Disneyland or Bust: A Mother-Daughter Coastal Road Trip

[RGirl]

I'm so excited for this TR! I love the idea of doing the quotes as a contest at the beginning - too bad I'm such a slacker on checking TRs lol!

Hi Becky!!! Thanks so much for joining in.

I'm loving the fact that Willow is chiming in. And her nail idea was too cute!

Thanks! She was very pleased with herself for the nail idea.

I would love to do a road trip someday like that. The most we've done is driven to a place and stopped at one other place along the way (When we went to Chicago we stopped in Ohio to visit the Cedar Point amusement park). Once I have more than a week's worth of time off that's something I'd really like to do! I love the mountains. And your first stop, that beach, is beautiful. Can't wait to visit the west coast!

You should do it! This trip ended up being so much fun - really reminded me of how great a road trip can be!

 

[RGirl]

“First day of school! First day of school! Wake up! Wake Up! Come on, first day of school!”​

So I had to stick in a little “intermission,” a “recess” if you will, from the TR to share with you a little real-life update.

Of course, I couldn’t post an installment - even a recess - without continuing our game. So first person to name the movie from whence the chapter title hails gets a point; two points if you name the movie and character. One point to the person who names the character if the first person doesn’t do it.

And the standings to date:

Courtney (courtneybelle): 2 points
Jill (jedijill): 2 points

And back to the recess:

Today was the first day of school here! Little Miss Willow is officially a big second grader!

But first, we had a great last weekend of summer. We started by going to our local fair on Saturday.

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And then we did some Fall clothes shopping. I had agreed to buy one or two new outfits. Somehow we left the store like this:

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Of course, she had to put on a new outfit and her new boots before we even left for the ride home.

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When we got home, Miss Willow put on a fashion show, so we thought we would share that with all of you. As you can see, she chose no character clothes this year - she’'s all Girl Meets World instead of Sofia the First now, I guess.

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I have no idea where she gets the crazy poses!!!

And then today, it was off to the second grade! Thankfully, she is still a Disney girl through and through and just had to have a Frozen backpack (and lunchbox and thermos). Here she is all ready to head to school this morning.

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Growing up way too fast…….

More actual trip updates coming soon!!!

 

[gardengirl2790]

They do grow up too fast! I miss the elementary years, so cute, sweet and fun. Very cute outfits that you two picked out.

I'm sending my 12th grader off to her first day of school tomorrow, my only child. next year she's off to college.

 

[jedijill]

Nemo in Finding Nemo

Now back to read the update.

Jill in CO


Ok, back. Miss Willow is a cutie patootie! Nobody can leave Kohl's with smaller bags than that...its just a rule. Love her outfits and all her Power Ranger poses!

Jill in CO

 

[dizneeat]

I can't believe how much Willow has grown!

And boy, you have got a model on your hands here! She really is into posing.

Great to see those first day of second grade photos, even though they remind me that it will soon be time for me to go back as well.

 

[STLMickeyMom]

Nemo from finding nemo!

 

[STLMickeyMom]

Awwww, poop--somebody already got it

 

[STLMickeyMom]

Ok, a real reply finally! I can't believe willow wore a white outfit to the fair and left clean! Way to go, girl! I would have found a mud puddle to fall in for sure....

I like all the new outfits for school--super cute. The boots are rockin'!

Hope your first day of school was awesome, Willow!

 

[ajsary]

Love fashion show! Willow is so cute. I hope she has a fantastic 2nd grade year!

 

[DisneyKid4Life]

Wow, that actually looks like a fun fair!!

Haha, I look at the fashion show and I just think, wow, when Willow and Maddie get together, look out! Some epic poses going on.

 

[afwdwfan]

Hey, are you calling my buffet "so/so"??????

Absolutely not! There were cookies!!!


Willow sure does seem to enjoy her new clothes. I hope she enjoys second grade and has a great year!

 

[RGirl]

They do grow up too fast! I miss the elementary years, so cute, sweet and fun. Very cute outfits that you two picked out.

It is a fun time, isn't it? I can't believe how fast it all goes by though!

I'm sending my 12th grader off to her first day of school tomorrow, my only child. next year she's off to college.

