Off to Disneyland!

This is the time when parents take their kids on vacations during spring break, so when Teri was three and a half years old and before Cindy was born, my husband, Darrell, and I made plans to take a vacation along the coast to southern California. Only we went in the summer during Darrell’s break – Teri had a break every day at that age. Our destination was Darrell’s cousin and his family who lived in Palos Verdes. Darrell didn’t let his relatives know we were coming which was a very bad idea, but I left it up to him. I was young and stupid in those days. We drove down the coast from Portland and enjoyed the beautiful scenery in Oregon and northern California. It was gorgeous around Big Sur, and the California coastline was one of the most beautiful sights I have ever seen. We stopped in Carmel where this picture was taken of Teri and her dad.

We spent the nights in motels on the way down and would leave early in the mornings with Teri asleep in the back seat of our car. There were no seat belts in those days or little car seats for little people, so she rattled around all over the place. She had an Etch A Sketch which was popular at that time, and she played with that a lot. I even liked it so we sort of fought over it, but I let her use it part of the time. It was easy to use and fun. My kind of game! I remember we stopped at a tiny café along the Big Sur highway, and inside they had two big tarantulas in a cage. I’m scared to death of spiders but they fascinated me, and I just stood there as if in a trance. Darrell finally dragged me out of there, and we were on our way to visit the unsuspecting cousins.

When we arrived at their home, they were surprised which is a BIG understatement! But they recovered and we spent a few enjoyable days with them. We went to Disneyland while we were there, and I remember absolutely nothing about it. I don’t like wild rides and all the crowds who like the rides. I guess I don’t like anything about it at all. I asked Teri if she remembered Disneyland and she said “Maybe . . . sort of a little” But she had no definite memories. I find it funny that she was too young to remember anything about it and I am possibly too old to remember! Guess that means we won’t ever spend time reminiscing about our fun time at Disneyland when we were both young.

So that was our big California vacation. I don’t remember much of the ride back – I was probably too busy playing with the Etch A Sketch. But I’ll always remember the beautiful northern California coastline and the tarantulas. What a perfect vacation!