BC to BC

The next leg of our journey felt like a second beginning to our trip, because we made our way all the way down to the southernmost point in our seven-week pilgrimage: Rosarito Beach, Mexico. Andy's mother Jennifer's family has owned a beach house down there for the last 30-odd years or so, and visiting this place was part of our inspiration for the trip. If we had a free house to visit in Mexico, wanted to spend some time camping and traveling, and had toyed with the idea of going WAY up north, why not give ourselves some coastal cachet and hit three countries in one? "Baja California to British Columbia" (BC to BC) was born. Easter breaks and holidays gave us the perfect chance to see some family at the beginning of the mammoth trip, then we carefully plotted out our subsequent south-to-north camping route to hit some of our favorite Pacific towns and see some new ones, then wind up in Vancouver with enough time to hightail it home with days to spare before Andy has to go back to work.
Pre-Mexico included a stop in SoCal with Andy's Uncle Scott, Jennifer's brother, who has undertaken the beach house and made some major structural improvements in the last few months, including huge picture windows gazing out onto the sea and a foundation rebuild that kept us all from making the living room into a basement-level retreat! But before our border crossing, we stayed a night at Scott's to give us a whole day's leeway for international travel. Alton enjoyed some chill time on the couch with Uncle Scott; initially, he was having trouble remembering the relationship and Scott's title, so his rather spiritual default became to refer to Scott as "our father." As in, "Where are Daddy and our father going?" No idea where he got this, but Scott didn't let it go to his head so we let the nickname run its course.

For our four days in Mexico, Scott had graciously arranged to take that time off work, escort us down there, and join us in beach time, fishing, barbecuing, and some frosty margaritas. Such sacrifice on behalf of the family! (He also did some house renovation errands while he was there.) We got all packed up in Scott's driveway for the drive down to Mexico after a major grocery shopping trip, and Alton amused himself during the hustle and bustle by sitting in the driver's seat of the Mini and pressing all the buttons he could reach. I had to snap a picture when he managed to actually put on the three-point seatbelt; perhaps he was showing me how prepared he was for Mexico, where kids can sit in any seat of the car, buckled or no?

We got gas and caravan-bombed down to the border in record time, passing through and getting to the house without a hitch...where I dutifully turned off my phone for the duration of our stay, to avoid any unforeseen run-ins with international cell phone calling rates. And hence, I have no beach pictures yet to share! While on the road away from a computer (Did you know...?) I'm posting pictures and updates to the blog via cellphone and free wi-fi usage where I can snag it at naptime and bedtime. Oh, the dedication! But it means that without cell-camera pics, I'll have to wait a bit for computer availability before pulling pictures off our cameras to display.
But suffice it to say that like any good beach vacation, the days started to run together and the technology disconnect felt great. Alton got to hold a fishing rod for the first time (no one caught anything), we built sand castles and squirted water pistols, grilled meat and ate peanuts in the shell on the deck...and took a few sunburned patches home as souvenirs.
The lack of schedule also served as a reminder to pace ourselves on this huge trip, especially when it comes to our favorite little guy. Alton had some frustrated, tantrum-y moments before we realized that he was feeling the effects of so much upheaval, so many different places, so many different beds to sleep in. We'd gone from only one night at Scott's home in the most well-appointed beds of our whole trip (I sent up a grateful prayer of thanks for those to credit Angel Aunt Denise with the beautiful bedding selection) to sunny Mexico, where it took me a few days to relax and realize that Alton was NOT going to fall down the stone staircase on the deck (he didn't), or that Minerva was NOT going to jump the eight feet from the deck down to the gravel beach road below (she only did once). By our last days I thought I was doing a fair job of letting go, giving Alton plenty of downtime and booktime, his favorite, and even sneaking in the occasional afternoon nap.
Our Mexico jaunt may have ended on the sour note of horrendous traffic at the border crossing, but zipping through the gates back into the U.S. revived our spirits and cast a rosy-rito glow on our beach house experience, if you'll pardon the pun. Big thanks to Uncle Scott, our host and guide and main chef during this piece of our vacation. Adios!