Adventures in Family

So I'm back from vacation. On the first night at the house in Bodega Bay my dad called it an "adventure in family" and it seemed appropriate to title this entry as such. More on that in a bit.

We drove to my mom's house Friday night, where we proceeded to stay up too late hanging out with my brothers. Saturday morning we were only half an hour into the drive when Luke threw up all over the car...yuck! By the way, the Harley dealer in Carpenteria was wonderful. They let us use their place to clean up Luke and the car.

We finally got to San Francisco at 4pm and spent the night at Jay's best friend's place in the city. He lives in this really old victorian (in a tiny studio) that had old glass doorknobs and I thought was just a gorgeous place. The building owner turned out to be, um, abrasive though. In fact, I had been composing a blog entry in my head about how much I loved San Francisco, and Luke was playing quietly with his legos (Jay and his friend were golfing) when she came up to the door and yelled at us for being "loud all night" according to another tenant. Um, yeah, we were there from 4-6 sitting on the couch chatting, then we went out and didn't get back until 10:45 and were asleep within 20 minutes. I was freaked out by it, and by the fact that I was about to leave to visit Rani in Hayward. Panic attacks while driving in a strange city are not fun.

I had a great visit with Rani and Ann (you two have got the cutest kids!!). Now I have several projects I really want to start after seeing their finishes that they brought. I managed to survive driving over the San Mateo bridge twice (I really hate bridges over water) but I never did get over to meet Tien like I hoped (if you read this, I'm really sorry!).

When we got back to the city, Jay said that there was a group of people that came in at 2-3am (hence the "loud all night" I guess?) but that it was on the floor above us. Well, the building owner stopped us as we were loading up the car and apologized for being rude to us earlier. She seemed like she was something of a busybody and I think since she didn't know Jay's friend was having people over she freaked. Anyway, I felt vindicated. It was amusing because I am the quiet one that has called the cops on loud parties in the past. That's right, I'm a loud partier all night. Ha! Those days are long behind me...

Sunday evening we drove up to Bodega Bay. Desite my aunt's terrible directions (in case you're wondering there is no exit for the 1 at Santa Rosa off the 101) we did eventually get there. The house, well, was a shock. There was nowhere near enough room for everyone and it seemed especially unfair that the cost was divided evenly when there were three bedrooms, my aunt and uncle had one to themselves for half the trip, and we got relegated to the downstairs living room sleeper sofa. Also there was a family invited that is a friend of my other aunt's and there was not enough room and they got a bedroom. Yes, they ended up being really nice, but they offered not to come if there wasn't enough room and my aunts insisted there was. Well yeah, for them, upstairs in the comfy rooms! There was just a real lack of consideration, and it didn't go unnoticed by others (like my cousin from Hawaii who slept on a cot when she paid the same for the house and had to pay for airfare too).

If we go on the group trip next year we will definitely be getting our own accomodations, I don't care if it's more expensive!! It wasn't just the rooms that were awful; there was also a lack of consideration in general. My dad and brother slept on the couches in the living room. Well, they were up until everyone else went to bed, often well after 12, and then my aunt would get up at 6am with other people and they would sit in the room and talk talk talk. Oh, and you could hear everything downstairs; if I hadn't brought earplugs I'd have gone nuts.

It was a strange trip for me; I've always loved my dad's side of the family, but a lot of things bugged me. My grandmother is 88 and she was really short-tempered (or you could even say bitchy without being off-base). I love her dearly, but she kept getting after Luke for various things and he was really quite well behaved. He is just a 4 year old boy with a lot of energy. Oh yes, and then there was the television. Jay sat in the corner watching tv occasionally, and if he got up to use the bathroom or anything my aunt would turn it off or turn the volume all the way down. But of course when she wanted to watch something it was all the way up.

I just got the impression this year that it wasn't really a "family" vacation; rather, it was my aunt's vacation and we were kind of invited along but no one was treated fairly.

It wasn't all bad though; it was nice to see everyone. My really cool uncle came down from Washington with the boat he built five years ago. He designed and built a 15' turn of the century design sailboat and it is amazing. Luke absolutely loved it and we took him out on it three different days. I also visited Fort Ross with my dad and brother and it was pretty amazing. It's this little Russian settlement from the 1800's and there is still a fair bit intact.

Jay and I ate at The Tides one morning, which is the location where they filmed part of The Birds (the gas station fire, for anyone who has seen it). I haven't seen the movie but I have to now that I've been there.

We left Bodega Bay Thursday afternoon and had dinner with another of Jay's friends in SF. Then we spent the night in Castro Valley with *another* of his friends who just had a baby (they also have a boy Luke's age). The boys had a great time playing and I was sorry to leave Friday morning.

After a long, arduous drive we got home late Friday night. I was pretty under the weather Saturday and Sunday so I basically sat home and stitched. I have finished part 3 of Alpine Garden now and am on part 4. I was sad to miss Terri's GTG on Saturday, but I wasn't feeling well and I just couldn't make the drive. Sorry, Terri! I really wanted to see everyone, too. Well, next time I guess.

So that's my long story from last week. Now it's back to work; I have to leave early today to take Luke to his swimming lesson.