Day Two: California or Bust!

Sunny and Alyssa slept great in the master closet of the fabulous master suite we stayed in at my uncle’s vacation house. I didn’t get a picture of their accommodations, but it was perfect and cozy for them. After everyone had a really great night’s sleep, we packed up and out for California caravanning with our friends the Brock’s.

Once on the road we sampled some fresh baked cookies we bought at Albertson’s the night before. I dare say it was the best cookie I have ever eaten. There were 18 of them in the bag and surprisingly we didn’t eat all of them in one sitting.

The kids got all settled in and enjoyed sporting their new sunglasses we bought in St. George at the Children’s Place.
They also enjoyed some more movie watching.

As we headed through the canyon between St. George and Las Vegas it was easy to tell this would be a trip like no other we have had before. Neither Steve nor I had seen snow on these desert mountains, but they were covered today and it made them look even more majestic.
Even Alyssa who was engrossed in Lady and the Tramp couldn’t help but notice how awesome the scenery looked.

Not only were the snow dusted mountains impressive, but the clouds over the desert were so close to the ground.
They looked like they were hovering about 25 feet off the ground although I’m sure they were much higher. You could also see their movement which Alyssa was impressed and amazed by.

We had to make an unscheduled stop at a gas station/casino on the Moapa Indian Reservation per Sunny’s request to use the restroom. She took her sweet time in the bathroom, around 30 minutes. Seriously. All the while she was singing and talking and cracking up all the other ladies in the surrounding stalls. One lady was so impressed by Sunny’s bathroom serenade that she felt compelled to show me her own kids and grandkids photos by sliding her I-phone under her bathroom stall into our stall so I could see a variety of her grandkids photos…Seriously, this happened.

We figured our friends had long since passed us by during our long potty break. After we headed back out on the road we tried calling them but with no success. This was a little strange because they never missed picking up a single call before. I figured they just didn’t hear the call and as we approached Vegas they would call us. This never happened. We were now in Las Vegas and could not get a hold of the Brocks. I being a big-time worrier (thanks dad) figured there had been a serious accident somewhere along the road way and they were all dead. I probably called each of their phones eight or ten times. My next call was about to be to the Nevada Highway Patrol when my phone rang. It was them. They had passed through Vegas without a thought to stop for lunch like we’d assumed. I was so relived I almost cried. We got back on the freeway and drove on.

As we drove we spotted this little outfit.
I must say, it's pretty cool looking. My only hope is that Steve and I can retire with enough $$ to get us one of these numbers to drive around and enjoy our retirement in. It's a Sokol sized RV. I want one.

Our next stop was in Baker. Thanks to Sunny’s 30 minute bathroom break and my anxiety freakout after losing our friends we missed our opportunity to have lunch with them. We stopped in and had 2 tacos at our vacation favorite hotspot Jack-in-the-box. Yummy! The kids also noticed their first palm tree.
Also Sokol sized.

After our lunch we walked across the parking lot to Alien Fresh Beef Jerky!
We stopped here once before when Steve and I were an engaged couple. It was too funny then, just a little shack. Now it was a store with all this merchandise for sale. A classy establishment, as classy as alien-made beef jerky can be anyway. If you ever find yourself on the road to Southern California, don’t miss making this weird little stop.
It’s funny. Plus, beef jerky. They give free samples.

Traffic through the desert was really slow believe it or not. Steve said it is a result of so many Californians returning home on Sunday afternoon after a crazy weekend in Vegas. Turns out, what happens in Vegas doesn’t stay in Vegas after all. It goes home to Southern California on Sunday afternoon. It was super painful. You just don’t expect to travel 20-40 miles per hour in the middle of the Mojave desert. Very frustrating.
Here's Sunny patiently waiting out the traffic jam.

Turns out the big traffic hold up was the Agricultural stop after Baker which they just waved us through. Really?!? Why even have a stop if you are just going to wave people through. And by the way we totally brought fruit into California. I guess that makes me a fruit launderer. I’m totally going to add that to my resume.

One cool thing we noticed as a result of driving so slowly was a brown recreation sign on the side of the road that said Early Man Site. Since we had nothing to do while we waited in the traffic, Steve looked up the Early Man Site on his phone to see what it was. Turns out there is evidence of pre-historic man here. It’s a rock quarry where they made tools. They are supposedly about 200,000 years old or something crazy like that. We planed to stop for a tour of the site on the way back. Too interesting to pass up.

We finally made it closer to our destination. Up in the higher mountain passes we noticed several cars off the side of the road and all these people having snow ball fights on the side of the road. It was hilarious.
I guess these people don’t see snow real often. They were actually playing in the snow on the side of the road and there wasn't even very much of it. You have to be pretty hard up for snow to play in it off the side of the interstate.

After a painfully slow ride, we finally made it to our hotel. The Comfort Inn Anaheim Main Gate. We were very pleased with what we found. For this trip we finally had the brains to book a suite. This one had bunk beds for the kids. After Sunny’s all-nighter in Moab I swore I’d never sleep the family in the same room again.

After checking in and getting settled, we made arrangements with the Brock’s to take our kids for us while we went to Il Fornio which is the restaurant we went to on our first date.
We were almost 7 years to the day of when we had our first date Good timing for a So Cal Sokol Vacation.
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We had a great time eating fancy albeit little overpriced Italian food. We were really there to have the desert we ate on our first date. Chocolate mousse Crème Brule. Too bad they didn’t have any. What a bummer! Oh well. It's not like we traveled 700 miles to get there or anything.

We came back home after refilling our gas tank for the bargain price of $65 in Irvine. We retrieved the kids from the hotel room 3 doors down and brought them back to ours where they nearly instantly went to bed after brushing their teeth.
They were very tired and so were we. We had a big day for tomorrow. Destination DISNEYLAND!!!