A weekend away

This past weekend we decided to take the Jet Skies to Redondo Beach for a little fun. The plan was to leave right after Kaitlin got out of school so we could get there before dark and swim in the hotels pool, but Russ wasn't ready yet so we waited...and waited and finally left at 5:45pm. We could tell from the start it was going to be one of those trips.....

Traffic wasn't too bad heading out. We were cruising along pretty good and making good time when....BAM....a tire blew out on the trailer. Great, we were 25 miles outside of Baker and stuck on the road. By this time it was almost 7pm and Parker and Kaitlin were getting hungry. We decided to call Susan and see where she was at (she was leaving after us and meeting us in Redondo)...hoping she was leaving and could bring us a tire. No such luck..she was still working. We unhitched the trailer and drove ahead to Barstow. Russ dropped me and the kids off so they could eat and he could go find a tire. By the time we got back to the trailer and got back on the road it was just about 8:30. Susan had left home and was about 1/2 an hour behind us. We all decided that since it would be 10pm by the time we got to Victorville we would just stay the night there and go the rest of the way the next morning.

When we woke up the next morning we loaded everyone up in the car and started our dive to the beach. Russ wasn't sure exactly where we were going so I used the google maps on my phone to get directions. Apparently Google maps isn't as accurate as Mapquest and it lead us to the city next to Redondo....no big deal....just took us a little longer to get to the beach. We finally got there around noon, fed the kids lunch and discussed the plan of action for the day. We decided that Susan would take the kids to the beach and I would go with Russ on the jet skies for 1 1/2 hours, then me and Susan would switch.

We launched the jet skies and at first mine wouldn't start. Russ had to fix a bolt on the battery, then we were off. We got about 30ft out of the no wake zone and mine died....NO POWER AND IN THE MIDDLE OF THE OCEAN.... Russ had me jump off so he could see what went wrong, but no luck. It was broke. He had to tow me back to the dock (I was glad to get back on the jet ski because sitting in the water was starting to make me nervous that something would bite my toes). When we got back to the dock I called Susan and she brought the kids over. Russ was still trying to fix the ski, but it was no good. We decided to have them pull the skis out of the water and spend the rest of the day at the beach.

Sunday we did pretty much the same thing. Kaitlin, Parker and myself woke up bright and early and got everything loaded up in the car so we could enjoy the rest of our time on the beach after everyone else woke up. Kaitlin was a big help and even pushed the stroller while I carried our bags. We had to park our car at the dock over night because of the trailer, so we had a little bit of a walk to put our stuff away.

After everyone woke up we ate breakfast and headed straight for the beach. Parker wasn't too fond of the cold ocean water. It splashed him in the face and he screamed. He was okay if I was holding him, but if I made him stand up then he got scared....he enjoyed most of his time on the blanket playing in the sand...even got to taste some of it (YUMMM). I got to spend some time jumping in the waves with Kaitlin and chasing her around the beach with the seaweed that had washed ashore. We had a good time, but we couldn't spend too much time there since we still had to drive back to Vegas.

Before we left we hit the arcade and let the kids play some games and ride the rides. We finally hit the road around 2:30pm. The ride back wasn't bad. I fell asleep and so did the kids. I woke up when we hit the I-15...and just in time. Again....25 miles past Baker (pretty much in the exact same spot we broke down on the way up) we blew the other tire out on the trailer. GREAT!!! We had to leave the trailer at a rest stop and go to Baker for another tire. This time there wasn't a tire ready and we had to wait till almost 8:30pm before we got a tire. It was 9pm when we got back to the trailer and back on the road...at least we would get home before 10pm...or so I thought. About 20 minutes later...as I was dosing off again....Russ yells a bad word (not to repeat on the blog) and pulls off to the side of the road. Something was smoking. He got out to check and saw that a bearing broke. We were stuck on the side of the road again.

Russ sat there and was working on the trailer for a while, then decided to call his brother and have him bring another trailer out. His brother said it would be a little while because he had just ordered hid dinner and had to go home and take some stuff of his trailer, but he would come out when he was done. Russ decided to leave the trailer on the side of the road and drive me and the kids home, then go back out to fix the trailer. We finally got home at 11:30, and I tried to convince Russ to stay and go back tomorrow, but he didn't want to leave the jet skies all night (I don't blame him, but I didn't want him to be tired and driving). He went back out and I passed out with the kids. Russ didn't get back home till 2:30am, but he got everything fixed. I making a call....NO more trips with the trailer or jet skies this summer.