After a little mixup with flight arrival times, Gran and GranDon arrived in Carpinteria last night. They were pretty bushed so they went to bed early. Max, Lucy, mom, and dad went to the roof to watch 4th of July fireworks. It was not a very good show. Max and dad used up some old sparklers in the alley and then everyone went to bed, ready to get on the road for our vacation the next day.
We aimed at getting on the road at 9:30a, but in true Theule family practice, we fired up the van after 11a. But no worries, we had no one waiting for us and no schedule to keep. After an uneventful drive along scenic route 99, we arrived in Reedley, CA. The town was fairly empty, with many downtown shops having ‘for lease’ signs in the windows and it was HOT. H-O-T. I got directions to a RiteAid and took a walk to get some cold water. It looked much closer on the map. After about 15 minutes of solid walking, according to Google maps, I was less than half way there. I turned around and headed back.
For dinner, Toby selected a local pizzeria, but when we walked up, there was a paper sign in the window saying that they were closed for the rest of week. We walked over to our second choice restaurant and saw a similar sign that they were closed for the next few days. We saw that our third choice was open for business.
Our hotel was an historic building in Reedley, and had been built in 1902. The interior was a homage to an age gone by, with lots of antique-y knickknacks and everyone of them for sale. The rooms had a/c and big screen TVs, so it was comfortable. The kids enjoyed having their own room, but were disappointed in the cable service– too many Spanish channels.

We had a great time.  The trip down was very easy.  We parked at the North Hollywood metro station and took the Red Line subway to Union Station, about a 30 minute ride.  (For the hipsters, North Hollywood is now known as NoHo.)  It was $1.50 per ticket, each way, but no one ever even looked at our ticket, and there was no machine to run them though.  Parking at the   NoHo metro station is $2, but after 11a, parking is free.  The lot was very full when we arrived at 11:05a, and it might be hard to find a spot if we ever try to get there earlier.

Then we took the Dodger Express shuttle from Union Station to the Left Field pavilion, about a 7 minute ride.

The Dodger Express shuttle is free when you show your game day ticket.

Our seats had a great view. We had the whole row so we didn’t have to climb over strangers. It was a throwback day, so the Dodgers wore the old Brooklyn uniform and the concessions were 1/2 priced.

	Wednesday, June 15 – Final Score Reds 7, Dodgers 2   R H E CIN 7 11 2 LA 2 8 0 WP: Wood (5-4) LP: Billingsley (5-6) Recap  |   Full Box Score  |   Highlights

Then we did the whole thing in reverse.  We went to Poppa and YaYa’s house for dinner and some zipline -ing .  I am glad Lucy didn’t go, as she would not have liked how hot it was at the game.

Tomorrow we will be going to a noon Dodger game with Max.  Poppa and Yaya generously offered to watch Roly for the duration.  When asked if she wanted to be with us at the Dodger game or be with Poppa, Lucy immediately decided to go with Poppa.

Yesterday afternoon, we took a hike on the Cold Springs trail.

We took some extra kids with us.  We had Toby and Gracie Norby and Diego Nieves with us for the hike.  Matt carried Ro in the baby backpack and Toby carried the water and the iPad.

IPad? On a hike?  Of course we had the iPad for Geocaching.  There are a number of geocaches hidden in the trails around Santa Barbara.  We were only 1 for 3 for the ‘caches we looked for.  That just means we have an extra reason to do the hike again.

This week marks the last day of the Artios Academy that Max and Lucy attend.  Artios uses the Orff method of music education. It was a privilege to be at their final presentation.  Both Max and Lucy played arrangements on the Orff instruments (glockenspiels and xylophones).  Lucy’s class also did a couple of songs on the ‘boom whackers’.