passerby remarked to Charlotte, "That's the coolest balloon I have ever seen!" Each time Char swelled with pride.

Even the Star Wars characters nodded their approval!

(Not really. I just needed a way to weave these guys into this narrative.)

After some mango juice,

and some time spent listening to the live band,

it was time to walk the beach on our way back home and get ready for tomorrow. 

Legoland, here we come! 

sigh.

Getting a Boost

Char moved out of her "baby seat" and into her "booster seat" on Sunday. She is really excited about the change, and Char has asked more than once, "Do I look like big girl, now?" I have to say yes. 

Honestly, it is a bit of a shock to look over my shoulder and see how much she has grown. 

 But what she doesn't know is when I look at her in the back seat, I also see this.

And then my chest tightens a bit.

Day Three at Oceanside: Disneyland

I looked at the bathroom mirror's reflection of my pillow creased face, exhaled slowly, and whispered, "Okay Brent, this is gonna be one looooong day." It was 6:10 am.

The Disneyland 35th anniversary watch was a promotional product that Kodak film gave away back in 1990. Allegedly collectible, I found this watch at the thrift store for two bucks, and a battery from Walgreen's got it going. I thought it would be fun to wear it while we visited Disneyland.

We entered the park at 8:34 am.

The drive to Anaheim took an hour. We spent 15 minutes on the shuttle bus, and then we were standing in line for the bag check. That sucked 19 minutes of our lives away. Our line might have moved faster, but a mother in front of us got caught trying to sneak in a "selfie stick", despite the "No Selfie Sticks Allowed" pamphlet that was handed to everyone. I kinda hated her for slowing us down, but standing in a long line surrounded by sweaty strangers was going to be the theme for the day. Better get used to it.

The one attraction that didn't have a line was the Haunted Mansion. The time slot said it was a five minute wait, but it wasn't even that long. We just walked right in.

The spooky narration that welcomed us into the mansion scared Charlotte, but as the ride progressed she warmed up. When the ride was over she shouted, "I want to do it AGAIN!" This also would be a common theme to the day (tears, then cheers). Here we are celebrating our survival of the Haunted Mansion.

The best part of the Haunted Mansion was that Charlotte was there, and I could experience this through her eyes as well as my own. It was as if five-year-old Brent and 46-year-old Brent were riding it together for the first time. Both of us had a blast.

With my one goal accomplished, the rest of the day was up to Daphne and Charlotte. I was just along for their rides.

Exploring Tarzan's tree house was kinda fun.

But boating into the mouth of Monstro was more exciting.

Daphne took one for the team and rode with Char on our only "go around" ride. Thanks, babe.

Disney had the castle all decked out for their 60th anniversary.

We thought that "Pixie Hollow" was going to be a ride, but it turns out it was a meet and greet with Tinker Bell and various pixie pals. I've watch the new Pixie Hollow movies with Char, so I recognized this pixie as Fawn. I'm not proud of that. We gave her a hard time about bringing the NeverBeast into Pixie Hollow, but she argued that in the end the NeverBeast saved everyone. Charlotte conceded that point, but as we walked away I told Fawn I thought she had just gotten lucky. She laughed.

We then walked ten feet to meet Tinker Bell.

We visited Toontown next. I'm sorry, Mickey, but Toontown is by far the seediest part of Disneyland. The ground was full of litter and the concession stand employees were one step away from being rude.  This visit was our first and last.

Char sat in a pretend car in Toontown.

But the "real" cars in Autotopia were much cooler to drive.

In all, I think we rode about 17 rides at Disneyland. That a lot of rides and a lot of standing around on a hot summer day. We were a bit nervous about how Char would handle the long lines, but she was a champ. She didn't complain once, and that's more than I can say. We stuck around for the "Paint the Night Parade", but we were all getting tired.

We didn't wait to watch the fireworks. We still had an hour's drive before we could rest, and I wanted to get out of Disneyland as quickly as we could. Luckily, the lines to leave hadn't begun, and we could hop right on the closest shuttle bus. Once we got seated, I checked my watch: 9:34 pm. We were in Disneyland almost exactly 13 hours. No wonder we were tired. Charlotte was asleep before our car was started.

I smiled at the bathroom mirror's reflection of my sun browned face, exhaled slowly, and whispered, "Okay Brent, we made it." It was 11:10 pm. 

Tomorrow, we beach!

Watching TV on the Couch...

... can be a team effort.

Our Oceanside Vacation: A Brief Aside

Before I post some memories from our trip to Disneyland I want to admit two things.
Admission one: I don't see colors very well.
Admission two: I'm not that smart.
There. I've admitted it. Don't ask me to repeat it because I'll deny I ever said it. But there you go: two truthful admissions.

My hometown is Inwood, Iowa. Inwood's population hovered around 550 during my elementary years, and it isn't much bigger today. I knew that town the only way a kid can: from the bottom up. That's the way a child grows, and if an adolescent or an adult moves to the town there is no way they will ever know that same town in the same way. You have to be born in a place and grow along with it to really feel its heartbeat.

