Trip Diary, Day 2

California is a funny place. I've never seen more S-Class Mercedes on the road, or Denny's on the side of the road (what's that rule about pluralizing words that end in 's' ?).

On our way up to Santa Barbara to visit my grandparents, we drove up through LA and saw the Hollywood sign, and the Capitol Records building and some street where Ali says the Kardashians live (no, I'm not pretending I don't watch the Kardashians show, but at least I didn't know what street they lived on). We had a nice visit with my grandparents, although they might have been a little overwhelmed by the cacophony that a 1 and a 2 year old bring. Here's our group photo, which I got with just one shot, by the way:


Afterwards, we drove to downtown Santa Barbara which is basically an outdoor Tysons Galleria (for those of you from the DC area). Plus, it's right near the beach so we strolled onto the pier watched the boats go by. Here's my favorite shot of the kids from today:

Does Jake look 2, 18, or 75? Thanks to Deni & Patrick for the super-cool hat, by the way. Jake loves it, and we do too.

The kids were noticeably more rebellious today. There were fits and tantrums from both, but of course they were mostly good. I think it's mainly because their days usually have at least some time where they get to make their own decisions about how to spend their time. But today, at least, was pretty scripted, and I think they unconsciously rebelled. Don't get me wrong-- I like their spirit. But, I did briefly contemplate booking them on the Tonight Show as amazingly human-like shrieking monkeys as we drove through Universal City.