Horseback Trail Riding With Amaya—or—The Day I Spent Stoned on Benadryl

When we checked in to the campground, Amaya overheard the attendant mention that they offered horseback trail rides. The next morning she was up at the crack of dawn begging me to take her to the stables and sign her up to ride. They said that she was old enough to ride, but it was $90 a pop and they didn't have any openings for a couple of days. After several hours of her pleading to ride, I finally agreed to spring for it. Of course it wasn't until after I had told her that she could go, and we went to confirm the reservation, that they mentioned that she was not old enough to participate without an accompanying adult.... who would also be charged $90.  Right. So, what started as an expensive treat turned into a doubly-expensive affair obliging me to go along for the ride. Ugh. Ok, it was too late to bail now without major drama, so I decided to play the hero and chalk it up to a super-special morning of father–daughter one-on-one time with Amaya.

Amaya and Her Trusty Steed, Cappuccino

We got up early, had a good breakfast, and headed to the stables. The woman "wrangler" was a super-crunchy, affable lady in her 50s who welcomed Amaya with a big smile. The horses, for the most part, had been working here for several years and were pretty tame trail steeds accustomed to following each other around. I was a little nervous at first, but it became clear pretty quickly that my horse (Chestnut) was not going to venture more than a nose-length away from the tail of Amaya's horse (Cappuccino).

Tail Trail

The trail ride was beautiful. The scenery was much like that from the hike with Keiko the day before, but we travelled much further into the pine forest and much higher up into the hills. Amaya was having a great time, of course, and I was starting to enjoy myself, too, until I began to notice that I was getting a stuffy nose. I started sneezing and then getting a bit short of breath. Crap. I was having an allergic reaction to something—presumably the horse. It wasn't a terribly bad episode and I didn't want to spoil Amaya's ride, so I toughed it out—but it wasn't much fun. By the time we were done, I was wheezing pretty deeply and had a splitting headache. It didn't help that were were barely able to walk back to the RV when we were done! Spaghetti legs!

Amaya and Daddy, Horseback

I didn't have much of a choice but to pop a Benadryl when I got back, fully knowing that this would pretty much put me out of commission for the rest of the day. That stuff just turns me in to a zombie. We had a lunch date with Rachelle's friends Gail and Hector Gonzales, who were driving from Oakland to meet us at Half Moon Bay. The allergy symptoms went away within an hour, but I don't think I was much of a conversationalist at lunch. We spent some time walking down the old Main Street in Half Moon Bay, but Hector didn't feel well either, so we headed our separate ways sooner than we had planned.

By the time evening came, I was feeling better but needed to get some fresh air. Rachelle and the girls watched the Muppet Movie (which I had already watched with the girls the night before while Rachelle was passed out). Since we had already extended our stay by an extra day and this was going to be our final night at Costanoa, I decided to take a little hike on the trails down by the shore. A cold wind was blowing and it was starting to get dark, but I'm glad I didn't miss this.

Pigeon Point Lighthouse

Costanoa Beach Trail Boardwalk

Costanoa Beach Trail

View from Trail

Rocky Coastline

Close Up

Danny!

Danny Marquess, an old buddy from my Stanford days, had us to dinner at his house in Half Moon Bay, just a half-hour up the coast from Costanoa. Originally from Ireland, Danny did his graduate work in England and then came to Wender's group for his postdoctoral studies. The last time we had seen him was at his wedding in Whales in 1997! He worked in the UK for a few years and then moved back to the Bay Area as one of the first employees at a startup pharma company. Now,  that startup has become a publicly traded company called Theravance and Danny is the Vice President of Medicinal Chemistry! As a strange coincidence, the spouse of our newly hired bioorganic chemist at Williams had been working at Theravance for the last 7 or 8 years before moving to Williamstown just as we were beginning our RV adventure. I think that Danny would be pretty cool to have as a boss.

I frequently invited Danny to join me for lunch at La Casa Italiana at Stanford—where Neb lived and I paid for a dining membership. That place was awesome and we had a lot of good times (mostly outside of the lab). We all still remember the spaghetti carbonara that the Italian chef would make for lunch once a week. I have never tasted better.  There lots of stories involving Danny, but few that I can tell here. My favorite semi-acceptable story about Danny was from one time when Neb and I were talking to him about college days. I asked him what were the european equivalents of drinking games like "quarters" or "whales tales" or "thumper" or any of the silly games I played with friends back in the day. Not skipping a beat, Danny retorted, "Tom, I'm from Ireland. In Ireland we DRINK. We don't f#@& around!"

