(Michael) It was getting close to Rebecca's first birthday when I realized that I had a bunch of perfectly good paternity leave that was about to go to waste. We figured it was a good excuse to have the ultimate southern California trip. This meant a trip to the snow, the city, and beach all in one go.
We started by heading up to Big Bear since we had heard there had been a good amount of snowfall. While it was still fairly warm and thus not a winter wonderland, we had a good time pulling off the side of the road and taking full advantage of whatever we could get. Rebecca did throw up on the way up the switch backs, but luckily she bounced back fairly quickly. We enjoyed making a little sled paths and Thomas was keen on making sure we didn't run into any bear. We rented a cabin nearby to stay the night. It was fairly rustic and festive except for a large arcade game console in one of the bedrooms. It was nice that Thomas didn't understand when he lost on any of the games, He seemed pretty content to see something move on the screen based on what he was doing on the controls. For dinner we enjoyed some meat pies that we had purchased from a New Zealand couple in our ward.
The next morning we spent a while trying to find a place where we could have a nice snow hike. The tough part was that the skiing places took up most of the good spots in the areas with plenty of snow. We finally found an area behind a bunch of cabins that seemed to be exactly what we wanted. Thomas was thrilled to be out front leading the way, and Rebecca was happy until a face-plant into some snow.
After our hike, we were off to get down the mountain in time to make it to the California Science Museum. My sister gave us tickets to a Pixar exhibit for Christmas, and we had signed up for a particular time in the afternoon. Even though we were sort of rushing, we still found time to stop at one of our favorite mexican food restaurants. Always makes me shake my head that even though we live in San Diego, we feel compelled to go to LA for mexican food. Anyway, it was close but we did manage to make it in time, and had a blast with all of the different exhibits. Although I'm not sure Thomas or Rebecca really understood any of the Pixar movie references. We had tried to give them a heads-up by playing Finding Nemo and Cars on the trip up. Nevertheless, they both loved the interactive displays where you could pull levers and push buttons. We also went to the space shuttle display where I found it a little tough to explain the grandeur of the whole thing to Thomas. He gave me that look of "so it went to space, came back, and then what".
We then went to another Airbnb close by which was a lovely little guest house ajacent to a nice young family. It was hard to put a finger on the theme of our place, maybe hipster since it had a combination of old farming tools, modern glass pieces, and a large record player in the front room. We had to count our blessings that our kids didn't break any of their interesting decor because we had some close calls.
Next morning we were off to the Huntington Library. We enjoyed the drive because Amanda and I love house watching and the surrounding area did not disappoint. So many mini-palaces and estates. The last time Amanda and I went to the Huntington library, it was just the two of us and we loved it. The shear variety of scenery is amazing. We weren't exactly sure how Thomas and Rebecca would like it, but I think it turned out well. Maybe the only issue was that it was hard to keep them on any given path. They would want to climb and otherwise play with all of the roped off endangered ferns.
Last but not least on our adventure was meeting up with my sister's family at the beach. This was probably Thomas' favorite part of the trip because he got some quality time with his cousin Michael. Rebecca also has developed quite the fondness for the ocean.
It was an exhausting but amazing trip and certainly worth going through all the trouble of having a baby.
No comments:
Post a Comment