Santa Barbara Weekend

Okay so let me set the scene here, Kyra and I traveled to Santa Barbara on Friday night with two other families for a weekend softball tournament. The whole team was staying in the most expensive Holiday Inn that I’ve ever stayed in, the cost being over $200 per night.  To save a few bucks, I decided that Kyra and I would mooch off another family and stay in their room with them until Saturday when the rest of the Banko 6-pack arrived.  Some of the highlights of the weekend were…

Friday Night

- Sheer disappointment when we arrived to find no luxurious robes or fuzzy slippers in the closet;

- my excitement for a great dinner out turned into, “you’ve got to be kidding me, we’re eating at the bowling alley down the street;”

- 12 people in 2 adjoining rooms with 4 double beds – you do the math;

- us adults getting yelled at by the hotel manager out by the pool for being too loud when we THOUGHT the kids were asleep;

- the comment by one of my roommates in the bed right next to us stating the need for Gas-X after the drug stores were all closed;

- having to sleep on a blow up mattress with my daughter, which by the way, covered the last of the remaining floor space;

- waking up every time the A/C went off since it was right next to my head, struggling to fight for part of the blanket because the room was so cold you could hang meat in it!

Saturday

- For me, a not-a-morning person, to be awaken by a way too cheerful mom skipping around the room saying, “wake up sunshine”.  If I had something to throw at her, I would have, the pillow just wasn’t gong to be enough to knock her down and shut her up;

- an 8 am game in which our coach was thrown out by 7:50 am, yup, you got it, the game hadn’t even started yet;

- losing all three games, which was harder on the parents, the kids just wanted to know if they could now go to the pool;

- after the rest of my family arrived, the hunt to find a place for dinner, “can you seat a party of 16?” But we found Woody’s Bar-B-Que, a fun place where you can wash the sauce off your hands and face in a big ole tub

- the kids learning how to call room to room at the hotel, even though the rooms were right next to each other;

- the little boy wearing the speedo at the pool and having my son ask him, “why are you wearing a girls bathing suit;”

Sunday

- waking up to the sound of two Nintendo DS”es” and one PSP, how long do those damn things hold a charge anyway;

- applauding my husband for hanging up the wet bathing suits the night before only to find they dripped all over the clean clothes in my open suitcase;

- bloody marys and mimosas are a great way to jump start your day;

- discovering losing and being eliminated from the tournament wasn’t so bad afterall, we got to spend the day at the beach, discovering a few things along the way, (1) men really don’t know how to apply sunscreen, if at all; (2) sometimes those holes in the sand can suck you in;

and (3) some girls develop penis envy at a young age!

All in all, it was a weekend of good times with great friends and a lot of laughs, not to mention a  little help from Mr. Coors Light and Ms. Margerita.  It just goes to show that you don’t need to go very far from home to have a good time.  The kids will remember running around and sleeping with their friends at the hotel, splashing in the big pool and playing at the beach just as they would an expensive vacation to an exotic place.  Memories are memories no matter where you are.