The girls trip to a beach house: Part I

Hey everyone,

Sarah asked me to update you on the wonderful trip we had to Monterey Bay Feb 12^th-14th. What a memorable trip it was! I just want to start by saying that putting aunt Vickie and our mom in the same car for any amount of time is dangerous. The hysterical laughing started before we ever left Vicki’s street at about 5:30pm on Friday night. By the time we finally arrived at Sarah’s house it was already 8pm and I was on the verge of wetting my pants! My stomach hurt so bad from laughing that it felt like I had done 100 sit ups.


Poor Sarah, who was slowly recovering from a terrible flu she had been fighting for weeks, answered the door to a group of cackling hens that she swears smelled like pee pee. She was kidding after all but it made the trip even more thematic. After shuffling our 20 plus suitcases, bags and other mysterious packages inside, we enjoyed some time visiting with Sarah and the family before we settled in for bed. Being the travel nazi that Sarah is, we had a 6am departure time!

At 5:30am Mom is waking everyone up so we can get ready and load the Tahoe for the long, seven hour trip. Thanks to Garrett, the car was quickly loaded and we were on our way, excited and ready to feel the wind in our hair! Um… and our wigs!

My brother Tim and I

We made it about five miles before we decided that we needed coffee and candy, thank you Starbucks and Walmart for helping us start the day off right! About an hour and a half into the trip we communally decide that we were going to make another stop at my brother Tim’s house. We have to love my brother and his wife for this, who else would take a 7:45am call with 4 surprise guest… did I mention hungry, surprise guests? My sister-in-law “whipped up” some eggs, coffee cake, turkey bacon and coffee for us and I must say I could get used to this dropping in stuff. But we had a place to get, so after a few bad jokes and merciless, sibling teasing, we were back on the road heading for Monterey Bay.

As we are rolling down Interstate 5 chatting, laughing and enjoying the beautiful scenery, I was startled by loud “thump” and a high pitch voice yelling "SLUG BUG!" Startled, I look over at Sarah, who is supposed to be driving, and she has this crazed, cat woman look as if she just hit some mysterious jack pot!

Mom and I being ourselves!

She looks over at me, wagging a single finger, and yells "that’s one for me!" I could not help but laugh at her slightly insane finger gestures when I hear a shout from the backseat, "its on!" This from sweet aunt Vickie? Apparently the idea is to spot every Volkswagen Bug on the road and shout “Slug Bug!” while beating the tar out of the roof (in case anyone in the next zip code missed the shouting) all to prove you are the first to spot it and then (drum roll please) you get a point. Huh… I am now convinced that my family is insane and this “game” is gonna get violent!

For the next 3 hours the roof of that car took a serious beating and a few of us innocent bystanders had a near death experience from flying fists (that would be mom and I.) Little did I know that people took this game serious and you had better stay out of fist range if you wanted keep from seeing little stars. If you have ever seen the length of my sister’s arms then you would probably have just crawled onto the floor of the car and rode there the entire trip! Had you happened to be driving on that freeway that early Saturday morning, you would be thinking that four women just escaped from ward B at the local looney bin!

Take them back to the looney bin!

Around 12pm, appetites were kicking in and so we began scanning for somewhere to get a bite to eat, having run out of relatives that live along the route. We spot a rest stop off the highway in the middle of nowhere and I get excited because I see a Subway. Five dollar Foot Longs in February here we come!

We pile out of the car and I elbow my way through the front door first and run to get in line because little did I realize that Starbucks and Reeses Peanut Butter Cups would not sustain me for the rest of the stop-and-go journey. I get my Footlong, pick a table and am well into the second half when I look up and Mom, Sarah and Vickie are standing there, jaws open, just staring at me. I wipe the mayo and lettuce particles from my chin, give them a dirty look and say, "WHAT???? IM HUNGRY!" Ignoring them, I put my nose back to my food and sang “Footlong February” to my own tune.

The "incident" at the lake!

As we finish up our $5 lunches, Vicki wraps up the second half of her foot long, tucking it neatly into her bag. Mom and Sarah also wrap up the second half of their Footlongs talking some nonsense about saving it for dinner. So I gather up the remnants of lettuce and onion pieces, scattered in the vacant spot where my Footlong sat about four minutes ago, and throw them in the trash. Without looking back I trudged to exit door, no longer hungry and decide to graciously hold the door for them, after all I had two free hands since I didn’t have to carry the other half of my sandwich!

Back on the road again we are back to laughing and teasing each other. Most of the jokes geared toward the old ladies in the back seat (he he, still going!). The merciless jesting continued until we had tears rolling down our faces, tummies hurting and in desperate need of a restroom.

We pull off the highway, lured by a sign directing us to a roadside fruit and nut stand that boasted "free wine tasting." How excited are we...fruits, nuts and FREE wine, Jackpot! It was quite a bit more than a “stand” and had a restaurant, store, candy store & coffee ship and a few kids rides. First order of business, we find the restroom and then decide to wander around and see how much trouble we can get into.

We love our mamma!

One of us spotted a pond and we all decide its photo time. Sarah takes a few pictures of us and then tells Vic to take a picture of her, mom and I. So my obliging aunt stands back, aims the camera and tells us to say “cheese.” We wait… and we wait… and she finally yells, ”Tammy! What button do I push?” I look down at the camera in her hand and barely control my laughter saying " well first turn the camera right side up and then push the little silver button on top."

We all bust out laughing and a lady who was sitting on a nearby rock witnessing the picture taking event starts laughing. She tells Vickie "Im sorry but that was so funny even I had to laugh!" The rest of our time there was filled with crazy pictures, lots of laughing and acting like children. Naturally all of the other people there wondered which looney bin we had escaped from. We never did find any free wine though.

A few hours and eleven Slug Bugs later we finally arrive to the beach house! Lets just say that it is an amazing three-story home that we entered on the third floor level through the front door. Just inside the front door there was a bedroom, bathroom and a landing that was open down to the second floor. The whole back side of the house is full glass windows that open up to a balcony overlooking the beach.

The main floor has a living area, kitchen, bathroom and a media room. I quickly claim the media room as my own bedroom and can feel my excitement grow as I continue to explore. Down the stairs to the bottom floor has two bedrooms that both open up to another deck. That deck has stairs that take you down to the beach.

Sisters

Words cannot describe how amazing this house is! We all finished choosing our rooms, so excited to each have our own room, and unloaded the car. Sarah commented quite a few times on how many bags we had all packed… Having been sick I think she was tempted to just throw them from the top landing!

That evening we sat out on the patio eating dinner that mom had prepared ahead of time and sipping various cocktails. We watched the sunset from the patio of the beach house and marveled that it was the first time for mom to be staying in a beach house. The look on our mothers face was priceless.

We began to plot our the adventures for the next day but little did we know how much trouble and laughter were waiting for us!

Tune in for part II next time!

Affectionately,

Tammy