Tuesday was our ‘vacation’ day of vacation. We didn’t have any plans except to meet Papa and Yaya at their timeshare in Newport Beach. The kids swam in the hotel pool for about 2 hours in the morning, then we leisurely got into the car for the short trip to Newport Beach. Toby and I had a date this evening (Cheesecake Factory for early dinner followed by a viewing of ‘Benjamin Button’) while Max and Lucy hung out with Papa and Yaya. When we returned to Anaheim, it was straight to bed to prepare for the return to the theme park adventures.
Feb 2009 Vacation Day 2
In the winter months, every Monday at Legoland is a ‘home school’ day. They discount the admission price from $63 per person to $17 per person in addition to having some extra education classes. Max wasn’t interested in the robotics class that they offered on the day we went, but we all benefited from the reduced admission.
I don’t like water rides. Toby and I rock-paper-scissor’d for the ‘honor’ of riding with Lucy on the water cannon ride. I’m not sure how she did it, but I think Toby cheated. I wasn’t getting too wet until some random grandpa on the outside shot a water cannon right at my ear.
Ugh. Another water ride. But my daughter is soooo happy…
The firefighter show might be Toby’s favorite attraction at Legoland. She and the kids love the stunts and the music (‘Put the wet stuff on the hot stuff’). I also like this show as it provided me with a 25 minute nap on a grassy knoll.
After Legoland closed for the day, we had dinner at Pizza Port in Carlsbad. We had eaten here on our last trip to Carlsbad a couple of years ago. As we sat down, one of the other diners looked familiar. It really looked like a friend of my cousin Tim’s, a guy that I had waterskii’d with a number of times during my high school years. I was not sure, but after I explained to Toby that we used to call him ‘Andre The Giant’ and she replied that he looked rather tall even when sitting, I exited my comfort zone, approached his table and asked if he was Jeff Steffen. He said that he was and had a very blank look on his face. I told him who I was and he immediately recognized the name and remembered me and the ski trips. On reflection (and later web research) I shouldn’t have been surprised to see him at Pizza Port, as Chad Theule had written (many years ago) about a Monday night tradition of Dads and kids at Pizza Port with Jeff as most consistent attendee. For Chad, the tradition was already 8 years old when the article was written in 2005! It is good that the tradition continues even if Chad’s blogging has fallen by the wayside. 
Feb 2009 Vacation Day 1
We had a vacation planned and (mostly) paid for many months before the troubles at my employer began. So although there are some uncertainties in our future, we decided to continue with the vacation. Since the vacation was to Anaheim it was an easy decision to cut a couple days off the trip. So we have a 5 day vacation with day trips to Knott’s Berry Farm, LegoLand, Disneyland, and California Disney. It was about a 3 hour drive to the hotel. Lucy enjoyed the car ride.
We started off our week with a day at Knott’s. Toby and Max have been studying the Gold Rush times (North Calif, Yukon, South Calif) and so we spent a couple of hours at the Knott’s ghost town. We talked to a blacksmith, a sheriff, a weaver and other characters from the Old West. After about an hour and a half of the Ghost Town, Lucy was ready for some rides. She is quite the daredevil while Max is a bit more cautious. Lucy had a great attitude about being too small for some of the more exciting rides. She measures out at 40 1/2 inches tall (with shoes on).
Lucy’s namesake ride.
After closing out the park at 7 pm, we headed over to Mrs. Knott’s Chicken Restaurant for dinner. This is a special place for Toby as her family enjoyed many happy dinners here when she was growing up. She and I split some awesome Chicken and Dumplings and fantastic cherry pie.
GASP! — What happened here??
On a recent Sunday, one of Max’s friends came over to play after church. When we walked in the back door, the boy was surprised and a bit concerned at the state of the inside of the house. In a frightened voice he said, “What happened here?”. We explained that it was OK. Here are some pictures of what he saw.
The old exterior walls have been removed and the new windows are exposed. This is the new family room (old master bedroom) looking through the partition wall into the kids bedroom.
No more little ‘airplane’ bathroom. We have removed the little bathroom and parts of the hallway wall to make the kitchen open into the family room.
The kitchen has a 5-foot garden window.
The back of thee house was removed to open up the area for the laundry room and powder room. We’ve remove about 20 yards of debris. We are destroying a house, one dumpster at a time…
Around the same time our family was the beneficiary of a visit by Aunt Jan, Em and Nate. They spent a Friday night and Saturday at our house. The kids had a great time playing together. Also I got to spend some fun train time with Nate.
Is Anything Better Than Nothing?
Lots of people are saying we must do something, anything to fix the economy. “Anything is better than nothing”.
Eric Munger, an economist, made an analogy recently :
Imagine you had a six-year-old daughter, and that she has a high fever. It’s 1820, and we don’t understand germs or fevers very well. You call the doctor, and the doctor comes to the house. “Please, do something. DO SOMETHING, and help my daughter,” you say.
The doctor takes out a lancet, and makes a small incision in your daughter’s wrist. The theory was that the fever was in the blood itself, and “bleeding” was the only treatment that people in 1820 knew.
It doesn’t work. Your daughter’s fever is still very high. So, you tell the doctor, “DO SOMETHING! You are the doctor.”
The doctor bleeds her some more. And she dies.
And the next day you blame the doctor for not bleeding her MORE and SOONER. But bleeding was the wrong thing to do.
This stimulus is the wrong thing to do. The fact that the first round didn’t work leads me to think we need to stop! But all the desperate economic parents out there say, DO IT MORE! DO IT LONGER! DO IT FAST!
I don’t blame the President. I blame voters, who have the naïve idea that government is responsible for the economy.
Full article at The John William Pope Center webpage