Not As Evil As We Look

I guess some things never change. Danny must have pulled out 5 or 6 bottles of (amazing) wine for us to sample over the course of the afternoon and evening. I don't our gracious hosts originally intended for us to spend 7 hours at his house, but his three kids (Ryan, Harry, and Katie) seemed to have a pretty good time playing with Keiko and Amaya (thank God for the Wii) and we were busy eating and drinking like kings. It was really nice to catch up. They have built a nice life there. I hope they'll come visit us in Williamstown sometime and let us return the favor.

Fortunately, Rachelle was able to drive us back to the campground...

Mama Arrives!

...and then sleeps for 14 hours.

Rachelle finished up her work in the Berkshires and managed to get an earlier (6 AM) flight out of Albany. She was due to arrive in San Jose around noontime ad would be driving a tiny rental car (super cheap deal) from the airport to our campground (about a hour's drive). Keiko and Amaya were totally amped up about her arrival. We didn't have any plans for the morning. Just a time to recharge before Mama arrived. We slept late and walked to the Pine Tent for pancakes—as big as plates. We borrowed a real volleyball from the activity center and played on the grass court for about an hour as the morning fog burned off to reveal a stunningly clear day.

The only (minor) bummer about Costanoa was that there was no cell phone service and the campground WiFi coverage was spotty and unbearably slow. I discovered that if I walked to the very front of the property and sat under the welcome sign, I could get a semi-reliable signal. This was a relief, because Rachelle didn't know exactly where we were and I was able to email her directions and let her know that she wouldn't be able to contact me by phone. It's pretty funny that once you start to rely on the instant mode of communication and navigation that the smart phone provides, it's surprisingly disturbing when it's not available. I had hoped to catch up on my blogging, but instead ended up taking advantage of this off-the-grid situation to spend more time enjoying the natural beauty of the place. Not such a bad thing.

Rachelle arrived in her nano-compact car, we had lunch together—finally cooking up some of those Costco tamales—and Rachelle was fading fast. She had spent the last week putting in extra hours at work, coordinating a special group trip to the James Taylor extravaganza at Tanglewood, and preparing our garage loft apartment for new tenants—who would be caring for all of our animals during our trip. She was whipped. Rachelle and Amaya had settled in to watch a movie together in the RV bedroom and before long Rachelle was out for the count. Keiko, however, was full of energy and acting like a kook. She needed to get her ya-yas out.

Keiko Billy Goat

I needed to get some exercise and it was a beautiful day. There were well-kept walking trails on the property and Keiko agreed to join me for a hike. We decided to take the trail up to an overlook in the hills. The scenery was beautiful and we saw some cool wildlife. In fact, at one point on the hike, Keiko walked around a sharp corner in the trail and let out a startled "aaahhh" when she brushed up against a wild deer that was grazing on the path. It took off like a shot and scared the crap out of both of us. Pretty cool, though. 

Hiking In The Hills Behind Costanoa

Signpost Up Ahead

The Keiki Trail

Flowering Nastiness

At the overlook, someone had built a little bench so we spent some time there soaking in the view. It was a 3+ mile loop and we hiked for over an hour, total.

View from the Overlook

Enjoying the View

Meadow View of the Hillside

View Back Toward the Lodge

The Garden Path

Every time I return to Northern California, I am reminded of the special smell of the place. The pine and eucalyptus and grass combine to produce an odor that instantly transports me back to my days at Stanford. Mercifully, with the passing of 16 years, the traumatic memories have mostly faded and now I can appreciate what a cool place the Bay Area was live when I was in my 20s. It still amazes me that you can be surrounded by people and traffic in suburbia at one moment and then, after a 15- or 20-minute drive, you can be in a completely remote area alone with only nature and your thoughts. Here we were, just 30 or 40 miles away from San Francisco, but it was like we had the whole California coast to ourselves. Pretty awesome.

Coastal View

Costanoa Arrival

Just North of Santa Cruz along a remote stretch of Pacific coast is a fancy retreat called Costanoa Lodge.  Neb had told me that this place also had a campground on its property and that it was not to be missed. Sure enough, this was the sweetest "campground" we have ever seen. Just a beautiful setting with the coast on one side of us and rolling foothills on the other. On one side of the property was a beautifully manicured RV park and the other side was the Lodge, Restaurant, Horse Stables, Spa, Activity Center, Hospitality Centers (immaculately kept bathrooms/showers) and little canvas "tents" for upscale visitors. Patrons of the RV park were welcome to use all of the other facilities, so we started by enjoying burgers (and a draft local beer for me) at the "Pine Tent" upon our arrival after a long day at Monterey. We had reservations for three nights. Not too shabby.