First you meet the front steps to your house. Then you learn the backyard. Once you've become accustomed to that green grass play mat, you tackle the sidewalks that enclose your block and the alley that slices it down the middle. After navigating that square of homes, you progress to neighborhood exploration. Eventually you discover, and then memorize the whole town. This takes several years, but when you finally earn your hometown degree, you'll be a part of the town and the town will be a part of you.

By second grade I knew which driveways and sidewalks in Inwood would have the best jumps for my bicycle. I knew how to hide inside the conical merry-go-round so I could win hide and seek games in the park. I knew which washing machine in the laundry mat was most likely to have dimes underneath. I knew which church's back door would be open so you could slake your summer thirst in the bathroom sink. I knew which shower nozzle in the pool's dressing room stung the least. By second grade Inwood was mine, and I knew I was its king.

But I didn't know that the Mickey Mouse Club wasn't a current show.

A tiny town like Inwood didn't get the best TV reception, and the closest TV station was located across the Minnesota border. Although I didn't know it, that station ran afternoon programming that was decades old. Wedged between playing summer rec baseball and swimming in the public pool, many of my summer hours were filled with the black and white images of I Love Lucy, Leave it to Beaver, My Three Sons, The Adventures of Ozzie and Harriet, Flipper, The Many Loves of Dobbie Gillis (isn't that Gilligan?), Dragnet, and the previously mentioned Mickey Mouse Club. It's weird, but when I started teaching in '92 I could be sitting at lunch with teachers that were 20 years my senior, and we could all remember being seven and watching the same episode of the Honeymooners.

Let's go back to admission number one. I didn't pick up that these shows weren't new; black and white TV looked fine to me. When the station shifted to color programming like the news at 6:00, I didn't notice that the haircuts and fashion of the people on TV had dramatically changed. See admission number two.

I can vividly remember wearing nothing but my swimming trunks and laying across a vinyl beanbag in our living room while being glued to the TV as Art Linkletter helmed the opening day festivities for Disneyland. I really did think I was watching it in real time, not 21 years after the fact. When I watched a special about the opening of the Haunted Mansion I was enthralled. That was one ride I knew I wanted to try. Ghosts, spooks, and creepy music? It'd be just like Halloween! I couldn't wait to see it. I just didn't know it would take me almost 40 years to get there.

But I did get there.

Day Two at Oceanside: Sea World

This picture was actually taken at the end of our day at Sea World, but it seems like a good place to start this post.

The first stop was to visit the killer whales. We just took pictures here; we didn't stay for the Shamu show.

Char's not the only poser at Sea World. This guy knew how to sit for a camera.

Speaking of posing, here's a conversation we had while waiting for Mom to bring Char a snack.

"Dad, take a picture of me, and I'll pretend a tornado is coming!"

"Okay." (I don't even ask why anymore. I just go with the flow.)

The Blue Horizons show was up next. As you can see, watching these shows is serious business.

Char was too afraid of the Manta Rays to to touch one. She thought they looked like sharks (stupid airplane program). Daphne didn't let the opportunity slide by, though.

We really liked the tv-themed Clyde and Seamore show, "SLL" (Sea Lions live). Here's a clip from "Dancing with the Pinnipeds"

One of our last stops was to see the beluga whales.

Before heading to the beach we stopped at the Cabo Grill and Cantina. We ate here three times. The food was pretty good, and we really enjoyed the rooftop seating. 

Charlotte liked her cheese quesadilla, but she enjoyed dancing to the live DJ more. Since she was the only one grooving, the DJ twice pointed at Char and gave her two thumbs up. Work it, girl!

Day One at Oceanside: Meeting the Beach

I don't enjoy flying. I'm not afraid of heights; I'm afraid of falling from them. But I didn't let Charlotte in on my fears, and so she was pretty excited for her time on a plane.

The first flight took us to Denver, then we had 35 minutes to get on the next plane to San Diego. We made it without any problems, and by the afternoon Charlotte and I were looking at the Pacific Ocean for the first time in our lives. That was pretty dang cool.

This was the only day I brought the camera down to the beach. It's a pain having to worry that it might get wet, broken, or stolen. But I wanted to capture Char's first few minutes in salt water.

If I had any complaints about our first day of traveling, then it would be about the flight out of Denver. The seats on the plane had video monitors installed in the backrests, and for two hours they broadcasted a Discovery Channel program about shark photographers. Even with the sound turned off, the slow motion images of sharks exploding out of the sea with their jaws violently snapping were pretty jarring. We turned off the monitors in front of us, but the show kept playing on all the other seats. Doesn't United Airlines think kids fly too?

On the first day, sharks were on Char's mind.

But she got over it... kind of.

Summer Sunset

After earning miles on our family credit card for over a decade, we decided to take Char on a plane and have an actual  out of state family vacation. Here's last night's sunset in Oceanside, California. 

There's more pictures and stories to come. I just wanted to post something now that we're back home.