our little trip after Christmas

A few days after Christmas we got away and spent two nights at Harrah's Rincon. I found out Christmas Eve I had pneumonia, so by now I was still feeling it and not feeling yet like I was recovering. I could write a whole post on the psychology of recovering slowly. It has not been fun, it has made me feel much older than I am, and it's been hard to have feelings of jealousy for those who can go and do and not run out of breath or have chest pains from a simple flight of stairs of a short walk. But this was weeks ago, I'm a LOT better now.
I know it sounds weird to leave and go to a hotel with your family when you have pneumonia, but to tell you the truth, it was the best choice for us. Our kids LOVE this hotel because of the "hot pool" that is shallow, but huge, and double-decker and has a waterfall. We also figured I'd have way less to do at a hotel - you know how it is, if you're sick at home, you just start working on something anyway - dishes, laundry, cleaning up, walking around too much, lifting things. I knew I needed to steer clear of any of that. So we left and went to this magnificent little place.
But on the way, we had to stop and shop. Of course for some food, because the room has a little refrigerator, and we like to stock that so the kids eat breakfast in the hotel room instead of paying for a big expensive breakfast that no one will finish. We usually buy a little set of boxed cereals and little disposable bowls and spoons, and some milk. It works for us, and Bobby is NOT a breakfast eater, so it works for him, too. We get that out of the way, and then off we go! Anyway, we had to stop to buy that, so we stopped at the WalMart in Temecula. My kids had each gotten a $15 gift card to WalMart (thanks Auntie Cherie) and they wanted to spend them. Yes, just a few days after Christmas, but of course they can still think of things to spend their money on! Shopping with them was really funny, and took a while. Luckily we weren't in a hurry, all we were doing was swimming once we got to the hotel, and we can do that at night. (no, no swimming for me!) So Sidney used a little bit of her money on some little dollar items from the toy section, and Jack bought himself some Dagedar thing he saw on a commercial and used all his $15 up, and Alyssa saved hers...she bought a bean bag from WalMart a few days later.
Here is a view of the BIG pool (the cold one) from our hotel room. This hotel really is SO pretty.

the pool at Harrah's Rincon

Here we are, Alyssa and me, hanging out in my little nook and crannie I found to sit in while the rest of the family swam.

All of my kids LOVe this pool - you can see the upper and lower parts, it's so fun for them to climb up and down into the different pools, and it is SO super warm - it's jacuzzi temperature and it's SO BIG, so we use it ANY TIME of the year - we've been in there when it was raining out, and it was lovely. Until you get out! That's a whole different story. So since I was feeling awful, but still wanted to see them having fun, the night we got there, and the next day while they were swimming, I sat myself in this wonderful beach chair they have out there. It has a covering, like a half umbrella, it's all warm inside (because yes the air was cold!) and I could bundle up in my jacket and sweater and YES, socks inside my TOMS. I don't care. I was freezing. I can wear socks with my TOMS if I want to. No I haven't seen anyone else do that, but I had pneumonia, so I think I get a pass.

Since I couldn't take a good picture of myself in my nook and crannie, I took a picure of an empty one on the way out...doesn't that look comfy? Now imagine it with pillows, and at night with soft lights in the palm trees...ahhhh. I do want one in my backyard now.

The second day we were there, we really wanted to take the kids out geocaching, since we haven't done that in a while but really love to! We picked a park we saw on the way in town, and looked it up on geocaching.com and it said it had about four or five caches! Yay, so we dressed for a day of geocaching in about 70 degree weather. I knew I'd sit in the sun somewhere, on my blanket, and eat the lunchmeat and cheese and snacks we'd brought with us. But when we pulled up to the park it was closed. Yes, we picked the one day a week it's closed. So we looked up on the mountain and I saw the Palomar observatory which belongs to CalTech, and we looked it up and headed there instead! We had capris and tshirts on, and as we headed up into the hills and our elevation got higher, guess what - snow on the ground. Not such a smart move for me, to be in the cold and wind, but in the sunny spots it was nice. What affected me more was the walking. But we thoroughly enjoyed our surprise visit to such a cool place. WIth kids who are pretty interested in space, they really liked this. They loved the museum part, which is very simple, but has lots of photos and things, and a SUPER SMALL (closet sized) gift shop, which they still managed to find things to spend money on.

 And getting to go inside this huge telescope area was really cool - reminded me of the capital building in Sacramento! Someone was even kind enough to put up a nice camera stand for taking pictures of yourself with your own camera! Lovely. I wish every cool photo spot would have these.

Sid's attempt at holding up the telescope.

Alyssa and Jack, just doing what they do.

My kid and me.

We were in the sunny spot at the top of the hill, so with the little bit of snow she found, Sidney made this little tiny snowman. He's probably about 6 inches tall. You gotta work with what you have!

 After the observatory, we headed down another route toward Lake Henshaw and found a few geocaches. It was VERY pretty at the overlook, but how strange to see a lake that is so desolate and looks UNUSED! Coming from Lake Gregory myself, I'm just used to seeing every square foot of shoreline used for something...a walking trail, a dock, a beach, houses, SOMETHING! But it was really pretty.

Some of my favorite times EVER with my family are these impromptu trips. I always fight them, they're usually Bobby's idea to get away and go to a hotel. I drag my feet, but once I get there and we see things we've never seen before, I LOVE it, and I love how my kids are such great explorers. I can't wait to travel more and more with them.