Rockin the Mission!

2-1-16

A great trip was had by all!

I was a little concerned when I arrived home on Friday. Ken had spent much of the morning at Hull, lining the fields for 3 hours. I had been under the impression he would be home, and truly when I walked in the door the car would be packed and everything would be done. This was not the case. Much of it had been gathered, however he had not looked at the list I emailed and therefore I found myself a little frustrated and flustered. Luckily for me, I was still feeling rather cocky due to my amazing efforts at work where I was able to map out an application trail for auditors that no one else seemed to be able to do. I also knew I had a couple hours before the boys would arrive home so time was still on my side.

We left the house by 4, which was not too off my schedule. I knew LA would be a bitch to leave, and it my prediction was correct. It almost seemed worse than normal, but perhaps we haven’t headed out so late in the afternoon in some time. Waze took us on some scenic drives in Downtown LA which was interesting. I actually kind of want to go back just to explore a bit being that I never go down there. There was one wacky store that looked like it had all kinds of crazy lawn art that could be a fun addition to Steve. Ken and I have decided it will be our next random adventure.

The good news is there was way less traffic than there could have been. I think it helped that we were not going on any of the upcoming 3 day weekends. There seemed to be a ton of cars heading into LA, but leaving wasn’t too bad. It was a pretty uneventful drive, which I am all for.

We got to the hotel at around 10:30. Our room was right next to the ice machine and right above where we would get our complimentary breakfast. Seriously, we couldn’t have gotten a better room had we asked! The hotel in general was very cool and I liked it a lot, vowing when we left that whenever we travel from here on out I would seek out their locations. The breakfast was quite good for being included. It had made to order omelets and quite a bit of other choices of food in their buffet. It worked out to our advantage for sure.

Saturday morning after our grub, we headed out to the mission. We checked out random sights on the way, including a dock that was very abandoned. It looked as though it hadn’t been used in ages. We could also see the Oakland bridge off in the distance which was fun.

The mission, as expected, was rather piddly. It was the last mission built and only lasted 11 years before it was changed over to a Catholic parish. The original chapel was burnt to the ground by angry Indians due to the horrid treatment the active Father was to them. In fact, all in all it was probably one of the saddest missions in terms of history. Father Serra never set foot in the mission, having died about a century before it was established. I think it would have benefited from some of his leadership for sure. The grounds weren’t even as large as it used to be, what with all of the surrounding buildings having taken over the property.

We went ahead and took the “guided” tour. The lady was incredibly sweet, but not as knowledgeable in being taken off script or how to deal with one kid who didn’t seem interested in history of Adobe. Sadly, said child was the one who should be paying attention. Ha! Bobby was my star student there, answering with enthusiasm all of her learning questions. It was nice to hear how much he had retained from the prior year and it was cool how excited he was at all of it. He could be an amazing history buff someday. I loved watching his mind work.

The tour itself didn’t take long. Really, there wasn’t much to see. The courtyard was small and the chapel didn’t even have pews. It was interesting how much the chapel’s interior was painted so similar to the other missions we have visited. I also really enjoyed the dolls used up by the bible since they seemed so goofy yet amazing since they were most likely made so long ago.

We couldn’t have spent more than an hour there. We walked next door to what was the former barracks that was also a gift shop. That was a nightmare. Dax was still tired and was clearly done with all of this nonsense. He broke down several times when he tried to pick out a souvenir.  He was frustrated finding something for Mrs. Van Wie. He was upset about picking out something for himself. He was upset that we were there. It was a lot of us trying to be very very patient while he tried to calm down. We were going to explore the other sites near the mission but he just wanted to go back to the hotel. I think he thought there would be no time to swim, but really, we had gobs of time. Either way, we closed the chapter on mission work and headed out.

We had passed this one amusement park there in Sonoma that looked super cute. It was Train World or something like that and we opted to stop and check it out. It was mostly for the younger set, what with small roller coasters and rides that had 6 seats that would spin you around. The train looked to be the cutest part, and we decided to go on that. It was really fun for what it was. It stopped near the end of the ride by this tiny pretend town that also had animals to feed like goats and chickens. I was surprised at how much fun we had on something so simple.

We started back to the hotel with us opting to take the 101 back there as we would have a better chance finding food that wasn’t a standard place we always go to. It was at this time Ken noted that Leo Laport had his broadcasting offices near where we were going. So the slight detour took us to Petaluma where we stopped in to TWiT studios. Ken got to go in where he was broadcasting (apparently this is an encouraged thing Leo does) and take a picture with him and even chat with him for a few minutes. Ken was in hog heaven. All in all it was a fun little stop.

