July 2018, California, Day 10

Alrighty, what to do with another free day in California? How about a surf lesson in Half Moon Bay? I scoured the the internet and made about half a dozen phone calls. Finally, I was able to connect with Dave. Surfer Dave agreed to take us on as students. Well,  take on some of us...I decided to opt out of the surfing lesson and serve as the historian for the day. I'd had a surf lesson before and when my previous surf instructor had to break out "Big Bertha the Barn Door" (I liken it to a barge) and I STILL couldn't stand up on the dern thing I concluded that while I am good at some things, surfing might not be one of them. But, Mr Bullington and the kids were totally stoked! Tubular Dude!
Thanks to Mr. Bullington, I learned that we just happened to be renting our wetsuits from one of Outside Magazine's Most Iconic Places! Maverick's Surf Shop! The shop is named for a surfing area called Mavericks that supposedly has some of the gnarliest waves. So gnarly that they tend to kill people. We will only be shopping at Mavericks, not surfing. 

We drove a few minutes toward Half Moon Bay and met up with our sweet instructor, Surfer Dave. Thankfully, Dave brought along a friend to help out with the lesson. I assumed Dave decided after speaking with me that he would need a wing man as well as a wing and a prayer. Dave's instruction was excellent because everyone got up on their board and everyone lived to tell about it!

Charlotte

Thomas

Little Georgia ice cubes

Hang Ten! Or Hang Loose? 

The ever-patient Dave and Holden

After the lesson, the children were STARVING (like we didn't feed them a few short hours ago). We bellied up to a little local dive called Barbara's Fishtrap. Barbara's provided the backdrop for today's daily beverage spill. This time the cascade of ice water landed squarely in my lap and was courtesy of Thomas who was acting like a gnat again. Thank you Patagonia for fashioning my drawers out of quick-dry fabric. And thank you, Thomas. Not. 
He redeemed himself by labeling the huge pile of slaw that came as a side item as "Kenneslaw Mountain". He's witty, that one and I think he's starting to miss home!  

Mr. Bullington pointed us toward our next stop, the oldest tree in America! Her name is Methuselah and she is hellah big. Now, after some research I read that the exact location of Methuselah is a secret. This Methuselah we found on Google Maps and it had a permanent sign so it may or may not be legit. 

Old Lady Tree

Since we were in the neighborhood, we decided to stop at the Oracle Headquarters. Mr. Bullington is gainfully employed by Oracle which affords us the opportunity to see the nation by graduation! Thanks, Oracle and Mr. Bullington!

The Yacht that Oracle built. It won the America's Cup two years in a row!

Y'all get off of Uncle Larry's sign before he sees you!

Over lunch the children decided to wage a prank war against each other and subsequently us.   They chose the highly original name, Vacation Prank War. It started innocently enough, pretending to leave the restaurant while Thomas was in the bathroom, and ended with something far more sinister. Did you know that if you wet, wad, and roll up the cardboard center of a roll of toilet paper, you can sculpt it into something that resembles something of the bathroom nature that shall not be named. If you leave it on the seat it will surprise the next patron of the bathroom stall and hilarity will ensue. I was the target of this particular prank and I will say that the object was incredibly life like! Joy of all joys, I may have an artist on my hands! I hope she will choose a different genre....

Shhh. He won't see us!

We finished up the evening in the cute little downtown area of San Mateo that I will call Exile in Guyville (name that album!). Very close to Silicon Valley, lots of dudes. Where my techie ladies at?

July 2018, California, Day 9

When you last heard from the Bullingtons, they were flummoxed over where in the world they were going to rest their heads for the night. 
After some searching, we managed to get THE LAST room at the Marriott in Santa Rosa, CA. There are Google Conferences, Marathons, and Iron Man races, Oh My!  But, it was in Sonoma County so it fit the bill. We slept late because, well, we really didn't have any confirmed plans and we are real tired this trip. I have had a hard time keeping up with the blog because I fall asleep sitting straight up every night. And, fall asleep sitting straight up in the car every day. I'm not as young as I used to be, y'all. 

D.O.N.E.

After our daily loading of the bags, we headed to Sonoma in time for lunch. After exploring the cute little downtown we settled on a lunch spot, The Sunflower Cafe. Mr. Bullington and I had no trouble deciding on what deliciousness to choose, but trying to persuade Master Thomas to choose between the Smoked Duck Bahn Mi and the Roasted Garlic Hummus Vegan Wrap proved more of a challenge. He chose to dine on dreams and fresh air, washed down with a Mexican Coke. 

Panzanella with Feta foam! Yum!

Mr. Bullington and I have very fond memories of our last trip to Napa/Sonoma, but that was 18 years ago! We remembered a few of the wineries that we'd visited back in the day and then I cross referenced those with a list of "family friendly wineries". It turned out to be a pretty short list,  probably due to the groups of mamas on lady away days that don't want crumb crunchers underfoot at the wineries. I get it. If there'd been a Care.com Sonoma hotline, I would've been burning it up.  This was day 9 after all. Only one day short of day 10, when mama or daddy has a hissy-fit and has to time-out themselves because sometimes being in a car for 10 days just makes you want to poke your eye out or the eye of a loved one. So anyhoo, we settled on Viansa. It is a lovely winery that resembles a Italian Villa but built in California. It has lots of "outside" space. You know, so we can teach the children about farming and agriculture as well as limit the disturbance to our wine-loving comrades. Fun was had by some! And I can rest easily having provided an opportunity for my children to be bored and displeased. Building character ALL up in here! When they pay for vacation, they choose the destination! 

