Road Trippin' 2010

Albert joined the Navy Reserves when the kids were 3, 4, and 5 years old. He is committed to one weekend each month and an additional two weeks each year. This means that he left me alone with three small children for two solid weeks each summer. During these weeks, I used to get pretty resentful when I heard people say, "Thank you for your service." Not to minimize Albert's work, but DAMN, THOSE WEEKS WERE HARD FOR ME. Every day would be a 24-hour challenge of scrambling to keep all Fus alive until Dad got back.

When the kids got bigger, I started planning road trips to Southern California to visit grandparents. Road tripping was about the same cost as flying and renting a car, and it took up more time. We usually ate at a restaurant just once a day, buying food from grocery stores for breakfast and lunches.

The kids have always been good travelers, and we made a lot of memories over those summers. Here is the road trip we took in the summer of 2010, driving from Oregon down the I-5 and across to the 101 to Camarillo. I planned two to four hours of driving and a fun experience each day before stopping for the night in a hotel and tossing them into a pool to wear out the last of their wiggles.

Our first stop was in Winston, OR to see the Wildlife Safari. This is a drive-through park where you can see lots of animals roaming around. One of the highlights was feeding the giraffes.

Another highlight was getting our Suburban washed by an elephant. Their little squeals and voices are so precious.

Also memorable was staying at the Super 8 Motel in Roseburg, Oregon. I had never heard of this chain of motels, and there aren't that many choices of places to stay in Roseburg, population of about 21,000 and kind of out in the middle of nowhere. That motel was Grody with a Capital G. I think my kids still have a visceral reaction whenever they see a Super 8 Motel. This wasn't the first trauma I inflicted on my children, and it certainly won't be the last. Sorry, kids.

After surviving the Super 8 without catching any substantial diseases or being murdered, we headed to Medford to experience the super interesting Harry & David factory tour on which we were provided with free samples of deliciousness. Chris and I posed in front of a giant cheesecake picture that made my butt get bigger just by standing near it. Y.U.M.

After loading up the Suburban with Moose Munch, we drove by Mt. Shasta.

And stayed the night in Redding. The next day, we explored the Turtle Bay Exploration Park. It was SO HOT, and the kids enjoyed dipping in the cool Sacramento River.

This bridge behind Alex is called the Sundial Bridge. It’s a pedestrian bridge that is suspended by steel cables. If you put your ear near one of the cables and give it a sturdy tap with your hand, you can hear the vibration travel up and back through the metal. It sounds like a light saber.

After many days of nomadic living, we stayed put for a few days to explore the Bay Area. On our way in, we stopped at the Jelly Belly Factory in Fairfield. We learned how wild new flavors are created as we rode through the factory in a long Jelly Belly golf cart.

At the end of the tour, we sampled as many flavors as we wanted. We tried yummy flavors as well as yucky ones like “dog food,” “skunk,” “vomit,” “earwax,” and “toothpaste.” Those food scientists are geniuses. I truly felt like I ate a chewy skunk.

Check out Audrey’s little Jelly Belly earrings. They perfectly accentuate those darling dimples.

I was excited to show my kids my alma mater, UC Berkeley. Berkeley was an entirely different experience with three little kids than when I was a student 25 years before.

We did pizza tasting at my favorites: Blondie’s and Fatslice. And of course, we visited Yogurt Park after touring the campus.

In San Francisco, we visited blustery Alcatraz Island

And Ghiradelli Square

We visited the fortune cookie factory and meandered through San Francisco all the way up to Coit Tower. I am grateful that my kids are all pretty adventurous and fit enough to enjoy these experiences.

We had a chance to meet up with my San Francisco cousins. This is the same meal when my cousin, Chris, displayed our family’s unusual drinking problem when he just about poked his eye out with a spoon.

No visit to Berkeley would be complete without ice cream at Fenton’s.

It’s adorable and amazing to me to see the family resemblances. But maybe you’d expect us to look alike since we’re all Chinese.