We ended up finding a Mexican food place on our way which looked promising. As we headed to find parking, I noted a soccer shop. Of course, we stopped, and Dax couldn’t have been more excited. They had lots of cool stuff and Dax left there with a Barcelona water bottle which made him super happy. The boys both got a pack of soccer playing cards, which they chatted about from that point on. We went to lunch and had some pretty good food. On our way back to the car, we stopped back into the shop where we picked up more cards for them. The super nice guy at the counter also gave them a bunch of stickers with the women’s team on it, which I thought was adorable. I also found necklaces with a soccer ball with the number 11 on them so my mom and I can be super fans of Dax.

We got back to the hotel and headed down to the pool. It was a nice pool, although a bit too much chlorine. That was not great, but you deal with it. I was amused that it stripped out all of the red in my hair. We played with the ball Dax brought and were down there for some time. It was a lot of fun, and exhausting. There were other kids there, but they left not too long into our time there and others came and went. All in all, it was perfect for what we were looking for. Seriously, so many points for this place!

We had to go back to the room for a bit since Dax had homework. Luckily, he got it done pretty quickly. We had gone to the room around 5 and he was done so we could go back to the pool by 6. Dax didn’t think he wanted to go back in, but we had him anyway since I knew he really did. Ken and I didn’t swim at this point since I was exhausted at our water polo antics. Instead, I was able to enjoy the awesome that was complimentary cocktails! Dude, no joke. I was able to sit pool side, rocking multiple rum and cokes while munching on popcorn. It was the best! The boys swam and had fun while we watched. This cocktail thing lasted two hours and the bar was only a few feet from where I was sitting. Seriously, we couldn’t have planned this better!

Dax got tired so he and Ken went to the room and I hung out with Bobby who was having fun. I ran out to get one last drink before the time was up and told him to stay out of the water till I got back. I was gone maybe 5 minutes, but he was so cute, sitting on the stairs of the pool waiting patiently for me. This woman who was there told me how impressive it was that he waited for me. She then sat down next to me to chat my ear off. She was maybe late 50’s, Jewish and has a nephew who is apparently HIV positive and homeless. Yeah, no joke on how much this chick gabbed at me. I guess people are disarmed by my presence. Who knows. Luckily I had enough of a buzz going that I didn’t mind her too much. Plus, I knew Ken was ordering pizza so a text would be saving me soon enough.

We went back to the room a little after 8 and grubbed on pizza and watched Alice in Wonderland on TBS. You could feel the collective exhaustion from the room and I was happy to crash out once the flick was over. Ok, in all fairness I may have checked out even before that point, but I did pretend to watch.

The next morning we got out of the hotel and on the road by about 9. Since Bobby in particular was very excited about the Golden Gate bridge, we ended up driving over it. We also decided that since we were in San Francisco we should take them down Lombard street. It wasn’t as crowded as I have seen it, so it really was perfect. They were impressed with all of the giant buildings and everything going on as we drove out of the city itself. I am glad we took the detour since really it didn’t mess with our time and it was clearly well enjoyed.

The drive home did include a rain storm we seemed to be chasing. It was windy and cold and at one point we even watched a truck almost get blown off the road which was quite scary. There was snow falling on the Grapevine but luckily it didn’t stick to the road which would have made for slow travel. We had some traffic, but we still managed to get home by 4 which was great!

I went through and added the photos to Dax’s report and now tonight we will need to do the bibliography along with some more from him talking about what he thought of the mission since we actually went there. I am hoping it doesn’t take too long, and I am really hoping Mrs. Van Wie doesn’t assign any homework tonight. Either way, we don’t have practice tonight so it should be ok. I anticipate tears, but I think we can get it all done with minimal issues.

All in all, the week is busy, but not too bad. Thursday after practice we go to Sur La Brea for a quick board meeting that is mostly going to be Winter League registration. I would normally be pouting more, but I took Friday off to go to the mission with Ken and Dax so I can get some extra sleep which makes it ok. Plus, the trip will be fun. I wish I could bring Bobby along.

Saturday brings another registration, but it is only a couple hours and it is at Rizzo’s pizza, so the boys can stay home and I get yummy food! My afternoons will be spent cleaning house, getting ready for our game day which looks to be fun. The boys are spending the night at my folks that night since they don’t have school on Monday. It should be a good day for all!

Now I should probably get some work done. Apparently Maryann isn’t in today (would have been nice to know this) so I need to do her crap, too. Bleah.