Home, Snobby Home

Okay, I'll be the first to admit that my children are not always ideal, but I have generally received positive comments from strangers around me. Not so on my recent trip to the Bay Area. I almost felt like a leper. The way people would stare and pronounce me and my children unclean.

Well, I'll confess, George was very unclean on the ride through the Sierra Nevadas. Three vomit episodes. All over the brand new car. So much for that 'new car smell.' Oh well, we had to break it in sometime. I had Steve calling me on my cell phone, the onstar people giving me directions through the audio system, George barfing in the backseat, and the rest of the kids fighting over who would have to help clean it all up. Wonderful. When I got to the cabin, Jared dubbed my new Suburban the 'vomit comet.'

We spent a few days at the Dickson's cabin. We had a great time floating on Pinecrest Lake. All the strangers there were so polite and helpful.

Then we went to the Bay Area. I took the kids to Point Lobos. Then we went to Carmel. That was a mistake. Since when did Carmel turn into a shopping strip where dogs are required? And not normal dogs, little dogs that look more like rats than an animal that could scare away a potential burglar. I handled the mutt wandering under the stall in the bathroom with grace, but the shoppers in Carmel took it upon themselves to glare at me and my children. Okay, so maybe when cousin Gary spit over the balcony into the garbage can below, that wasn't the most charming thing, but the lady who came to yell had neither been spit upon nor insulted in any way. But she kind of resembled one of those barking chihuahuas I saw walking around.

The next day we went to Sausalito. George was jumping in the kids section of the store. The shopkeeper asked him to go play outside. Well, did the shopkeeper not realize that his mother would go with him? The store was pretty much empty except for me and one other customer. I had my arms full of purchases. I put the stuff back and walked out with George. 

Sam knocked over a temporary rope holder in Muir Woods. As he was righting it, the ranger yelled at him to stop playing around. Again, none of this was that big of a deal, but all put together, I wondered where the carefree attitude of California went. 

I found it the next day in Santa Cruz. Crazy man on the beach doing yoga moves in the waves. It looked like he was trying to calm the waves himself. The lifeguards were busy kicking people out of the water because the waves were so high (I've never seen them that big before), but informed me that we could go in part way.  And no one looked at the kids crazy. They didn't even pay attention to them. Guess we have to stay out of the way of dog toting shoppers.