<sigh> To paraphrase Uma Thurman in Pulp Fiction.
I'm trying to be like the Poppa tomato who squishes the baby tomato and says "Catsup".
Since we were traveling by car, I did decide that we would bring a cooler with food so that we could avoid eating out for every meal at least during the first few days of our trip.
And right there is my biggest complaint when I do road trips.
Pretty much all our road trips start with a one hour drive south to the Canada/US border.
We can't bring dairy products, fruits or vegetables.
I think probably not meats either. Don't know. Don't wanna risk it.
So bringing food along is restricted to... pre-packaged stuff we can buy cheaper in the States.
So I ended up just parking after fueling up the car and putting together a little lunch plate for Willow to enjoy in the car - we called it her lunch buffet because it consisted of such a variety of things - ham, cheese, crackers, bell peppers, Cheetohs, and I dont remember what else. She was happy with it though!
Why not? Sounds great! Who doesn't love a buffet??
Wait, what? I guess her favorite blanky and pillow-pet Pluto were a little more interesting than whatever was going on outside.
Seems reasonable.
At some point along here, this conversation ensued:
Willow - I just saw a ghost.
Roni - Thats nice
..
Willow - Yeah, it was eating grass.
Roni - [thinking, A ghost? Eating grass? Has she lost her mind???] WHAT???
Willow - Yes, eating grass.
Roni - [thinking, Ooooooh] Did you say GOAT???
Willow - Yes.
Roni - I thought you said GHOST!
For whatever reason, this brought back a memory from over 400 years ago when I was about 4.
We were in a church basement, about to watch a movie.
A man I didn't know, asked me if I knew what "that" was and pointed to the blank, white screen.
I don't remember if I answered, but he said, "It's a cow eating grass."
Dramatic pause...
"He ate all the grass so he went home."
I've told that same 'joke' to my kids. And anyone else who's foolish enough to listen.
We took the opportunity to check out the VERY windy beach.
What an
odd name for a beach!
We ran into the bride on our way back from the beach. Willow has not attended a wedding before (all of my friends were married LONG before I became a parent), so she was just awe-struck, staring at the bride. Amazingly, this lovely young woman stopped on her way down to the stairs to take her to the beach TO GET MARRIED and said hello to Willow and chatted for a few seconds. Willow was thrilled.
Impressive.
A bride on her way to her wedding is so together that she can stop and chat with a little girl?
Very nice.
play at the tennis court. Now this ball was NOT made for tennis courts since it did not bounce
Tennis with a rock?
Ooohhh... fun.
Not.
Nonetheless, we had a wonderful time just goofing around with the ball and paddles at the tennis courts.
So what do I know.
Tennis with a rock?
Apparently fun!
First day of school! First day of school! Wake up! Wake Up! Come on, first day of school!
I love those Staples commercials (assuming you have 'em there too) where
the kids are dragging their feet down the aisles while their parents are jumping for joy to the tune of "It's the most wonderful time, of the year."
And I so agree with them.
So I had to stick in a little intermission, a recess if you will, from the TR to share with you a little real-life update.
Been there, done that!
Today was the first day of school here! Little Miss Willow is officially a big second grader!
Getting bigger!
Nice throw!
I'm going to go out on a limb and say milk from that cow has a lot of fiber in it.
What are you eating there, Willow?
Of course, she had to put on a new outfit and her new boots before we even left for the ride home.
Well, yeah!
Hello! New outfit!
I have no idea where she gets the crazy poses!!! 
Probably from her mom
It's a veritable pose-a-thon!
Thankfully, she is still a Disney girl through and through and just had to have a Frozen backpack (and lunchbox and thermos).
Up here, around the time school starts, if you want a frozen backpack, lunch box and thermos, just leave them outside.
By morning they'll be frozen.
Here she is all ready to head to school this morning.
Growing up way too fast
.
And mom sheds a silent tear, right?
I remember when mine were that age.
Willow took quite a few more. And as you can see, hers were much more creative.
And then our room was ready! Hallelujah!
