Archive for August, 2018

Vacation Recap 2018, Part 4

Continued from last week

Day 6

This was a day of more bus rides. We started out with a good breakfast at the hotel, albeit very crowded. Then off to the street behind the hotel to catch the bus out to Ballard. We hopped on, rode for a bit, made a transfer, rode for a little while more, and ended up at the entrance to the Ballard Locks and Botanical Garden.

image of the Ballard locks in Seattle

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Vacation Recap 2018, Part 3

Continued from last week

We drove from Santa Cruz, CA to Monterey, CA. It was a little over an hour, if I remember correctly. Not much to see, other than farm fields and the occasional glimpse of the ocean. We made it to our hotel in Monterey without any incident.

image of the Holiday Inn Express in Monterey

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Vacation Recap 2018, Part 2

Continued from last week

We flew from Phoenix, AZ to San Jose, CA. It was a quick simple flight, but a little later at night. We arrived in the evening, got another rental Dodge minivan, and headed out to Santa Cruz. Since our hotel was to have a fridge, we stopped at the grocery store on the way. Probably about 9pm, so I stayed in the minivan with one sleeping kid and one not-wanting-to-walk-around kid while the others went shopping for the next couple days worth of snacks and lunches. I’m sure I stood out as a non-local, because I was not driving those hilly curvy roads as fast as the other vehicles.

We checked into the Seaway Inn around 10pm. On the plus side, their front office is open 24/7 so check-in was not a problem. On the minus side, they have a small parking lot, so we had to unload and then I had to park around the corner.

In the morning, I took the younger two kids down to breakfast. We were there just after they opened, because we weren’t quite on Pacific time yet. We then went back up to our room, told the others we were going to the ocean, and left.

This is the view from our window: across the street was another hotel, and beyond that hotel was the ocean.

image of the Seaway Inn in Santa Cruz

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Vacation Recap 2018, Part 1

We took a longer vacation this year, so there are a lot of photos. I won’t share all of them, but it should be enough for you to get a feeling for how it went.

First off, a flight to Phoenix. The plan was to have all carry-on luggage, nothing checked. So everyone had one large (carry-on size) bag and one small (personal item size) bag.

The fun started at the airport parking. Because we were going to be gone for about two weeks, I parked offsite. So we parked and then had to get in the shuttle – 6 people and 12 bags. The kids obliged the driver and gave him a number of bags to load in the back, which meant I had to give him a number of dollars for a tip. I saw that as a learning opportunity for the kids – one of the many new experiences they would have.

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Birth Place

We were at some place that wanted to indicate what certain areas of its establishment were for.

image of a place for birth to 4 year olds

Of course I’m posting this because I thought they worded it oddly.

Do they really think women want to give birth to 4-year-olds? It’s enough work and pain to bring forth a 0-year-old. Multiply everything by about five (weight, height, gestation time) and I think no one would sign up for that. Plus there was no privacy and it was fairly unsanitary as far as maternity wards go.

No wonder that section was empty.

In case you’re wondering, I think they meant “A space for 0- to 4-year-olds” or “A space for kids up to age 4.”

The Lord visited Hannah; and she conceived and gave birth to three sons and two daughters. And the boy Samuel grew before the Lord.

1 Samuel 2:21