Wow - I hope she has a great senior year! I know you must be so proud of her but still dreading next year in a way as well.

Nemo in Finding Nemo

Two in a row, Jill! You are ON FIRE!

Ok, back. Miss Willow is a cutie patootie! Nobody can leave Kohl's with smaller bags than that...its just a rule. Love her outfits and all her Power Ranger poses!

It is a rule!!

Those DO look like Power Ranger poses, don't they? But I don't think she even knows what a Power Ranger is!

I can't believe how much Willow has grown!

Right???? Ugh - she's totally a big kid now. How did that happen???

And boy, you have got a model on your hands here! She really is into posing.

She's such a ham!!!!

Great to see those first day of second grade photos, even though they remind me that it will soon be time for me to go back as well.

When do you go back, Karin?

 

[RGirl]

Nemo from finding nemo!

Awwww, poop--somebody already got it

GAH - so close!!!!

Ok, a real reply finally! I can't believe willow wore a white outfit to the fair and left clean! Way to go, girl! I would have found a mud puddle to fall in for sure....

I couldn't believe she wore that either. Or that I let her! But you are right - she somehow managed to keep it perfectly clean.

I like all the new outfits for school--super cute. The boots are rockin'!

Thanks! Aren't those boots so cute???? I totally want some!

Hope your first day of school was awesome, Willow!

Thanks Lori! She had a great day.

 

[RGirl]

Love fashion show! Willow is so cute. I hope she has a fantastic 2nd grade year!

Thanks!!!! I hope so too - she definitely had a good first day!

Wow, that actually looks like a fun fair!!

It is pretty fun. They keep raising the prices every year though, so that is much less fun.....

Haha, I look at the fashion show and I just think, wow, when Willow and Maddie get together, look out! Some epic poses going on.

You are SO right!!! I can't even imagine the pictures we are going to get next summer!

Absolutely not! There were cookies!!!

Oh, okay then.

Willow sure does seem to enjoy her new clothes. I hope she enjoys second grade and has a great year!

The child LOVES to shop.

Thanks! I hope she does too.

 

[RGirl]

“Listen to me. The human world is a mess.”​

Day 2B - Saturday, 26 July 2014 - Lincoln City, Oregon

After playing a little non-bounce-paddle-ball thing, we headed back to the lobby to check on our room again. It wasn'’t ready, so I took a few pictures of the lobby.

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Willow took quite a few more. And as you can see, hers were much more creative.

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Surftides had a neat mermaid theme going on. We even saw a sign about winning a prize for finding Hidden Mermaids!

And then our room was ready! Hallelujah!

Willow: Hurray!!!!

Now, this place is a little more MO-tel than HO-tel, so there aren'’t exactly a lot of employees standing around waiting to help with luggage. However, because we were only staying here one night, I had kind of cheaped out and booked the cheapest room category - non-view (smart move when the main selling point of the place is its location ON THE BEACH! In my defense, the cheapest, non-view, MO-tel room was still a whopping $210 before taxes and fees) - and it turned out that all of the rooms in this el-cheapo category are on the second floor. With no elevator. Did you see how much stuff we had just in the back of our car? No? Let me remind you.

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And you’'d be fooling yourself if you think the rest of the car wasn’t pretty full of stuff too. I am not comfortable leaving luggage in a car in a motel or hotel parking lot overnight, so it all had to come in, which meant it all had to come UP the stairs. I went ahead and asked the nice front-desk person if there might be someone who could help us. She called someone right away, and THAT, my friends, is how we actually ended up with our belongings in our room that night.

The room was perfectly fine - nothing special, but clean and everything we needed - your basic decent motel room. In my opinion, the room was over-priced for what it was, but maybe I would have felt differently if I had spent even more money and actually been looking out at the ocean. Regardless, I wasn’t complaining - like I said, it was clean and roomy enough, and frankly, I was just happy to have a room finally!

Willow: That was great!

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We liked the Surfitdes take on the Do Not Disturb sign.

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And we did have a nice view of the parking lot when we stepped outside.

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(The funny domed building housed the pool and gym.)

Up Next: Day 2B (cont.)