These are grapes. They aren't just for Jelly.  Lesson adjourned.

We'll just sit right here.....

Alright children, sit right here and watch these grapes grow. Mama and Daddy need to tend to some business.

Okay, you can at least sit in the air condition.

The parents Bullington did try to redeem themselves with a Safari! Say what?!?! You are saying, "Fool, you are a long way from the African Savanna!"  One would think that, and one would be right. But,  if you travel to Safari West right outside of Santa Rosa, you can experience the wilds of Africa, sorta.  I try to never plan activities that resemble things that we can do at home. In this case, a zoo. "Will this look like the zoo?", I asked myself in my head voice. The website assured me that this was not a zoo! It is a 600 acre wildlife habitat that you can see perched atop of an old jeep from the Korean war. You can't get that in Marietta!  

The Safari is set up so that your guide drives you through different zones, kinda like Jurassic Park but with more Antelopes and zero Velociraptors (that I know of). The only thing between you and the animals is a hope and a prayer. The tour guide did an excellent job of teaching us about the the habitats and some of the over 600 species that live on the preserve. The climate of Safari West mirrored that of the Sahara because it was hotter than Jalapeno eye-wash! But, it was a dry heat, so you didn't feel like were drowning in a hot humid sauna of death, but cooking to death in a pizza oven. 

This lady was enormous

We capped off the day with some Mexican food. I wonder what we will do tomorrow?!?! Seriously........

July 2018, Oregon/California, Day 8

We woke to the gobbles of a flock of wild turkeys that had roosted nearby. A hazard of sleeping with the birds are the birds. We had to be early birds too because we were scheduled for some horseback riding and zip lining before we left. Mae and I took to the forest on horseback and Mr. Bullington, Charlotte, and Thomas got strapped in to go zip lining.

 We kissed our treehouse goodbye and took a few more turns on the rope swing. We needed to start working our way South. Our first stop was Redwood National Park. We took an amazing hike through a grove of old growth Redwoods. Thomas deemed it Parkour heaven. I have no idea what he was talking about but he took to jumping and leaping on and off enormous stumps and logs. Words, pictures, Haiku, nothing can convey the size of these trees. They are YUUUUGE! They are literally the tallest trees in THE WORLD. And if you haven't ever seen them and you are in Northern California promise me you'll go see the Redwoods. Pretty Please?

Distaste

Love

Those two little ones are trouble!

Playing "The Ground is Lava"

Splinter Slide!

Roots of a fallen tree.

That, my friends, is a friendly little Banana Slug. But, I wouldn't make pudding out of it if I were you.

We had a few minutes in the car before our next stop, so the kids do what they do by day 8.  They slip into a deep coma after 5 minutes in the car and it takes 15 minutes to rouse them. Then they are intolerably grumpy for another 15 minutes. It's like a band of overgrown toddlers with all of the napping. Our crew is worn out.  

Neck pillows and ear plugs unite! High maintenance nappers!

And, why anyone wouldn't want to wake up to the World's tallest statue of Paul Bunyan AND Babe the Blue Ox is beyond me! And guess what? Paul Bunyan TALKS to you! There is some fella sitting somewhere out of sight that interacts with the folks passing by just like the real Paul Bunyan! I mean, if Paul Bunyan was a real talking giant.   Right behind Gigantor Paul and Babe you can make your way through the Trees of Mysteries and up to a gondola ride that goes over the Redwoods, that's high!! Whee! Mr. Bullington's favorite! 

Can you see little Mae? The only Bullington child willing to be photographed.

Hey, Babe!

Sky Trail Gondola!

Squirrel!

We see you Big Foot!

We crammed the children back in the car. We needed to make our way south all the way to Stockton, California. We wanted to be as close to Yosemite National Park as possible so that we could awake early the next morning to get a prime parking spot. We'd heard that the crowds can be brutal in the park this time of year. I was super-psyched because a couple of weeks ago there was a cancellation and I'd managed to land some awesome lodging right at the base of Half Dome! After a driving awhile we must've happened upon a cell tower (cell service has eluded us for the last few days) because my phone started blowing up with emails, voicemails, all the mails really. It turns out, Yosemite is on fire and closed to visitors. Really Ferguson is on fire, but it is filling Yosemite Valley with noxious smoke. Your chance of seeing any of the views has decreased and your chances of choking to death from smoke has increased. The day we were scheduled to arrive,  officials had to evacuate 2000 visitors from the park and they didn't expect to re-open for several days. Life is what happens when you have other plans.....Mr. Bullington and I toss out a few scenarios while I continue to try and navigate him southward, and he's all, "Why am I still driving to Stockton, California?"  and I'm all, "I don't know, they have zero things that are the largest in the world".  In a act of desperation, we both realize that we just need to stop and take a breath and devise a plan. So we go to Wendy's and work it out over a Frosty. We basically have 3 nights without lodging or activities. Thanks to the man upstairs for the reminder that I am not the one in control! Point taken, JC.  We decided to seek refuge in the Bay area of San Francisco because that is our last destination. When Mr. Bullington began to try and book rooms, we quickly learned that San Fran is a busy place this week! Google is having a huge conference, there is an Iron Man race, some other race, summer tourists, et al. and hotel rooms were at a premium. So, we did what any good parents would do.  We decided on Napa/Sonoma. It will be an excellent opportunity to teach the children about.....agriculture.