The Pine Tent at Costanoa: A "Campground "with Beer on Tap...

"Tents"

"Hospitality Center"

The girls improvised a game of soccer/volleyball while I got the rig hooked up. Rachelle was due to fly in the next day, so the girls were exited for her arrival. We all crashed pretty hard that night.

Volleyball/Soccer: AKA "Fingersmasher"

Monterey

Welcome!

Dad, we don't want to go to the aquarium. Aquariums are BORING. You promised that you wouldn't make us do educational things that we don't want to do...

This is the kind of crap I have to fight all the time. I wasn't going to back down on this one, though. I told the girls, "Trust me. This is the best aquarium that you'll ever visit. Just wait, you'll see. We're going."

We had to backtrack about 20 miles South on Route 1 to get back to Monterey. I was nervous about parking, so I had spent a good while researching places to park that could accommodate the RV. Google maps is an amazing thing. I set the view to "satellite" and was able to inspect all of the possible lots until I found one with big enough parking spaces.  A cool trick that I will use again to inspect congested RV driving destinations. Parking was a non-issue—if you don't count the $16 fee. It was a 10 minute walk from the parking lot to the aquarium, so we stopped in to feed Amaya's new coffee addiction (Thanks Neb. It's decaf, but still....).

I don't see what's so hard about parking this thing, Dad.

Do you think 5 packets of sugar will be enough?

The day started off chilly, but Monterey is a beautiful spot. I love it there. As a graduate student, I would almost always bring East Coast friends/family there when they visited me. Tim Farnham, my classmate from Williams who is now a professor of environmental studies at Mount Holyoke College, worked as a tennis pro at Pebble Beach during one of his boondoggles before graduate school. As I recall, his grandmother owned a house right next to the "Lone Cyprus" on 17-Mile Drive that is the symbol for the Pebble Beach Club. I remember that she had a Scottish "house boy" named Duncan who drank a lot of beer with us, and the rest of my memories about visiting there quickly grow fuzzy.

By the end of our coffee break, the sun was breaking through the clouds and we had a lovely, caffeinated walk to the Monterey Bay Aquarium. We started right in on what looked like the best exhibit: The Jellies Experience. There was psychedelic music, lights, and art  throughout the display. There were jellyfish in crazy shapes and colors, jellyfish that were fluorescent, and even jellyfish that gave emitted light.  When we got to the end of the exhibit, Keiko said, "That was the coolest thing I've ever seen. This place is awesome. Thanks for making us go here Dad." Go figure. 

We toured the special exhibit, The Secret Lives of Sea Horses next. It was pretty cool, too, but it would be hard to top the jellies. For the most part, these were creatures we had never seen before. I think I had seen a tiny sea horse once as a kid, but this display was unbelievable. I took a lot of pictures, but most of them didn't come out well. This one of the crazy sea dragons was the best. 

Leafy Sea Dragons

Keiko and Amaya were really keen on seeing the sea otter feeding. It wasn't going to start for 30 minutes, but they wanted to make sure that they got pole position, so they camped out in front of the glass viewing window and waited. It was a good thing that they did because the place was packed and pretty soon people were 6 rows deep. The sea otters were cute to look at and swam right up to the window. The feeding only lasted about 10–15 minutes, but we got to meet the narrator woman afterwards and ask her some questions. I asked if they ever give the otters shellfish still in the shell; they only seemed to feed them soft food while we were watching. She answered that they do give them shellfish in it's 'natural' state elsewhere. It turns out that if they give them food with the shells still intact while in the display area, the sea otters use the glass windows as a surface to smash the shells on, and then they have to repair all of the scratches in the glass.

Sea Otter Feeding Time

After a (ridiculously overpriced) cafeteria lunch and a stop by the gift shop to buy two (somewhat overpriced, but totally cool) sea otter t-shirts for the girls, we hit the road. Getting the RV out of Monterey was a bit of a challenge, but Google Maps saved my hide again.

Under the Sea

Really, Dad? You're taking another picture? Really?

 
 


















Our next campground was only about 70 miles North on Route 1, but traffic and the curvy road would mean that we'd have a 2+ hour drive. One thing for sure, it's a lot less nerve-wracking to drive the RV with an adult co-pilot in the passenger's seat.  Rachelle would arrive the next day. Couldn't wait.

