Ridges Family Descends Upon Cali for a Second Consecutive Year

The Vomit Comet! The Paint Jobs On Our Rental Cars Are Rarely Safe.

Yes.
We have been asked to return to the west coast for another summer. On Friday, July 1 we landed at SFO and, after waiting with the throngs of holiday travelers, finally secured the vehicle that will serve as our trust steed, our Rocinante, transporting our most precious offspring for the next fifty days, or so - a lovely black 2011 Chevy Traverse. We asked for a mini van, and we were "upgraded" to an SUV. I thought this was a great fortune until I tried to fit the luggage into the bullshit storage area behind the back seats. The kids mostly sat on the luggage on the two-hour drive to Monterey from the airport. The trip is two hours in theory, as the reality of the California traffic made it nearly three-and-a-half. However, the driving portion of the journey was a cluster-of-sorts... The highlight was Aidan's projectile application of some revisited syrupy fruit-flavored sport drink and Mandarin oranges all over the inside and the outside of the driver's-side back door. Our rental has now been named the Vomit Comet.