 

[jedijill]

Sebastian in The Little Mermaid.

Jill in CO

(Gotta get my points in before I leave for my trip!)

 

[RGirl]

“Listen to me. The human world is a mess.” (cont.)​

Now, at this point, we were both kind of beat and just happy not to be in the car (or the Surftides lobby). So we chilled in the room for a little bit. Willow even worked on her trip journal!

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I had tentatively planned to eat at some yummy seafood place in Lincoln City and maybe wander around a bit, but we were both hungry quite early and just kind of tired. It had been a long day. So we decided to eat at the restaurant affiliated with Surftides - MIST.

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Uh, I have no idea what was up with Willow in those pics….

This was a decent enough place. Our server was very nice, albeit forgetful. We had a pretty nice view.

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Willow was happy about bread.

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I had a Caesar salad and fish tacos (sorry about the taco pic - I had scraped off the aioli that I had requested be left off, so they look a mess).

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Willow ordered mac and cheese, which she said was awful - no cheese taste at all.

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Willow: Yep.

When our server saw that she wasn'’t eating it, she brought her a PB&J, which made Willow happy and was a very kind thing to do.

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Willow: Yay! Yummy! Yay!

This meal cost me $30, which included the tip and a glass of wine, so seemed very reasonable. The price did not include the entertainment though - that was just a bonus! Now, when dining out, I generally am focused on my food, talking to my child, trying to tune out the sound of my child incessantly telling me about a Sofia the First episode - wait, what? I would never do that!!! - messaging Shannon on my phone (again, no! I would not be messaging during dinner!) and not so much on other diners. Sometimes, however, you just can’t help but notice.

So the table across from us was one of those hard-to-miss train wrecks. There were two parents, a teen girl, a boy about Willow’'s age, and a toddler. The toddler was throwing fish on the floor - like, just hucking it across the way - and smearing tartar sauce all over the booth. The young boy was refusing to eat anything because he didn’'t like it and was instead playing a handheld video game device thing. Classic. The teen seemed quite pleasant at first, but a closer look (obtained when she got up and started the athletic portion of their evening) noted that she was dirty, FILTHY dirty (I mean, oddly so - somebody being a little unkempt or even dirty in an appropriate environment wouldn'’t get my attention), and then she spent the last part of the meal just chasing the toddler all over the restaurant laughing. The parents didn’'t seem to mind at all - they were drinking a bottle of wine and chowing down.

It was crazy! The booth was just DESTROYED when they were done - food everywhere, silverware all over the floor, food in the walkway, etc. I felt terrible for the busboy who came to clean it up. It was one of those things where you wanted to look away but just had to keep watching. I’'m afraid both Willow and I likely looked a bit like this.

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Willow: They were quite messy, and I just couldn'’t take my eyes off it!

Anyway, after we finished our dinner, we decided to walk back to the room without even checking out the pool! Willow put Babe on the included DVD player and watched that before falling asleep shortly after 8. I stayed up later uploading pictures and coordinating with my friend in the Bay Area with whom we would be staying in a few days.

Up Next: Day 3A

 

[RGirl]

Sebastian in The Little Mermaid.

Jill in CO

(Gotta get my points in before I leave for my trip!)

Holy cow!!! You are FAST, woman!

And I totally forgot to tally points.....

 

[RGirl]

The Score​

Just realized that I forgot to post a tally of our competition score! And, of course, before I could even do it, a contestant came swooping in to steal 2 more points!

So here are the current standings:

Courtney (courtneybelle): 2 points
Jill (jedijill): 6 points

Jill is totally running away with this thing at the moment. But there's still hope, DIS Friends - there are lots more updates to come!

 

[jedijill]

The Score​

Just realized that I forgot to post a tally of our competition score! And, of course, before I could even do it, a contestant came swooping in to steal 2 more points!

So here are the current standings:

Courtney (courtneybelle): 2 points
Jill (jedijill): 6 points

Jill is totally running away with this thing at the moment. But there's still hope, DIS Friends - there are lots more updates to come!

Lol...my time zone and email stalking paid off! I leave on the 17th for a cruise so I hope you wrap up by then.

Jill in CO