Heading North from Monterey

Moss Lading Chill

Our first-thing-in-the-morning quest was to find some coffee. This was a surprisingly difficult undertaking for two middle-age men, three little girls, and a tiny dog. After wandering the area surrounding the campground, we were pointed back to a coffee shop on Route 1 by a local artist who was continuing to build his sculpture garden. (I particularly liked the re-purposed school bus.) Amaya, who always steals sips of my coffee, was offered her own decaf cafe au lait by Uncle Neb. Thanks, Neb. Will you be teaching her to smoke nicotine-free cigarettes next? Anyway, everyone had a nice time and we delivered coffee to a thankful Laura and a doughnut to groggy Keiko.

Neb and family had a 6-hour drive back to LA ahead of them, so there wasn't too much time to play. We decided to take a walk to the beach, despite the cloudy and misty weather. We should have known to get the girls into their swimsuits because they simply can't resist playing in the waves—no matter how cold or windy the conditions. The adults weren't able to last very long at the beach, though, and we headed back to the campground. The Meisels showered, packed up, and the girls waved goodbye Super Cucas Shuttle for the last time. I knew I'd be seeing Neb again in a few weeks, but Keiko and Amaya won't see Lea and Sophia anytime soon. We hope that there will be some kid-applied pressure to visit Williamstown when the Meisels are in Eastern Massachusetts or Burlington, VT where Laura's family live. Nevertheless, the girls were sad to see their new friends depart. They were a good fit and they had a nice time together.

Ahhh, Beautiful Views of the Power Plant

Should we go in, even though we don't have our swimsuits on?

After the Nebster Family left, we spent the rest of the day just chilling out. Keiko and Amaya befriended a girl their age in the campground, so they played some soccer and palled around for most of the afternoon. I gave the RV a much needed interior cleaning. The RV had a vacuum cleaner in the back closet, but we hadn't used it yet. It managed to remove some small fraction of the grime we had deposited on the rugs—and as a bonus, filled the camper with a singular odor, something akin to that emitted by a damp dog. We had been living with seven people in the RV for the last five days.  For the next two days, it would just be me and the twins. A bit tight for a party of seven, but very spacious for just the three of us. After cleaning up, I just spent the rest of the afternoon catching up on email and doing a little blogging. There hadn't really been down-time for any of that while the Nebsters were aboard. It was good to have a few hours to wind down after six days of go, go, go.

Soccer Buddy Sophia

 

Juggling Practice

Sophia's Family

Just as I was starting to contemplate what I might fix the girls for dinner, the two of them came busting in to the RV to ask if we could join their friend, Sophia (yes, another Sophia) and her family for chili. Shaa! I brought a six-pack of beer along and we had a nice Fourth of July cookout. Once it got dark, they asked if we wanted to join them in a short road-trip to set off (illegal) fireworks. Double Shaa! We piled in their giant crew-cab pickup truck and headed to a deserted parking lot near the beach. They weren't crazy fireworks like we experience with Rachelle's family in Hawaii on New Year's Eve; they had a bunch of fountains, some Roman candles, and a few aerials. Sure enough, it wasn't long before a police cruiser showed up. Great, I thought. Just a few hours supervising the kids on my own and we're all going to jail. It turned out that the cop was cool and just told us that we should stop, but he intimated that if we sent up a few more while he drove away that he wouldn't be able to see them...

Tame, but still illegal

Water Park! and Moss Landing Throwdown

We asked for a late checkout at the Wine Country RV Resort so that the kids could get their fill of pool time before we had to head north to Moss Landing. The kids had about 3 hours in the campground pool and then we walked, literally, across the street to the Ravine Waterpark. It wasn't a huge operation, but had a wave pool, a lazy river, and a few super-fast slides. Neb announced that he had never been to a waterpark before and we were all dumbfounded. His kids had been before, but he had never taken them. The kids (and Neb) had a great time. We all screwed up our courage to try the "toilet bowl" slide where you shoot down an enclosed tube and then rocket out into a bowl-shaped funnel where you "circle the bowl" a few times before dumping out of the drain into an 8-foot deep pool. That thing was unbelievably fast. It took my breath away (not to mention a microlayer of skin off of my back). Poor Sophia really wanted to ride it too, but she wasn't tall enough to make the 48" threshold. We were at the park for almost 4 hours. Despite the liberal application of SPF 50 sunscreen, I felt burned. The kids had that look of being completely wiped out, so Neb and I congratulated each other on a successful mission. 

