Road trip!

Yes, we finally broke down and took a trip with 4 kids that was longer than 2 hours. 2 hours has been our limit since Sophia was born. We have been known to fly a plane across country but the longer road trip just didn't seem all that appealing until now. I've really really been wanting to go to Northern California. We've been saying for 2 years now that one long weekend the kids and I would tag along with Rami when he's up there for business. The problem is we never have long weekends anymore because sports and kid stuff usually happens on Saturdays. Last week I looked at the calendar and mumbled to Rami that this Labor Day weekend was actually "soccer free" and was our last long weekend until November. We declared right then and there that YES, we would finally go to San Francisco. We looked at airmiles and we didn't quite have enough miles for all 6 tickets and what a waste of free tickets for what was only a 7 hour drive.

And so it was declared....ROAD TRIP! It seemed exciting at first. Then it seemed overwhelming. But we resolved to do it and have fun. We'll drive through the fertile Central valley (that Isabella was studying just last week in school). We'd go to Sacramento to visit the Capital. We'll tour the Jelly Belly Factory between San Francisco and Sacramento. And, we'd go to San Francisco on the BART (Bay Area Regional Transit) and see Alcatraz.

We left at 6:30pm on Friday night. Our strategy was to do most of the driving while the kids slept so we didn't have them fighting the whole way. We played the license plate game, I did drive by photography at 90 mph and the kids fell asleep just North of LA at 9:30pm. We drove through half of the Central Valley in the dark surrounded by open fields. Rami and I played "guess that smell"...trying to decipher the smell of onions, garlic, cow manure, apricots, etc while driving through utter darkness.

We stopped at a Best Western in Coalinga, CA at midnight and slept for 7 hours and returned to the road...like the warriors we are. The hotel even offered a complimentary breakfast that was more than just donuts and cold coffee. It was quite a spread for a BW int he middle of no where. The stench of cow manure and pee was strong and we later realized we were 5 miles away from a HUGE cattle operation. HOLY COWS! Cows as far as the eye could see. Harris Ranch! There was another family with some kids eating with us in the small breakfast room and we commented that every time they got up someone took their table when they came back (remember this family we'll mention them again)

We drove another 3 hours Saturday morning Spent the day in Sacramento and Fairfield, CA. We ate dinner that night in Walnut Creek and returned to our hotel in Pleasant Hill, CA. Sunday we explored San Francisco and then Monday morning we returned to Southern California. 7 hours all the way with only 3 stops. The kids did great. Now anything less than 7 hours will seem easy.