Five Days in L.A.

Well the Schroeder Family Vacation 2009 has officially begun, and it has already been a very exciting week! On Monday morning we woke up bright and early (we can neither confirm nor deny the presence of an actual clock to verify that it was indeed “bright and early”) and began cleaning, packing, cleaning, working, cleaning…. At 4 in the afternoon we were officially “on the road”.

Here is Mom happy to be on the road… to those of us who know her well, we can tell that this is really a quick smile while she is frantically scanning her mental “packing list” to make sure we have everything. This photo was taken just before we turned off of our street.

I’ve come to the conclusion that leg room is overrated. Note the presence of a bag of popcorn and an ice chest on the left. I may not be comfortable, but my tummy will be full… and just in case you were wondering, we do travel with our own personal stash of cookie dough!

We arrived safely at our Grandma C’s house on Monday night, despite the maximum temperature reaching close to 100 degrees. On Tuesday Dad left early for work and we decided that this would be a perfect day to go to the beach. Apparently everyone else in Southern CA thought so too. After much searching we found a nice spot on the beach that was relatively empty. Here are Mom and Grandma soaking up the sun.

The weather was perfect, but the Pacific Ocean is just too frigid for anyone in their right mind to enjoy. We opted to create sand sculptures instead. Here is R. beginning a masterpiece.

Sand sculpting comes easier to some than others.

See what I mean! Care for a spot of tea, old chap? Mater!

Since Dad couldn’t make it to the beach, we decided to create a sculpture of our beloved father. Look at the muscular arms and the pitchfork in one hand (he’s probably preparing to turn some compost)

R. does it again… she’s so brilliant!

The rest of the week was spent with family. Aunt Laura came up to visit us for a while, and we enjoyed her company. Aside from taking walks, finishing schooling and going shopping here are some of the things we have been doing around the house:

1. Eating: Yes even though we are on vacation, we still find time to eat… and bake for that matter. Look closely and you will see the remains of a once glorious homemade sourdough loaf. If you thought bringing our own cookie dough along was weird, you will be shocked to hear that we brought our sourdough starter along as well! ( I’m not going to disclose the identity of the cheese thief to you, but I will tell you that if I zoomed back you would see a Livestrong bracelet on that arm)

2. Sewing: Well we haven’t actually been sewing ourselves, but Grandma is a seamstress so she is always sewing. Here she is in her office, creating some jammies for E.


3. Working: This is the view we have had of our Father for most of the week. He has been working almost constantly since we got down here. Starting tomorrow we will be seeing more of him though. It will be nice to talk to him without a cell phone in his ear or computer on his shoulder again!

4. Playing: We also find time to play while on our vacations, and what better game to play than Volleyball? Add to that the extra excitement of playing on a cement driveway and you’ve got a very interesting game.

That couldn’t have been my fault…. I’m sure it wasn’t…. you couldn’t prove it in a court of law…. could you?


Here’s where the added excitement of the cement comes into play! That’s gonna leave a mark!








5. Eating: Yes, I know this one was mentioned already, but I can’t stress how important this little daily habit has become to us. Look at the hungry lioness enjoying her vittles. (Yes, this shot was posed. I’m surprised anyone could think otherwise. In real life my Mother eats like an angel!)




6. Soaking up the CA sun. Here's Rachel as a fly, sunbathing:




Anyway, its off to Phoenix tomorrow for the true start of our summer trip. We will keep ya'll posted as we go, with the good, the bad, the ugly, the bizzare, the untold, the better-kept-untold. See ya'll in Phoenix.

The gang