San Diego: Part One

If you were wondering what it is like to go on a road trip to San Diego with 4 adults, 2 twin 4-year-olds and a 15 month old it falls somewhere between this:



and this:



Yes, that is a pull-up diaper on his head.

This was our first real family vacation and since driving straight through to San Diego from the Bay Area with three children under five sounds about as fun as an unmedicated appendectomy, we split the drive up into two parts.

Our first stop landed us in San Luis Obispo, Grant's college stomping ground and a destination favorite of ours. In the past, we have always done San Luis Obispo on a budget. In college we had no choice and after college we figured it was just good sense. After all, we spent the least amount of time in the room so who cares if it was a two star hotel with a questionable housekeeping policy. But this was vacation and we would be staying with friends once we arrived in San Diego (aka: for free) so it was very easy to justify a two night stay at The Madonna Inn. Known for it's kitschy charm, our room was fairly tame, what with the over-sized, mahogany furniture, horse print curtains and two, giant oil painting of horses grazing the fields. Brittaney and Ryan's room, on the other hand was painted with purple, metallic paint and the wall paper in the bathroom was purple sequin. It is what I believe the "kids" these days refer to as "P-I-M-P."

What the Madonna Inn is also known for is the color pink. To best describe the amount of pink that could be found in the Gold Rush Steakhouse we ate at our first night there, just try to imagine what it might look like if Valentine's Day barfed. The food was really wonderful though. I had the filet that was about the circumference of my son's "95 percentile" head. But even better than our meals was the cake.

Mmmmmm. The cake. I don't really like cake but this is more than just cake. This is cake that is surely crafted by the angels from the fluffy clouds of heaven. It was the only explanation. The kids enjoyed the cake too. I know this because I think it was laced with uppers since shortly after dinner the girls went CRAZY. They were back flipping between beds, wrestling on the floor, ripping light fixtures out of the walls, biting the heads off of chickens. It was sugar INSANITY in "Purple Sparkle Time" room.

And that is when I was reminded of my childhood. A time when I couldn't understand why my parents wouldn't let me have unlimited amounts of sweets all throughout the day. I remember my Aunt Bunky who had an incurable sweet tooth. One Christmas I saw her take a piece of See's Candy from the "Nuts and Chews" box well before dinner and I said, "Why do you get to eat candy before dinner?"

"Because I am a grown-up and when you are a grown-up you can eat whatever you want too." Unlimited candy? Adulthood was sure to be awesome with the promise of an all day candy fest. Of course, she failed to mention the part about bills, a mortgage and body parts starting to "give out."

But fearing a repeat of the night before and knowing it would be our last chance to indulge in a piece of this amazing confection, we did the only logical thing there was to do. Put the kids to bed, send a "grown-up" on a mission for cake and secretly eat it outside the hotel room door in the cold. Because doing things despite your children is the point of parenthood, right?

Brittaney came back from the restaurant and we were giddy as little school girls as we dove into the cake. I didn't think we were being that loud, but apparently they heard us. Ryan went into the room to do damage control.

Madison asked, "Where did you get the coffee?"

"Mommy got it for me from the restaurant."

"The restaurant where we got the cake?"

"Well, yes."

"Well, did you get any cake?"

"No, we just have tea and coffee."

Ella chimed in,"You guys are eating something out there. We can hear it."

Oopps. I felt bad for about 3.6 seconds and then I turned my body to face the closed hotel room door the kids were sleeping in, took a huge forkful of cake and shoved it in my mouth. Why? Because I'm a grown-up who has a mortgage, a bad back and bills to pay but right now, I'm on vacation and I've waited my whole damn life for this. The ability to eat secret, late-night cake, straight out of the to-go box with plastic forks, shivering in the cold, anytime I FREAKING WANT TO!