Day 1458. The kids were in another room opposite to ours, and I hadn't even gone to bed yet, when I heard Tammy who's been battling a cold. I went to her, and she then came with me and lay down in our bed with us. It was the biggest bed yet, so it was not an issue. At some point during the night I could hear Emmanuel and had to go show him the way to our bed.
It was Sammy who was up first, and Randy put him on the floor with his tablet, then went back to bed. When Emmy woke me up, it was about 7:30. Tammy then woke up too, and I got up as I had to teach at 8:30 am. Randy still stayed in bed. I got myself something to eat and prepared for my lesson. The only other table than the dining room table was outside on the porch, so I moved my computer there. That way Randy was able to have breakfast with the kids inside.
It was actually nice teaching outside, as it was not hot yet. And a cat sat down right next to me for some time. I could hear the kids inside. Once I was done teaching, I went inside and finished packing up. Randy then loaded the car up, and it was already close to 10:30 before we hit the road again.
We were driving south and soon reached the coast and saw the ocean. I love the ocean! I had looked at a few options of where to eat by the beach, but in the end we settled with the Chick-Fil-A in Santa Barbara, as it had a playground on the pictures. We stopped briefly for a potty break, then got gas at a cheap gas station ($5 per gallon) in Santa Barbara, before reaching Chick-Fil-A at 12:40. When we went inside, we were disappointed to find out that there was no playground. And so we found a table, and I went to order food for us. We then sat down to eat together. We even got a free cookie because they had forgotten something, when they brought our order.
We had a good time, but the kids needed to move. At 2 pm we got back into the car and drove nearly 15 minutes to a playground right on the beach that I had found online. There was free parking right there. We got out and walked to the playground, where we took our shoes off. Oh how much I love the ocean! The breeze and the sound of the waves! It just stirs something deep inside me, bringing me so much comfort and relaxation. After some time at the playground, we all walked to the ocean to put our feet in. I couldn't get enough of hearing the waves crash on the shore. But Emmy wanted to go back to the playground, so I went with him. Randy and the other two stayed standing in the waves. When Emmy and I rejoined them some time later, Tammy was completely wet, from top to toe, and Sammy's pants were also soaked. We stayed a few more minutes, then left. How I wished I could have stayed! I consoled myself that we're gonna stay 3 nights by the beach next week. I hope I'll get to listen to the waves a lot.
Just after 3 pm we got back into the car and continued our journey south. It was nap time. It took some time and lots of singing, then Emmy fell asleep, next Tammy, but Sammy was still fussing and crying. I finally gave him the tablet with the songs, but put them out of reach. He was satisfied and soon fell asleep as well.
It shouldn't have been a long ride to Los Angeles, and then to the south of LA, to Anaheim, but there's just SO MUCH traffic there. And then there was an accident, so that the GPS rerouted us inland to the I-5 that we then drove south to LA and to cross LA. Our trip ended up taking ANOTHER 3.5 hours, so that all in all we had been in the car for nearly 6 hours today, and covered 256 miles. There was so much traffic in LA that we were moving very slowly for the longest time. At 6:40 pm we finally reached our hotel.
It was one of many hotels right opposite the entrance to Disneyland, and one of the cheapest there, if you can call anything cheap in the area. The long-awaited birthday trip had started! We drove right up to the office and checked in. They even charge you for parking there. We got an upstairs room and walked to our room. The kids were excited, when they saw the bunkbed and both wanted to sleep on top. I suggested they alternate, but that wasn't to their liking, so they agreed to sleep on top together. When bedtime came around, Emmy said he was scared to sleep on top, so he ended up sleeping on the bottom with Sammy.
They started watching kids' TV, while Randy was unloading the car. Randy was very tired. We ate some of the food we still had, then put our bathing suits on to go downstairs to the pool and hot tub. We were the only ones there. The kids were really excited to be able to go swimming again. We went back and forth between the hot tub and the pool. Tammy and Emmy were jumping into the pool and then diving, and Emmy dove quite a distance, which impressed me. Sammy also enjoys it, when I put sit him on the edge from where he lets himself fall into the water. The hot tub was really nice and relaxing.
After some time we went back to our room, where we got them ready for bed. However, I wanted to let them see the Disney fireworks at 9:30 pm, so we waited. Just before it was time, we left our room and stood right outside, looking in the direction of Disneyland. And right on time they started. Last New Year's Eve we had woken the kids up and taken them to the roof of our house to see the fireworks, and they had been terrified. That was not the case tonight. You couldn't really see very much of the fireworks, but just enough. Tammy did ask why it was so loud.
After 15 minutes we went back into our room and put them to bed. It was after 10 pm, when they were still talking, but then they soon fell asleep. As for me, I had a student at 11 pm, which is 8 am in central Europe. Even Randy was in bed by then, and everybody just continued sleeping, while I was teaching. After I was done, I went back to writing my report, but I won't be able to finish today's pictures. It's already 1 am, and we have a long day at Disneyland tomorrow.
