Monterey, part 1

Monday morning I did the last minute packing and loaded up the car. I then told my grandma that it was time to go and went to get Donny. I got him to quit worrying about senseless stuff and get in the car, and then I got in and we waited for my grandma to come out. And we waited. And we waited. I finally went in to see what the holdup was and found her sitting in her chair doing a puzzle. Apparently, she had seen the extra ice chest that Donny had gotten out and figured that we weren't ready since everything wasn't out yet. So I got her in the car and we took off.

We got about a haslf hour down the road before stopping for breakfast. I got grandma inside and seated at the table, and there was no Donny. He was still out at the car, for reasons that I still don't understand. I finally got him inside and we were able to have a good breakfast.

We got to the hotel around noon and I swore that I would never travel with both Donny and my grandma again. (She took her hearing aids out so that she wouldn't have to listen to him, so he got louder. She still couldn't understand what he said, so he made me repeat it. They get along great, and they love to harass each other, but I don't want to be a part of it.) I unloaded the car and got the 3 icechests arranged.

Before going over it had been decided that Monday night the family would all have dinner together. Because my mom had to take some medicine to clean her out for surgery the next day it was decided that dinner would be a picnic in my parents room. We arrived and I grabbed the bin that had all the non-perishable food in it. I lug it into my parents room and my mom tells me that she's feeling better so we're going to a park instead. So I lug the bin back out to the car and make sure that mny dad understands that a long hike to the picnic table is not a good idea. My dad had looked on the computer and saw that there was a park across the street, and the picture even showed a picnic table. We drive around to where the park is supposed to be, to find a smally grassy strip on the side of the road with a picnic table. It was not all it was cracked up to be, so we dicide to go somewhere else. After following my dad around Monterey for a half hour (listenin to Donny whine about needing a bathroom the whole time) he finally finds a little park and stops. It was lovely, with lots of families with toddlers and preschool age children bringing their kids there to play. We settled in and had a great time.

After dinner we needed to go to my grandma's bank, and I wanted to find the hospital while it was still light out, so that there would be no problems in the morning. I had my dad look the bank up on his computer, and he gave me directions and an address. I then had him give me directions to the hospital, and we were on our way. I decided to go to the hospital first, and then we'd swing by the bank on our way back to the motel. Driving down the freeway I started looking for the exit that I had been told to take. I saw the name of the street that I remebered from the map and so I got off the freeway. I found it a little odd that there was no sign saying that there was a hospital at this exit, but I thought that I migh have missed it. That was just a fleeting thought though, because I wasn't all the way down the exit when I realized that I'd made a mistake. I wanted exit 399A and this was exit 399C. Oops. So i went to the shopping center that was right there and turned around to get back on the freeway and try again. The only problem was that there was no on ramp going the way that I wanted to go. Of course, right after you go under the freeway there the road turns into a winding mountain road with no good place to turn around. So now we're driving through the foothills, no idea where we are or where we're going, when I realize that the road has become a road that I recognize the name of. I still don't know where we are or where we're going, but I've gained a llittle confidence that if I stay on that road we'll get unlost eventually. And we did. When we found the freeway again Donny wouldn't let me try again at finding the hospital. Instead we went to the bank and then to the motel. We needed to get to bed early because we had to get before the sun the next day.