We stopped at a giant Monopoly board in San Jose and each kid took a picture at their favorite property. Alex chose St. Charles Place. I don’t remember why he liked this place so much. I’m definitely going to ask him when I see him next.

(Edit: "St. Charles Place is one of the three properties that can be traveled to from the Chance deck: St. Charles Place, Illinois Avenue, and Boardwalk. Out of these three, it is the cheapest!" Totally figures that this explanation is completely logical and thrifty, too! Ho-hoh! CHANSSSSE!")

Chris picked Reading Railroad. Looking back, this is kind of spooky. Chris will be graduating this year from Drexel in Philadelphia where the Reading Railroad Company originated. In case you were wondering, tuition at Drexel cost more than $200.

Audrey did not pick a property but the “Go” spot. This makes sense because this is where you get money. Based on the career track she’s chosen and her performance at school, it’s a pretty safe bet that you will always find a lot of money wherever Audrey is.

We visited Hearst Castle, which is always dazzling.

It is so nice now that pictures are digital because I was happy to let the kids use the camera to capture the things that tickled their fancies. Here is something that particularly caught Chris's attention at Hearst Castle.

You probably think that pea soup is the only thing Buellton has to offer, but we visited a place called Ostrich Land USA.

You have the opportunity to feed ostriches and emus at this place. These animals have extremely strong beaks, so we fed them with these hard plastic bowls that were bolted onto metal dustpans. Here is a picture of me feeding an animal with this contraption. It might be an ostrich or it might be an emu. Clearly, I didn’t retain much information from Ostrich Land. The most outrageous thing about this picture is that I am legit still wearing this same shirt in 2021.

After spending several days in Camarillo, we headed back north. In San Luis Obispo, we stopped by the Madonna Inn to admire the décor and so that the boys could pee in the waterfall urinal.

The kids experienced their first flea market were they drank coconut water from a real coconut.

And we Fus are never ones to miss an excellent Gum Wall. The one in San Luis Obispo was remarkably high as if people brought ladders to place their gum.

We were impressed by some very talented gum artwork.

We lunched on clam chowder at the famous Splash Café in Pismo Beach.

We visited the Monterey Bay Aquarium where we accidentally stole a hat from the gift shop. A baseball cap got caught on my backpack, and we were three blocks away before anyone noticed. By the time we walked back to the aquarium, the gates were locked up tight. I suppose we could have had a free hat, but I didn’t want to be a robber, so we left it near the entryway. Maybe someone else has a free hat from the aquarium now.

Passing back through San Francisco, we visited the Exploratorium and made arrangements to experience the Tactile Dome. The Tactile Dome is an exhibit in the museum that is completely, totally dark. You can’t even see your hand right in front of your face. You get to feel your way through a maze in the dome that is filled with all sorts of surprising and interesting things to touch.

The first time I went through the dome was with Albert when we first got married and were living in San Francisco in the early 90’s. It is hot and stuffy inside the dome and a little bit scary. I had a bit of a panic attack back then, but I assured my kids that we could stick together this time and we would be ok. Audrey was very proud to have a little glow-in-the-dark face on her Sleeping Beauty watch that she kept covered with her hand but that gave her a sneaky backup plan.

Our last stop before home was the Oregon Vortex. This is a place that purports to be a mystical place of unusual magnetism so that perspectives are skewed. On the drive to the Vortex, I started getting a headache and felt like I might throw up. I attributed this feeling to the windy road and spending two weeks on the road with three little kids. I was surprised during the tour to learn that many people experience flu-like symptoms in the area of the Vortex. Do not go there if you have a fever or a new or worsening cough.

I don’t remember what was remarkable about this picture. Chris seems shorter than Alex, but Chris IS, in fact, shorter than Alex. I’m seeing that another gentleman is also taking a picture, so there must have been something enigmatic going on. I just don’t seem to remember what it was. At least I got a picture of it, I guess.

Seems like I have some holes in my memory. I wonder how much my kids remember about this trip. This epic road trip was the first of many. What have your favorite road trip experiences been?

Thank you for tripping with us, my friends!