Day 1463. I went to bed at 2 am, and at 7:30 the alarm already went off. We got up, got dressed, and went to the breakfast room to just get a little to eat, as we had a brunch meeting. After breakfast, I started packing, then Randy loaded up the car. After two months we've become pretty good at it. At 9:30 we drove off at the planned time.
What usually takes 30 minutes took an hour because of traffic, going south on the I-5. The kids were on their tablets, so they didn't care. Just after 10:30 we parked at the Black Bear Diner in Buena Park, in southern Los Angeles. Our friends were already there and waiting for us, and it was great to see them again. We got a table, and we had brought the tablets inside to keep the kids occupied so we could talk. We ordered the food, but Sammy was pretty cranky because he was hungry, so it was difficult until the food came. Still, we had the greatest time catching up and talking, and time went by fast. After two hours it was time to say good-bye. We still had people take our picture inside as well as outside, then we parted ways.
It was time to continue our trip south, but it only took 68 minutes to get to Oceanside. As it was still early, I let them have their tablets, and surprisingly, Sammy fell asleep. I myself was about ready for a nap. I love the ocean so much, and had been reminded of that, that I canceled the first hotel and found another hotel near the ocean. As I'm writing this, I can hear the waves crash on the beach, which is the most beautiful sound to me. During the day there was too much other noise to really hear it.
We got to the hotel at 1:40 and checked in, which took some time. Then we went to our room, that is more like a little apartment, with a full kitchen. There's one bedroom, and the kids were going to sleep on the sofabed in the living room. We pulled it out, and it opened up to a really big bed for them, just right. We were in somewhat a dilemma as Sammy had already slept, but not the others, and they did not want to lie down but to go swimming. After some time I decided they needed to sleep after all, as I needed to, so I lay down together with them on their sofabed. Sammy stayed on the floor to play, and Randy was also very tired and just sat down to rest. Soon Tammy and Emmy fell asleep, while I lay between them and got close to sleeping, but never did. I was listening to Sammy, and to Randy and Sammy interact, and also interacted with Randy.
After a while Emmy woke up, and a few minutes later Tammy did as well. By that time it was Randy who was ready to sleep. We all put our swimsuits on and left the room to walk to the ocean to see what the beach looked like there, then to go to the pool to swim. The beach was really close, but when we got there, I was disappointed to find out that it was all rocks, and it said "beach access closed". It was still good to hear the waves crash. And we later found out that we just needed to walk a small distance to get to a sandy beach. We watched the waves, and the people walking on the rocks anyway, for a few moments, then turned around to walk back to the hotel.
We went straight to the pool, where there were quite a few people, all adults. The kids went right into the hot tub, but we soon went into the regular pool, where the water wasn't cold either. I was amazed how the people there started talking to us right away, and we had quite a few conversations with the ones in the water with us. And they all loved watching the kids. The children had lots of fun swimming and playing and jumping, and I was also having fun with the, throwing them up into the air to let them fall into the water, or throwing them off my shoulders. Finally, no one there to tell us not to do that, like at the public swimming pools or the waterpark. We stayed there for quite some time, then we decided to go back to our room.
It was dinner time, and so I got the leftovers from yesterday and today out and warmed them up. We sat down at our dining room table to eat, which was nice. After dinner, we went out on our balcony, where you can see a little bit of the ocean, and watched the sun go down. It was beautiful.
Then I took Emmy and Tammy to go down to the lobby, where we had seen games to borrow, and I was actually surprised to find two that were age-appropriate. They were excited to carry them up to our room. We sat down at the table and played the one, but there was not enough time for the other one. It was time to get them ready for bed, which took a while anyway. By 8:30 they were in bed, which was earlier than the last few days. Sammy was pretty tired, only having had the nap in the car, so he fell asleep pretty quickly. The other two needed more time. I sat down at the desk right next to their bed and turned my computer on to work. The room has no air conditioning, so I finally set up the stand-up fan, which was nice. And as it got quieter outside, I could finally hear the ocean, even pretty loud. Now it's midnight, and I need to go to bed, as I teach in the morning.