To the Waterpark!

Moss Landing, our destination for that evening, was a few hours' drive away. It is located on Monterey bay about half way between Monterey and Santa Cruz. The kids watched movies the whole way and didn't make a peep. Neb drove the the Shuttle and Laura kept me company in the RV. Time flies when you're sharing crazy parenting stories. We arrived just before dark and the campground attendant suggested that we check out Phil's Fishmarket and Eatery out beyond the marina. It was a nice walk across a bridge and through the marina before we found a funky little place where you order at the register and they bring the food to your table. Turns out that this place was recently featured on "Bobby Flay's Iron Chef Throwdown" (or some such thing) and the proprietor's famous chioppino had beaten the Bobby Flay's attempt at the same dish. None of us tried the chioppino, but we all were fully satisfied with the huge portions of delicious food at a very reasonable price. Neb picked up the tab, so that was even better!

A Three Hour Tour...

Suck it Bobby Flay...

This Meal Rocks!

The Road to Hearst Castle—or—The Day I Wore My Red Sox Hat to Hide A Scalp Laceration

OK. Every day on this trip so far, I've worried that the kids were going to smash their heads on the corners of the protruding slideout units on the RV. I guess I should have worried more about my own noggin...

Today was the day I had reserved seven tickets to tour the upstairs of the Hearst Castle at San Simeon at noon. Our departure from Morro bay was delayed a bit and we had decided to drop off the RV at the Wine Country RV Resort in Paso Robles and drive the Super Cucas Shuttle up the coast to the mansion. In my haste to connect our rig to the water/sewer/electric hookup, I made a quick turn right into the edge of the raised metal access door panel. After uttering a few choice four-letter words and pacing around until the pain started to subside, I noticed a wet feeling on my forehead. If any of you heard about Lee Park's head's encounter with the ice surface at Lansing Chapman Rink about 12 years ago, I can assure you that my injury was much less severe—yet I still lost a good volume of blood. Scalps bleed like you can't imagine without experience it yourself. Fortunately, I was traveling with two physicians. Laura sized up the situation and, after stopping the bleeding, fitted me with a fashionable piece of cotton gauze from the RV first aid kit and a foot-long piece of tape that ran from temple to temple. I donned my Red Sox cap to try to conceal the dressing—which now made me look like an even crazier head-wound victim who had something to hide. I was embarrassed and had a pretty good headache, but was otherwise OK. I think the kids were a little freaked out, though. Somehow, I had managed to keep from bleeding on my clothes, but my hands looked like I had been gutting a deer or something.

(Photo removed to limit graphic content)

As a result of my little tete-a-steel, we were late for our Hearst Castle tour. Fortunately, the guides were able to accommodate us on some later tours, but we had to split up into two groups. It was really cool to see the upstairs room in the mansion. My favorite was the "guest library. I've decided that our home living room renovations should be modeled after this.

See the Gauze?

Neb and Da Girlz in front of a Guest House

Corner of the Guest Library

It was another beautiful California day and the views from the castle grounds were spectacular. Driving down the windy path from the castle made us all a little queasy, but might just have been residual effects from the head wound.

Pacific Views from the Mansion

Time for a Quick Dip?

Aaahhhh.

The pain of my unfortunate door encounter was made much more bearable by the wines we tasted at the Opolo Vineyard on our return drive. The Paso Robles area is the new Sonoma/Napa Valley wine region in California. There were at least 50 vineyards we could have stopped at along our route, but we chose this one because Neb had enjoyed their wines at Costco... Despite their warehouse appeal, I found their wines to be very enjoyable. All told, we tasted about ten wines. Neb signed up to be a "member" and I was able to use his membership discount to buy a few nice bottles of wine to share with Rachelle. Meanwhile, the kids were in the parking lot throwing rocks. I would have been more attuned to this were it not for the distraction of my pulsating head wound and current state of inebriation.

Amaya at Opolo Vinyard—Wine Tasting?

Just in case we hadn't proved our parental ineptitude beyond a doubt, we punished the girls' behavior by taking them for a swim in the campground pool and treating them to dinner at the Firestone-Walker Taproom in town... Truth be told, they were quite well behaved all day, especially given that a number of our activities were not particularly kid friendly. Overall, another great day for everyone.

Cut Her Off. She Can't Hold Her Root Beer!

Firestone Walker Taproom, Paso Robles