Road Tripp'n.....Days 1-3

This summer we decided to do something different for our family vacation. Although, I could easily spend every holiday parked on a beach in San Diego, there is a great big world out there and this family is going to do its darnedest to see every inch of it! So we packed up the minivan and headed off for a drive along the California coast....San Diego to San Francisco! This was a very last minute and fly by the seat of your pants kind of trip, making it all that more fun and adventurous! Since we have seen so much of San Diego, it really was just a starting point for us. After a quick night there, we headed for Pismo Beach, about two hours north of LA. It's a good thing we weren't in a hurry because, in typical LA fashion, we were stuck in traffic for about 2 hours! I could tell Trent was really losing his patience but thank goodness for modern technology, because the kids were perfectly entertained! In fact, the only person asking "are we there yet?" the entire trip was me! During this leg of the journey we kept noticing a sulfur type smell. You can only blame a sewer leak for so long before you deduce that the smell must be coming from you. When we finally arrived at our hotel in Pismo Beach, Trent turned off the car and popped the hood. Sure enough the smell was coming from the smoking battery....not good. Then just like a light switched was flip the car died! My very first thought was THANK YOU Heavenly Father! I couldn't believe that after driving for over 5 hours, we made it safely to our final destination just in time to have the car stop working! He's always watching out for us (or maybe it was our guardian angels Clint and Granny :). The most fortunate part was we were near a city and we had planned to stay for 2 days anyway, giving us enough time to have the car fixed while we spent the day at the beach.

Pismo Beach is really nice! There was a lot to explore and funky little shops nearby. The water was absolutely freezing but the kids didn't mind. After spending most of the day soaking up the sun, our car was ready to be picked up. It was at a shop in San Luis Obispo, so after taking a $50 cab ride we picked up our car and then explored the little college town! It is soooooo stink'n cute, with blocks full of darling shops and restaurants. I love a cute town! There was a very cool candy shop, where Trent and the kids bought old fashioned sodas and my favorite shop which was called Batch where you pick out a cookie flavor and ice cream flavor and make a custom ice cream sandwich! Love! A highlight of the town is one of the world's strangest tourist attraction....Bubblegum Alley! Literally, it's an alley where people stick thier bubblegum (some people even made designs with it). Really it's quite disgusting but fascinating all at the same time! It has become such a tradition in this town that there are bubble gum machines in almost every store! The kids and I decided to leave our mark and somewhere on that wall our bubble gum sticks! I could have stayed and explored the town all day long, but Trent and the kids aren't much for boutique shopping. I will definitely be going back with fellow shopaholics. The following day we were off for our next destination....San Francisco here we come.........

Leaving our gum in Bubble Gum Alley