Courtney's Blog July 21st, Day 16 of the Epic McFarland Journey!

You know what I forgot to tell you about yesterday? Well. Remember it is surprise Disneyland day. We get up early, we head out to Luv'n Donuts which is a hole in the wall yummy donut shop that makes you curse Dunkin Donuts for tricking you all these years! So this is what donuts should taste like!! We walk in the front door of the shop and I look back at Gideon. He has this look on his face. I've seen it before. It is not a good look. I ask him if he is ok. He doesn't answer. I walk him outside and he vomits up about 1/2 cup of apple juice. My mind is reeling. Ok, great. Now we can't go to Disneyland. What did he catch? Is he ok? I look down at him "are you ok, Gideon?" He replies "Yes, I want a chocolate donut". Well I'm stil hesitant to feed you puker-star. But none-the-less, we get him a donut and he does just fine. I think he was car sick from looking at what Abby was doing in the car on the way there. After the first 45 "are you ok?"s and "does your tummy hurt"s, we forgot about the incident and enjoyed our time in Disney. To understand just how brave we are....remember, Tower of Terror was the second ride of the day.

But wait, we're braver yet. We go BACK to Luv'n Donuts again this morning for breakfast! No vomit this time, phew. We head off to our first amazing stop - Solvang! This is a town in CA which looks Dutch and embraces Dutch culture! We are excited to see it, but first, lots of amazing shots on the Pacific Coast Highway (PCH) today! Every 3/4 of a mile or so there is a spot where idiot tourists can pull off the windy, crazy, narrow road and onto a dirt turnoff. Here we all try to take pictures to embrace and capture the moment. You can't get it, but it doesn't stop us from trying. I skipped them all that I could but sometimes I could not stop myself and I had to pull over. Thoughts ran through my head..."what if I forget this" "what if there isn't a cliff like that one before it's over" "what if this is the most beautiful moment of the trip". What a beautiful road. The road is so curvy that you are limited to mainly 20 - 40 miles per hour. It's a nice pace, though. Especially with the windows down to enjoy the sea salt air.

We make it into Solvang around lunchtime and decide to park and walk around the city for awhile. We eat lunch at an adorable cafe where they have a chaulkboard for you to write whatever you want. Abby enjoyed it. The kids got gourmet grilled cheeses that they hated (it was too high quality). Adam and I may have helped them through theirs. We filled them up on homemade danish treats, and went off to explore the city some more. There is so much charm in the city, and there are a ton of tourists here. We cross the street into a square when Abby gets mistaken for a local dutch girl. An asian woman comes over and grabs Abby and drags her towards her own daughter. She tells her daughter something in asian which I can only assume was "stand here next to this strange dutch girl". The daughter did the peace sign and her mom was snapping pictures like crazy. It was all happening so fast, like a papparazzi attack. All of a sudden, the mom spots Gideon. She starts yelling something else in asian. Probably "look, another pale dutch child!!!" and grabs him and pulls him in the picture. At this point, I start taking pictures myself. How often do you get confused for a dutch movie star?

We leave Solvang to head out to our next destination...one of the only waterfalls in North America to fall into the Ocean! It is at Julia Pfeiffer Burns State Park. There is a .25 mile trail down to the waterfall, it feels nice to stretch our legs. The waterfall is teeny but honorable. The water is this turquoise blue like in the Caribbean Ocean. It was a beautiful sight and a nice break from the car. Gideon led us back to the car and he raced up the stairs. He greeted us at the top with a "what took you so long" look. Check it out below.

The rest of the ride to our hotel had more beautiful sun-setting sights. I stopped more than I should have, but I couldn't help it. The kids know the drill by now and they sit quietly in the car waiting for me and Adam to finish trying to capture the moment. The frequent, brief, smell of ocean makes you feel at peace and gets addictive quickly. The kids would venture out every once in awhile for some pictures themselves.

Summary:

We should have charged for those papparazzi pictures in Solvang, the PCH is good for your soul, Abigail has beautiful handwriting.

Ended the Day at the Holiday Inn, Monterey, California

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