And We Are Off!

We have started on our 2876 mile road trip. We have completed about 500 of it so far. We left this morning at 5am and only got stuck in moderate traffic. After going about two hours, Lily starts gagging and Noah starts complaining about his tummy hurting. Everyone got Dramamine and everyone settled back down. We had a minor set back with traffic in L.A. We new it was coming so it wasn't that big of a deal. After the San Angeles Forest one feels like they are in the middle of nowhere.

In the middle of nowhere we saw many things. We saw thousands of cows, lots of fields on growing things, aqua ducts, two lakes, one brush fire and lots of trucks hauling things like tomatoes, apples, garlic and my personal favorite, onions. One could smell that truck before you can see it.

We arrived in Santa Cruz around 12:15pm and ate lunch. I didn't get a great impression from the people in Santa Cruz. Not very friendly, hippyish, very plain looking and definite supports of the current head Socialist. The mission there was small and simple. It fit the town perfectly. While we were there we were able to meet up with my parents and the Mortensen's.

We headed up to Santa Clara next. That mission is much grander and ornate. It had a beautiful rose garden and this extraordinary chapel. The kids got really excited because they saw a real live Padre.

Our last stop was the mission in San Jose. This mission resembled what was originally there and had the feel of a mission. It was built in the late 1700's. This mission also had a really old cemetery on the side of it.

We learned that the Spaniards started the missions to teach the locals, mostly different Indian tribes, their customs, culture and religion. They wanted them to be self-reliant (which is great), but wanted their support for the motherland (Spain). Very interesting.

We finished up the evening at Applebee's for dinner. The kids all ate for $.99. What a bargain. They thought they had died and gone to heaven when the desserts came out. We got back to the hotel and swam to burn off all the extra sugar and now everyone is tucked in and snoring.

Next up...San Francisco, San Rafael and Solano.