And there was great rejoicing.
See?
Now, this place is a little more MO-tel than HO-tel, so there arent exactly a lot of employees standing around waiting to help with luggage.
Still, not a bad looking room. Heck, you had a couch!
(If it's a sofa bed... stay far, far away from it. Trust me.)
the cheapest, non-view, MO-tel room was still a whopping $210 before taxes and fees)
I assume the room came with complimentary diamonds sprinkled about?
- and it turned out that all of the rooms in this el-cheapo category are on the second floor. With no elevator. Did you see how much stuff we had just in the back of our car?
erk.
Might I suggest you attempt to
drive up the stairs?
I am not comfortable leaving luggage in a car in a motel or hotel parking lot overnight,
Especially not, no, definitely not if it's visible like it looks like yours would be.
so it all had to come in, which meant it all had to come UP the stairs.
My back hurts just thinking about it.
I went ahead and asked the nice front-desk person if there might be someone who could help us. She called someone right away, and THAT, my friends, is how we actually ended up with our belongings in our room that night.
Phew!
maybe I would have felt differently if I had spent even more money and actually been looking out at the ocean.
Nope.
Because if you had, guaranteed that there'd be thick fog so you
still couldn't see it.
We liked the Surfitdes take on the Do Not Disturb sign.
Should have asked for one for Willow's room.
Right Willow?
Now, at this point, we were both kind of beat and just happy not to be in the car (or the Surftides lobby). So we chilled in the room for a little bit.
I love that time.
That's my "aaaaah" time.
Great time to regenerate some energy.
All you had to do was post that picture.
Would've saved yourself a lot of writing.
I had a Caesar salad and fish tacos (sorry about the taco pic - I had scraped off the aioli that I had requested be left off, so they look a mess).
How was it?
Willow ordered mac and cheese, which she said was awful - no cheese taste at all.
Nothing better than mac 'n cheese... except if it's awful.
Too bad.
Nice of the waitress to bring Willow something else, though.
The price did not include the entertainment though - that was just a bonus!
This should be good...
Now, when dining out, I generally am focused on my food, talking to my child, trying to tune out the sound of my child incessantly telling me about a Sofia the First episode - wait, what? I would never do that!!!
: No, of course not.
We parents are
always 100% focused on what our 'lil darlings are saying.
Yup.
Uh, huh.
So the table across from us was one of those hard-to-miss train wrecks. There were two parents, a teen girl, a boy about Willows age, and a toddler. The toddler was throwing fish on the floor - like, just hucking it across the way - and smearing tartar sauce all over the booth.
Step one.
Too young to dine out apparently.
Parents, get in there and
parent for Pete's sake!
The young boy was refusing to eat anything because he didnt like it and was instead playing a handheld video game device thing. Classic.
True. But not in
my house.
No way, no how.
The teen seemed quite pleasant at first, but a closer look (obtained when she got up and started the athletic portion of their evening) noted that she was dirty, FILTHY dirty
Weird. But maybe something happened that she couldn't change, so I'll give her the benefit of the doubt.
and then she spent the last part of the meal just chasing the toddler all over the restaurant laughing.
No, no, no, no, no, no!
You do
not let your child run free in a restaurant!
EVER!
And it's not just because it annoys the heck out of everyone else, it's a safety hazzard.
Unless the parents
want the server to spill an entire tray of hot food on him.
The parents didnt seem to mind at all - they were drinking a bottle of wine and chowing down.
Oblivious.
Ugh.
It was crazy! The booth was just DESTROYED when they were done - food everywhere, silverware all over the floor, food in the walkway, etc. I felt terrible for the busboy who came to clean it up.
Don't you just want to leave an extra tip for him?
Sometimes I wish I was rich, just so I could do that.
Thanks for all the posts!
I'll see if I can catch up!
But finally made it over. Haven't read a thing, yet. Getting ready to go back and read, read, read. Rainy here today, so I have an excuse to do nothing 
Too bad ya didn't snap a photo of your dinner entertainment 
I love people watching...ya never know what your gonna get 
