Life's Whirlwind Adventures

Have you ever taken a Mom-cation, or gotten one because you've been left alone while the family goes out to spend some time else where? For my own mental health I need these, I get that times are different now and some people could think it's a sign of weakness or poor parenting ability to need to be away from your children for a period of time, to them I say that is their opinion and we will disagree. I love my children and I would do anything for them, but you can't fill from an empty cup, so taking these two to three day sabbaticals is necessary, two to three days where the only person I am responsible for keeping alive is myself. I can listen to all the audio books I want, my own music and eat when I feel like it, not when my children dictate their hunger. This summer I took a mom-cation to Turtle Lake to hang out with my best friend Estelle and her kids.  It was a lovely holiday! By the first day of being there I was missing my kids and was looking forward to s...

Drinking a Starbucks before the flight When I travel, my travels often revolve around where I can eat and the different restaurants I would want to try while i am travelling.  It's just who I am, I am not a foodie, but I suppose I could be.  I enjoy a great meal, whether it's a fancy restaurant or fast food drive through.  Some notable places I have encountered in my travels are In N out Burger, Sonics, The Forest Buffet in Harrah's in Tahoe, and The Byron Cafe on the Byron Highway in California.  There have been experiences that haven't always been good, but I am generally happy with trying new restaurants.  So after my sister took to the bed on our first night in Vegas, I travelled down the strip to find a place to eat. I had looked on line and found that In N out Burger was just down the block and across the freeway from our hotel.  It's literally like a 5 minute walk but it was late at night and I had to walk under the one overpass and I was alone s...

So many times the summers seem to pass by like nothing happened.  Last summer it was the end of the summer and I was like, "WTF... I didn't do anything how can the summer be over already."  That wasn't a completely accurate statement, but I worked all summer and only went away for a couple weekends.  I didn't have any big trips or anything and the summer passed much like the rest of the year. Now this summer is more than half over.  We have been very busy this summer.  And I am now at the point in the summer that if it is more than a day trip, I ain't doing it.  No way, no sir, no how!!!  I am vacationed out and all I want to do is stay at my house and do renos.  Renos may not be that much fun but the thought of just waking up in my own bed, not having to get into my car if I don't want to, playing in the lawn with Little Man put huge smiles on my face.  I love going back to Saskatoon, but even the thought of making that drive for a weekend...

We started our day by heading to the BART station.  It was a half hour ride down to the Embarcardaro Station.  This station dumps you right in the Financial District and you are about 10 blocks from Pier 39 and Fisherman's Wharf.  We were going to catch a bus to Fisherman's Wharf but we decided to walk instead.  The buses that went to the Wharf were old fashioned and looked very crowded.  Ade commented that the passengers looked like sardines in a can.  A truer statement had never been made.  It was the first time Chan and Ade and Little Man had been on BART so it was fun for them I think.  I enjoyed riding on BART, it's relaxing. After arriving in the Financial District we walked down to Pier One.  They have this cool Water Sculpture there, it is metal and has water running out of it.  Chan and I went up and posed for a picture.  It was a pretty cool sculpture, however I couldn't help thinking that at night the homeless may use it ...

So we spent the Fourth of July with my cousins.  We had a barbecue and Darlene, Dave and their kids came over from Tracy. Unfortunately,  no one else was able to come out as they already had plans, but we had a great time.  The kids played, the girls got to visit, the boys visited and we got to watch some pretty awesome fireworks right on the Delta.    The next day we hung out with my cousins and went down to the ocean. As Ade had never been to the ocean it was something we had to do.  We were not able to get down to Santa Cruz, but we made it to Stintson Beach.  It was overcast but it was a super nice beach.  The children played in the ocean, Little Man was not a huge fan as it was pretty cool, Ade dipped his feet in and then took pictures of the waves crashing the shore.  Chan looked for sea creatures and actually found a couple.  That's my oldest, always finding strange creatures.  We drove right by the Nascar race track in Valle...

We left for California on July 2.  It was Adrian's first vacation but we had all been on planes before.  Lucky Adrian got to fly for work :P.  The first frustration at the airport happened when we arrived.  I attempted to sign us in via the self serve terminals, however, because Little Man is an infant that did not happen.  So in line we stood.  After tagging our baggage and the stroller and car seat we were on our way.  It took some time to get going because she had to enter all our names into the computer and since last names are all different she had to type it all in.  Then it was off to customs. I was dreading customs, I always dread customs, because so many times we have problems with customs.  Because Chan's last name is not the same as mine questions are asked, and now I was beginning to feel that because we (Chan and I) were travelling with Adrian (another different last name) that we would have more explaining to do.  Bu...