Good-Bye to California

Our last day in California, we packed up our idyllic little loft and went to the Venice Beach Boardwalk to spend a half-day soaking up the rays of the California sun.  It was a perfect beach day, absolutely perfect, but we paid the price for our dalliance later in Los Angeles traffic.  Oh boy!  But before we knew of the misery that awaited us, we were so happy!  The kids strolled the kitschy little shops along the beach, looking for a few last-minute souvenirs.

We had the cooler packed full of fruit and sandwiches, but we still couldn't resist the $2 fish tacos on the boardwalk.  They were the perfect choice.

One last photo beach shoot.

Happiest kid in the world right here.

It killed me to leave the coast.  I forgot how nice it was to be in California in the summertime, when it's just swimsuit weather.  I love Imperial Beach in the fall and spring, and wouldn't trade it for the world, but high summer is pretty awesome too!

The kids had plenty of time for selfies in the car, as a 3.5 hour drive turned into a 6 hour drive from L.A. to Vegas.  I don't want to talk about it.  But the funny thing is, I felt very zen-like the whole time, very non-agitated.  I even had Bob Marley or someone running through my head:  "Every little thing...gonna be alright."  I kept thinking, as the car threatened to overheat during the 111 degree uphill climbs through Death Valley, "We're safe.  We're safe."  My job was to bring all the kids home safely, not to worry about whether the traffic was slow or not.  So everything was alright, even if we did lose of couple of precious Vegas hours.

But look at my face.  That's not the face of L.A. traffic.  In fact, all of us were pretty relaxed!  :)  I could almost say that I have become a different person over the summer, more "Key West," less "Manhattan."  Honestly, I don't care about a lot of the things I cared about at the end of the school year.  I'm sure things will change when school starts and there are a thousand different things happening every minute, and I'm constantly on the razor's edge of the next scheduling conflict, or the next class time or the next deadline.  It almost makes me sick to think about the stress of the school year, when it's juxtaposed against the freedom of summer.  Scott reminded me that what makes summer special is that it's different from regular life.  I know that's true, but it's still hard to imagine the slog we have ahead of us.  For now...road trip zen.

Everyone had such a great time in Vegas on the way to California, I changed our itinerary on the way home so that we could stay there an extra night.  It was an excellent call.

After fueling up at Subway, I drove the kids to a few of the casinos that they hadn't seen, like Circus Circus, then further down the Strip to New York New York, the Cosmopolitan and their neighbors.  It was a good night.

Taking pictures on the Strip out the sunroof.

While the kids were gallivanting, I drove to the famous sign to make sure I knew how to get there the next morning.  Tourists were out in full force, even at midnight.

Ptolemy was THE BEST SPORT.  I dragged him around Vegas until 1 o'clock in the morning.  Who knows where his shoes were?  Who cares?  What falls off your feet in Vegas stays in Vegas.

The next morning, we seriously could have slept until noon, but we were up at the crack of dawn for the last drive of our road trip.  Destination: Kaysville.  But first, we HAD to see the famous sign.  We couldn't leave Vegas without seeing it.  As it was, there were scores of things we didn't have time to see.  Just like our cross-country road trip last summer, I felt like we were constantly whizzing by places, attractions, and experiences that we didn't have time for.  The mantra of our trip became, "Next time."

But I'm glad we saw the sign this time, because look what we got to be part of!  A real-live Vegas wedding, at the famous sign, no less.  Wow!  And who married the happy couple?

Elvis Presley, of course!  Yes!  He's alive!

I love the filters on this picture because they make Las Vegas look as dreamy as it did to us at the time.  The wedding was the perfect conclusion to our Vegas adventures, and we drove home.  Scott had dinner waiting for us and it was good to be home with Scott and all the other kids.  But still...I had a little Mount Rushmore Moment.  Although the Fab 5 talked a lot about next summer and the next trip and places they'll go, and I know they'll do it, I also know that I'll never again have this group of kids at these perfect ages, in that perfect context.  The nights in the crowded hotel rooms, the days on the beach, the drives through the national parks, the demolition derby, the downtimes with wifi in our Venice Beach loft...those are history.

But what a history it is, and it's all ours.