Tuesday, July 31, 2007- Last Vegas and Calico

Since it wasn’t official until we did it, Julie got up early this morning and threw $20 down the so-called “Quarter” slot machines. She was disappointed that they didn’t actually take quarters and they didn’t have a handle to pull. She likes playing them when they’ve got those satisfying physical, tangible portions. She didn’t win anything, either.

We left Vegas behind without too many tears and headed out into the desert again. After we drove for a couple of hours we came to Calico, which Julie had fond memories of visiting with her family when she was younger. Calico is pretty busy for a ghost town with a few busloads of Japanese tourists there. We ate lunch in Calico and visited quite a few of the shops that are in the buildings there. We went part of the way down into one of the silver mines. Scott agreed with Emma when she said, “This is a bad place.” Then we road the railroad and enjoyed the narration about the ruins of the town and its mines. We spent about two and a half hours total there, and then headed into the west and out of the hot desert.

When we reached Bob and Cathy’s we started to get settled in and ordered a pizza from the little shop around the corner. We were really enjoying the cool ocean breeze and the nice weather-- a big change from Vegas and the Mojave Desert. It was then that we actually saw Cathy for the first time this trip. Unfortunately, she was also the bearer of bad news because my parents had contacted her. Since Dad is unable to get excused from federal jury duty, they won’t be joining us here. We had expected to pick them up at the airport tomorrow, and we were going to spend the next week with them here. We are all really disappointed that they won’t be coming, but probably not as disappointed as they are.

We promised Anna we would go to the beach after dinner, so we changed into swimsuits and headed down to the ocean. Cathy and Bob’s place is just a few steps from Seal Beach, and the girls loved it. The beach itself is very wide, and you have to walk through a lot of sand to get down to the ocean. There may be more steps to make across the sand then there are from Cathy’s place to the beach. The girls loved playing in the surf, and even Emma was giggling as the warm ocean waves pushed her backwards.

The kids took baths when we got back, and we’re relaxing now and talking with Cathy.