Still catching up from just before, during and after my quick east coast trip.
Sorry I've been AWOL for a bit.
But I did read both updates just after you posted.
After our late night of swimming, we slept in a little and got to the hotel's included continental breakfast at about 7:40AM.
Only a parent thinks getting to breakfast at 7:40am is "sleeping in".
Highway 1 is the Pacific Coast scenic highway and one of the big reasons that I wanted to do this drive, so I was really excited about it.
It's on my bucket list.
At the time that I was driving this portion (yes, friends, that is foreshadowing), I thought that it was the most treacherous drive I would ever make
"foreshadowing"...
uh, oh.
very narrow road, drop-offs to the side, switch-back after switch-back. I mean, there were no speed limits posted, because it was impossible to go over about 25 miles per hour.
Wow. That bad?
And it gets worse????
Willow: It was a fun drive.
So only one girl had white knuckles on this drive?
You remember Elizabeth, right? Our car? Well, Elizabeth is actually both our car and our GPS system (which lives in my iPhone)
Sounds like Elizabeth has a split personality.
to Willow, they are one and the same because iPhone Elizabeth talks through car Elizabeth's speakers.
Ah. Well that would explain it.
Anyway, Elizabeth did NOT want us to take Highway 1; she was a proponent of the much more efficient but less scenic 101.
less scenic + more efficient = less death defying?
I'm sure some of you are wondering why I didn't turn Elizabeth off.
In my panic to not hold up everyone behind me as we went through the construction zone with people flagging us through and stuff, I LISTENED TO ELIZABETH!
Don't do it!!!!
Too late.
and at this point, I had thought that Elizabeth had finally gotten on board with our desired route
I was really upset. Unnecessarily so, actually. I mean, we would make better time on 101 anyway. But Highway 1 was one of the main reasons that I had decided to do this drive.
I hear ya.
I would feel the same way.
My bucket list is not to take 101, darn it!
It was a TERRIBLE decision. TERRIBLE. I somehow convinced Elizabeth to provide us with a route to Highway 1 (although I was sure she would refuse to stay on Highway 1 once we got there). And boy, did she have it in for us. This road was terrifying - it was desolate; I think we saw maybe 3 cars the entire time. And that 30 or 40 miles took hours.
Don't think of it as the worst thing you've ever done or ever could do...
Think of it as an
adventure.
This road wound through the mountains, often narrowed to one lane with constant switchbacks and cliffs, with the sides eroding along the edge of the cliffs. Yeah, those places where it narrowed to one lane? That was because the side of the cliff was falling off. This drive made the morning's foresty mountain drive seem like a walk through the park with Snow White's little animal friends.
A very, very scary... make that horrifyingly terrifying adventure.
If I had not had a child in the car with me, I would have cried.
Awww... poor Roni.
Instead, I just did everything I could to keep us alive. I have to say, I was pretty proud of my driving skills by the end of this, because we did not die.
Plus. This TR would've been a lot shorter.
A
lot.
Was it worth it to make it back to Highway 1? Nope - not at all.
Sorry. Don't mean to laugh.
But I was so expecting a "Yes! It absolutely was!!!!" there.
but I wasn't planning on being completely deranged with fear before I even started that piece of the drive.
Not many people do plan that.
Takes some of the fun out of it.
On top of that, there wasn't really a lot of Highway 1 driving left before we had to move back inland to get to Oakland.
Oh no! After all that???
Willow found him so charming and adorable that she promptly gifted him with the first souvenir she had purchased for herself - the little blue stuffed penguin she got at the Sea Lion Caves. 
Awww... That's pretty nice.
Willow: Yeah, I liked that penguin, but its nice to give someone a gift. Besides, he was so cute that I couldnt help it! I kind of miss the penguin, but I still feel great that Theo has him.
People will tell you that it's better to give than to recieve...
And they're right, don't you think?
So I thought I would do a double update this weekend since it had been a while and last night's update was pretty short. 
BTW, did you happen to notice my new ticker????????
That's right! This week, I took the plunge and went ahead and booked another trip to Disneyland for Willow's eighth birthday.
Hey! Good for you guys!
We were heading to Alameda - this is where I used to live, so I wanted to show Willow my old house and around my old stomping grounds.
I know that feeling.
I really want to take Elle back to where she spent her first year, but it's prohibitively expensive.
It was totally bizarre being here. I became a parent at an older age (37, to be exact), so being here where I had lived quite a few years of an adult life without children felt strange - it was like I had had two completely separate adulthoods.
Interesting.
I guess it's true about "You can't go home again."
And then, after my brother arrived, Willow and her cousin had a grand old time playing at the zoo, grooming goats, and then riding the little rides that they have set up just outside the zoo area.
Looks like they had a fun time.
Thanks for the updates!
You and Willow both - she has never met a breakfast buffet she couldn't do justice. 
thanks for the inspiration
