Morning

We thought we’d drive during his first nap around 9:30 AM. But 9:30 AM came and went and we were still packing. The packing seemed to be never-ending. I ended up driving to the gas station during his nap to get gas and ice for the cooler, so we wouldn’t have to stop on the way. We were finally able to leave right before he went down for his second nap of the day. We drove for about 15 minutes before he pooped. We contemplated going back home to change him, but instead opted to change him in LinkedIn’s parking lot. However, after getting back on the road, we realized we had forgotten pillows so had to go home anyway. This loop-de-loop took about an hour.

After the initial pillows hurdle, we had an easy drive. We stopped halfway to go to In-N-Out for lunch.

In and Out

It was Theodore’s first time at In-N-Out. We enjoyed the food and he enjoyed standing on the table looking at people. Since this was the last In-N-Out before getting to the mountains, we saw a bunch of people in Pinecrest merchandise. They told us that the weather was perfect up there.

As we were walking to the car, I witnessed the minivan parked beside us back out into a car in line for the drive-through. I gave off a nervous chuckle before Lizy pulled me into the car. It wasn’t funny, but sometimes I laugh at situations like this. A teenager who had clearly just gotten his driving license was driving the car and his mom was sitting in the passenger seat. He looked completely crushed. I’m sure he had been thrilled to be the one driving his whole family out camping, only for it to end in disaster. He was teetering on the verge of tears as his mom was talking to the other driver to exchange information.

I couldn’t help staring at the teenager trying to pull himself together.

“What are you doing?” Lizy asked from the back as she was breastfeeding Theodore.

“Nothing,” I said.

“Don’t stare. It’s not our business.”

“I’m not staring.”

“I can see you’re staring. And don’t even think of laughing.”

“Why would I laugh it’s not funny. This kid might cry.”

“I know you. Stop staring.”

Arriving at Pinecrest

Theo slept most of the rest of the drive.

We checked into the campsite around 5 PM. We started unpacking at our site. The site was sort of a ways away from the beach, so I told Lizy maybe we should go see if there were any closer sites due to cancellations. So I left Lizy and Theodore at the site and drove back to the office. At the office I learned that indeed there were closer sites, but you couldn’t book them at the office; instead you had to physically drive to the site and pitch a tent. Only then could you go back to the office and put the change in the system. So I drove back to our original site, picked up Lizy and Theodore leaving the stuff we had already unpacked, so we could as quickly as possible go to the other site. The other site was available, so I pitched our tent, then we drove together back to the original site to get our stuff, then back to the office to put the change in the system, and finally back to our new site. It felt like I was playing the literal version of that boat riddle where you have a raft and you have to move a cabbage, donkey, and wolf across the river.

The Beach Site

Our new beach site was right across the road from the beach. On the negative side, it had almost zero shade. Our neighbors were a big Mexican family. I could never figure out how everyone was related and how many people were staying at the site. Sometimes it seemed like there were 20 of them, but other times it seemed like there were eight people. One of their tents had four rooms.

They had a baby about the same age as Theodore. He didn’t seem as clever as Theo. Maybe I’m biased, but when we held them together, Theo had this mischievous, clever look about him and the other baby sort of looked like a blob.

Conclusion of The Day

We walked across the street to the lake. We took Theodore into the lake, but not for too long as we had the rest of the trip to enjoy the lake. It was already getting dark when we got back to the site, so Lizy put Theo to sleep while I cooked dinner. I grilled up most of the marinated steak on the fire as well as fajita veggies on a cast-iron pan on top of the grill. I enjoyed cooking over the fire. Lizy and I took turns eating outside while the other person would watch Theo inside the tent.