The kids were initially disappointed but thrilled when we called a family meeting to decide on a new location/venue. They threw out ideas like Disneyland, the local park (so humble) or the beach. Finally, we all agreed...we'd take our first train ride down to Santa Barbara and visit the Zoo, Stern's warf and downtown Santa Barbara. So, I'm off work tonight at 2:30 am, get home by 3 then leave our house by 5:30...mamma will be sleeping on that train tomorrow!
I love weekends like these, just us, together and happy, relaxed.
I'll post pictures and details tomorrow.
We're back now, the trip was...interesting.
The train was great, the kids were a bit antsy but it was tolerable. They were more concerned with playing musical chairs and eating everything I had packed in my pink backpack. Gus seemed relaxed, at peace on his first train experience. He spent most of the trip completely unengaged with the rest of us starring out at the passing scenery. I felt happy to see him feel calm and enjoying something for himself. It always seem hard for him to unattach from us and to not feel obligated to be helping. I loved it, loved the little moments I shared with each of them as they came and went from the seat next to me. We read stories, drew pictures of animals, talked and spoke of what we might see at the Zoo.
The train arrived to the pleasant Station in old Towne Santa Barbara on State St. We sat at the bus stop feeling confused if we were in the right place...after about 45 mminutes we found out we weren't! Some lovely family walked by and directed us to the proper loading location a few blocks away. As we walked, we enjoyed the nostalgia of the neighbor and talked of the temptation to just walk the rest of the way. But knowing the complaints we'd get during the 1 mile walk we agreed not to. We sat at the bus stop bench next to a grassy area at Stearns Wharf watching in silence at everything and everyone around us. There seemed to be a large transient population that all appeared to have some interesting talents. We saw a 3 legged dog, some neat tandem bikes, and eves dropped on passing conversations. As we waited for the shuttle, there was a an older gentleman driver of a parked tour trolley nearing us, he asked if we were going to the Zoo. After we answered he offered to take us at no cost since he was without a fair at the moment. The trolley had no windows and you could sit at the edge of your seat with your arm resting on the side and feel the breeze on your skin. We all sat at our own bench not saying a word.
Once we arrived at the zoo it looked fairly quiet, not too many people. It was perfect, it happened to be kids science day so they had extra exhibits and activities for the kids to do. They offered an insentive of stamps and prizes for completing each science booth. A large group of otter had recently been born and were very rambunctious running and swimming from each end of the enclosure to the other. I got instantly tired just watching them.
We saw snakes...Ben's favorite, elephants, giraffes, gorillas and swans.
Ellie loved the black swans and was shocked when we showed her she could feed them from the swan food coin machine. We convinced Gus to put some pellets in his hand and see if they would get that close to grab it...they did! He survived with all his fingers and we moved onto the train ride after a nice lunch...that nobody ate :)
We walked down Stearn's Wharf past some interesting methods of monitary solicitations by local transients. Each had a booth along the pier on the sand that has some sort of coin game. On used twigs to hold up plastics cups with a cardboard sign saying something about see if you can make it in. Underneath on the thick blanket was littered with different demoniations of coins even a dollar. I thought to myself, what sucker would do it? Who cares? As I look over to see Gus' reaction, he was smiling and reading the signs as he reached into his pocket...what a sucker!! He tried and missed a few time so we walked on. We visited with a transient street water painter, pretty good. He offered the kids free stickers of his art and Gus slyly slipped him an unknown amount of money. He's always so generous and sees the good in everyone, commenting he prayed for our kids to make whatever choices that landed these people in that situation. I reassured him we'd never let that happen. After buying the kids candy we started our walk back to the train station. We stopped for smoothies to rest our feet and finally got back where we started. We had a bit of a wait so the kids ran around and played tag. After they got out of hand, we sat togther playing a fun Eye Spy game on my iPad.
We had a quiet ride home on the train, Gus instantly fell asleep and I cuddled with each of the kds. We went down to the food car and ate pizza and lemonade and brought Gus our leftovers. We careful left the in the seat next to him to find when he woke. Ellie laid on my lap and fell asleep as I read Twilight (ya, I know, way behind the curve). Once back and in the car, everyone fell asleep. I worried that Gus might be too tired to drive in the dark so I fought my own exhastion so I could watch his driving. I'm certain I drove him crazy with my constant critique of his driving but we made it...pretty sure thanks to me :) We all crashed and woke early this morning. What a great weekend!
