Ridem Turtle Girlz- Best hard shell busters in the West!

Days Fourteen, Fifteen and Sixteen – This is relaxing

Newport is the closest city to our home on the beach. It boasts a McDonald’s and a Walmart, but that’s about it for city life. We explored the local aquarium and were surprised how much the girls loved it. The traveling display was al about turtles and Syd ran from tank to tank and squealed with delight. It made everyone around us smile. The sea lions were Lauryn’s favorite exhibit. They had a fantastic viewing area. Syd made a little friend in the aviary and they laughed and laughed as the puffins dove under the water and then reappeared to splash the crowd. Eric and I have discovered our favorite thing of the trip – “Live Crab”. It’s a ‘hole in the wall’ fish and chips shop that is to die for. It is busy all day long – really busy. Eric celebrated birthday number 35 on Tuesday and I think he is feeling pretty relaxed and young. I think that was the goal of the trip. The Ironman workouts are going well. Both of us are enjoying long runs on the beach, though Eric seems to like the wind a bit more than me. Tomorrow we move to a new house down the beach, we’ll report on our new digs this weekend.

Bubble Babes- Syd and Lauryn check out the Aquarium exhibit for turtles.

Are you seeing sea stars at the sea shore? 

I think I love nature. Really. "DID IT MOVE?" 

Adventures in Kite Flying a beach tradition. 

Complete Freedom - Run Lauryn! 

Beach Ballet - Sydney Nicole performer 

Our first Oregon house is in the background as the girls pose on some driftwood. 

Days Eleven, Twelve and Thirteen – Home on the beach

We arrived at Piot house early afternoon on Friday. The house is fantastic! It has gigantic windows the whole length of the house. Our beach is about five miles long with maybe five people max on the beach. We’ve braved the local lighthouse and tide pools. I am constantly amazed how well the girls are braving all of these adventures. Both of them dive right into the task at hand – whether that be chasing the waves, flying the kites (holding on for dear life) or touching a sea anemone (enemy to Syd). We’ve yet to see a drop of rain – can you believe it? The highs are in the low 60’s or high 50’s. We plan to grill some local seafood tonight, we’ll think of all of you!

Day Ten – Gold Beach, the real windy city

I knew that the southern Oregon Coast was windy, but I was not really prepared for this. I should add that we stayed on the beach in a tsunami zone (sings and all). The girls were not sure about the wind and the sand. Syd said the wind was making her feet itch, it was really a bit of sandblasting. We had really good clam chowder and sourdough bread for dinner! Looking forward to washing clothes at our first house rental tomorrow – never thought I’d say that!

Day Nine – Driving to Oregon

Big day of driving on tap. Packing is still tight but reasonable. Time to hit the road with my $2.40 gas. Both Eric and Beth thought mapquest was way off when they predicted 7.5 hours for the drive today – we were wrong and they were right. Actually it was a bit longer and we stopped for a long lunch. It really was quite beautiful and we loved the redwoods. I will jinx myself today to tell all of you that the girls are fantastic roadtrippers. They do not cry or complain. Sydney is, oddly enough, nicest to her sister on 7 hour trips in the car.

Day Eight - San Francisco Sites

Eric checked out the Bay Area bike paths before we headed out to check in with the San Fran tourist classics. First off we hit the Golden Gate Park for a nice picnic lunch on the grass. Next up was the ocean side of the city part of the Scenic 49 mile route, no tours allowed, no families of eight or more either. They have some interesting signs here and they are everywhere. Next stop Golden Gate bridge, the Presido, Ghiradelli Square, and Fisherman’s Wharf. We saw the world famous Bush man, street performer and had some laughs. Next was eating Boudin sourdough bread on the wharf with some Pete’s coffee. Now I know why Lance Armstrong loves it. On the way back to the car we saw a world famous rock balancer, it was very cool. Even the girls were impressed. All in all it was a very touristy day, clear and sunny with a nice cool wind.

Day Seven – Chinatown

You forget how long the sun stays out with the northern latitudes. It is great but it seems to have affected our schedule. We are waking later and staying up later with dinner about 7 or 8. It was a low key day, and Chinatown was fun. Illegal fireworks were aplenty and the girls were instructed to find something they really wanted to buy after dinner. We took a random shot at a local eatery. Friendly service, fairly quiet, great Mongolian beef, and Chu’s chicken. The girls loved it, even though it was a bit spicy. Syd would take 4 bites before the fire alarm went off in her mouth, her drink soothed the inferno and she was back to enjoying our dinner outing. The crab and fish tanks were big hits and Syd took some photos to share.

Day Six – Driving to San Francisco

Pretty dull day, drove north on I-5, 440 miles. Saw the world’s largest distribution center for Ikea. It seemed exactly between LA and San Fran. It was so big it made their outlets look like convenience stores. Lauryn took a new nickname today as we passed huge dairy farm. She now will be called Lauyrn “Stinky Cow Bottom” Brandt. That kind of thing is hilarious to a 2 ½ year old.

Day Five - Sara Abby and Syd Ready for Action!

Day Five - Barbi and Steffen get married

Day Five – Barbi and Steffen get married

It was a fantastic day in Newport Beach. As it was our anniversary, Beth spent part of the morning at the local day spa. Barbi made a beautiful bride in a strapless dress and Steffen was a casual groom in a tan suit. Everything had a beach or tropical theme running through it. All of the girls wore flip flops and all of the men had leis instead of flowers. Sydney was a lovely ring bearer in a beautiful dress, but she quickly let us know she would have nothing to do with photos. After a little break she returned to the wedding party, where we let off our stress with a fantastic meal, a couple drinks and a night of dancing. We are very excited for Barbi and Steffen and wish them the best.

Day Three- The Brandts meet Mickey

Day Two- Disneyland 50th Anniversary

Day Two- Disneyland Arrival

Days Two, Three, Four- Can’t Sleep, Too Excited.

It was Disney to the max. None of us had ever done Disney more than one day and we were in for a bit of a surprise. The first day was fantastic. We did all of the Fantasyland rides over and over again. The lines were so short. The new 50th anniversary fireworks were worth the price of admission for the whole day. The second day we braved California adventure and were so lucky with short lines again. Beth felt the earthquake as we were sitting in line for a show. The best part of the day was walking right onto rides at Bugs life because there was no one waiting. The final day we were dragging our feet a bit. Even the coffee with free refills did not help. We were happy to have made it about four hours before we surrendered and headed to the wedding site.

Day One- Are we there yet?

After months of waiting, we fire up the Explorer and head out of Gilbert, at 6:52am. Quick check of the odometer 45,127, temp 83 degrees. Beth and I look at each other both waiting for the inevitable, It took only 17 of the 425 miles from Gilbert to Disneyland for Lauryn to pop the question. “Are we at Disneyland yet?” I guess this is the only true way to kick off a family vacation where car travel is required. We made it to Ca-li-for-nia, spoken clearly by both Sydney and Lauryn. Makes you appreciate the difficultly of the Austrian accent. One state down, then we have Oregon, Idaho, Utah, Colorado, Wyoming, Montana, Nevada and back to Arizona.

Day Zero- Got room for this?

We are 85% packed and 115% ready to get out of Dodge. Here we go with Sydney and Lauryn’s Big Adventure, 53 days of vacation fun and much need unwinding of Eric and Beth. No need for a rear view mirror, just stuff in the gear, load up the bike rack and fill up with gas the value of gold.

This is how to pack a car for 7+ weeks of vacation. You can learn a lot from the Simpsons episode, where Homer uses his Tetris skills to pack the car.

Day Zero- Getting Started