Our first overnight trip was a success, although we decided to make it only one night instead of two. Claire napped on the way to Monterey, so that when we arrived we could play. We drove to Pacific Grove and ate lunch at Lover’s Point Park. There we encountered a huge clan of unusually tame, fat, aggressive squirrels accustomed to being fed (and who competed with nearly as tame seagulls). Claire climbed the jumbled rocks on the point and laughed at the squirrels. Then we checked into our motel back in Monterey.

Next we visited Dennis the Menace park, which was a blast. Her very favorite part was a long slide made of roller bars. I didn’t bring the camera with me, unfortunately. I went with her a few times, and she laughed her belly laugh. She then went by herself over and over again, giggling on each trip down, until she began to get impatient about waiting her turn (a sign she was tired). She also enjoyed running back and forth over a hanging wood bridge (the kind you see suspended over steep ravines in jungles). Dinner followed this, and then a short trip to the beach to jump in waves, followed by the bedtime routine. It had been an adventurous day.

Claire had difficulty falling asleep; it took 90 minutes, and she finally let go at 9:30. It was her first time ever in a big bed (the room was too small for the pack-and-play). I slept lightly next to her, waking several times. She woke at 5:15 a.m., and so did I. She was running on only eight hours of sleep, which was clearly not enough. She devoured pancakes and ham at Denny’s.

We decided that going home after the aquarium would be our wisest course of action. I was exhausted, as was she, and Husband was tired too. So we took her to the “zoo for fish” as we called it, and she was entranced. We had a grand visit, until she couldn’t take it anymore; around 1 p.m. she had her first spectacular public tantrum, complete with hitting me in the face, flailing arms, and running away. Since we’d seen all we wanted to see, we headed for the car. Husband carried her, a sack of wailing and tears, to the car, where she fell asleep as soon as we drove out of the parking garage. Two hours later she awoke cheerfully refreshed when we pulled into our garage at home.

It was a general success. We could have done another night, but we didn’t want to push it. I had (and still have) a sore throat, which I believe might be the cold she has recently had (or it could be particulate matter from forest fire smoke). Are we ready for a long haul trip by plane across the country? We think not just yet.

Claire is still coughing and sneezing some, but she is restless and cheerful, so we are heading out on our little trip. I hope we’ve packed well enough: clothes, books (for us all), snacks, stuffed animals. I wonder if she’ll sleep in the pack-and-play, which she hated to even be in to play? I wonder if she and I will end up sleeping together in the motel bed? I wonder if any of us will get any sleep? Should be interesting.

Today we’ll go to the Dennis the Menace park. Tomorrow the aquarium. Saturday morning we’ll do a little drive and head home. Here we go!

Husband is taking time off work. We were planning to go to Monterey for a couple nights — our first away from home with Claire — this week. Except Claire has a nasty cold with a cough, sneezes, and so forth.

Also, the water hose to our refrigerator broke and leaked everywhere last night. Though we rent the house, we own the fridge, so it’s our problem to fix.

And I successfully cast on my first sock, only to find I’d dropped a stitch in the first row. So this will require frogging and starting over.

None of these are huge crises, but they do set a tone for the vacation that we didn’t really want (but that’s not permanent). We may still decide to take our little trip, depending on how she seems tomorrow. She’s mostly cheerful and active, just with symptoms. We’ll have a repair guy come to fix the fridge. And casting on the sock again will be good practice for working with toothpick needles.