Last night, my middle girl came to me and asked if we could go for a ride. I agree, thinking we can see how far we can get this time (last time, we got to Santa Barbara and turned around). So I pile all three kids in the car and off we go.
Once again, I head off up the 101 freeway and just as we got to Santa Barbara, we found rain. I remember hearing something on the news earlier about how hard Santa Barbara was 'hit' by rain, today. I see no evidence of that - I see a puddle and the road looks a little slick, but otherwise this is just a pleasant shower. Southern Californians are such pussies when it comes to rain. One sprinkle and the whole Southland goes on Storm Watch. Listening to the fuss made about this on the news, I expect to find windows covered with plywood and sandbags in front of all the homes, but all seems normal enough save for the people on their roofs waving to be saved from the driving sprinkles.
We did encounter tule fog, which is very dense and very hard to see in. I love it, but it makes the kids nervous. I slowed down and watched cars and towns appear and disappear like ghosts and I silently cursed the drivers who didn't learn not to use their brights in a fog (it doesn't illuminate, it just bounces off the water vapor and blinds you and everyone else). I rolled the window down to feel the fog (soft, like running your hand through a toddler's damp hair) and smell the sea air. Some towns we drive through smell like fresh rain or cut grass, and others smell like a houseful of pets so well loved it left their owners no resources for mops.
We get quite a bit farther than SB this time - a little town called Solvang, which is famous for trying to look Dutch. Lots of eaves and windmills and flowers in boxes, etc. It's about 4:30 in the morning when we encounter this:
It's a fountain in the middle of downtown with soapsuds in it. My first thought is it must be a prank, one we will certainly be blamed for if Sheriff VanDerDutch drives by and sees us, but my husband thought it was being cleaned. In any case, how do you ignore a fountain blowing bubbles like that? We had to get out to look.
This is my middle girl playing with the bubbles. This sums up her personality in ways I probably never could.
Then she tried to make a sudman - we here in Southern California don't get snow so we make do with what we have. While she did that, her brother scooped up the suds that flew away in the breeze and returned them to the fountain and my older girl noted that there was a mermaid sculpture lost in the suds at the top of the fountain. Right around that time, someone drove by and yelled something. I didn't hear exactly what it was but it might have been "Hey there thou! What is thou doing there in that fountain at this time of morning? Get thee home and pray!" and rather than ask for clarification, I pile the kids in the car and head home, hoping we don't get stopped a mile down the road by a bunch of angry Amish people.
The kids slept most of the way and round trip I drove roughly three hundred and fifty miles between midnight and six AM. I don't know if that's good or bad, just noting it. They're all asleep now.
Update: I told the kids that Sheriff VanDerDutch contacted me, having gotten our name and number from our license plate, which he noted on the video tape he had of my children frolicking with soapsuds at his fountain. I told them that he wanted us to prove our whereabouts when the fountain was soaped. They bought it until I started giggling.
