Yee-Haw! Burgers for Dinner

Norco, California: Horsetown, USA.



That's how Norco refers to itself. They have signs proclaiming their horsetown-ness all over the place. A bit of Norco, California trivia for you: Norco's neighborhoods are lined with horse trails instead of sidewalks. Homes have horsetrails across their driveways, as do many of the major roads in town. Oleander is illegal in Norco because it is poisonous and horses might eat it. Homes that have oleander bushes have to have them removed, even if they aren't near any horse trails or corrals. (Someone once told me that the pollen could also be a problem if animals breathed it in. Now you know, too.) Norco is the kind of place that has two crosswalk buttons at each traffic light post, one at walker's level and one easily accessible to horseback riders.

Businesses along one of the main drags, 6th Street, have corrals in the parking lots so that riders can park their steeds while dining and shopping. Indeed, 6th Street boasts several feed stores. Many residents in the community have horse related businesses on their properties from riding schools, to boarding facilities to training centers for "Cattle Horses." Most of the time, businesses are small and locally owned. Almost all of them boast advertisements for local fairs, and local teen girls advertise to solicite votes for the various "Miss Norco" or "Miss Rodeo" contests during the year. Norco High School boasts of their strong agricultural program and FAA affiliation.

Norco may be well known for its rodeo. It may also be known for the once glamorous Lake Norconian Club, parts of which are today behind the secured walls of the Naval Weapons Center Seal Beach Detachment Corona, which is neither in Seal Beach nor Corona. The Corona was just recently added to the name to better recognize the actual location. I realize that this may seem odd considering it is not actually in Corona but in Norco. It makes me shake my head and tsk. Finally, right next door to the Norconian Club, housed in some of the former buildings of the Norconian Club and, again, hiding some beautiful architecture behind its walls, lies the California Rehabilitation Center, which is code for Norco Men's Prison.

Have I adequately portrayed a small, ranchy community? In many ways, you might never expect to find a town like Norco so close to the large Metropolitan area of Los Angeles County but as the burbs have expanded eastward, there it is on the edge of Riverside County.

Several years ago, Norco and the company which owns and runs Bob's Big Boy restaurants, entered negotiations to bring a Bob's Big Boy location to the City of Norco. With the rodeo grounds in the north-east corner of the city, the city council has been (slowly) courting restaurants and lodging to the area, in the hopes of attracting more business to the rodeo grounds. But Norco has standards. Before Bob could move to Horsetown, USA, the city council determined that, to better fit in with the feel of the city, Bob needed a cowboy hat.

And so on this day, during our week of "DaddyDoc and Mr. Genius have yet again abandoned us to go Scout Camp" I packed "the littles" in the Honda Accord (DaddyDoc took Millie the PerkyMommymobile,) and we ventured out to Horsetown, USA's very own, unique Bob's Big Boy.

You can't miss Bob from the freeway. A statue of Bob, without his hat, adorns the rooftop of the restaurant. Just look to the West of I-15 to find Bob.

Once there, the boys posed for the first picture:



Our delightful server had an almost perfect name, just one letter off from the most perfect name. She began by asking if she could bring me an iced tea or a Pepsi. I enthusiastically ordered that Diet Pepsi. And a glass of water because I really am trying to cut back.



Sneaky But Sweet determined that children's menu burgers are too small for him so he ordered the Car Hop without mustard or pickles... which is essentially just a cheeseburger with grilled onions on it and nothing else. But it made him happy.



Captain Stubborn chose the Grilled Cheese, but really his primary mission was to find a way to order onion rings. I must say, I normally only like beer batter onion rings because I find that many crumb coated onion rings are too... crummy. I cannot explain it. But these rings were really good. He let me have a bite.



I went classic: A Big Boy Combo. I may have had the salad with bleu cheese dressing (on the side) too.

I promised the boys shakes for dessert. Even though Bob's offers mint chip shakes, CS chose chocolate, the same as the ever-predictable SBS. I asked for my chocolate malt with double malt, please, in a to-go cup. My "add double" version was pretty good, much better than their regular version. Ruby's is still the only place that really knows how much malt to add.



We ate the whipped cream off the top of our cups. I paid our bill and gushed on our delightful server with the Almost-Perfect Name to the manager on duty at the register. With the sun behind the hill across the street from the restaurant, we took a better picture with Bob in his Cowboy hat. With that, we moseyed on home.

I love this necklace

Remember when we went to Canyon de Chelly in the north east corner of Arizona? I couldn't eat because I was so anxious about the tour I booked with a local Navajo dude? And we bought fry bread and jewelry from his wife and sister?

I told a friend about my necklace the other day. I really like wearing necklaces. Most of mine are Brighton. My Navajo necklace hangs from my necklace rack in the middle of the Brightons, but for the past year or so, it stayed there, not on my neck.

A few weeks ago I told a friend about this necklace. Today none of my Brightons worked with the shirt I wore so I grabbed the Navajo necklace and it worked.

I love this necklace. I tried to take a good picture of it to really show off the colors of the necklace:



Can you tell how great the colors are in the stones?

Do you see the purple and the blue? A good 90% of my wardrobe is plum, eggplant, purple, fuschia, or navy blue. My pants are denim, khaki, navy, with a few browns and greens thrown in. If I had to choose a word to describe my color palette of choice, I would say "jewel tones."

This necklace is PERFECT for my wardrobe! I love it so much. It fits perfectly with my colors and offers colors that I neglect, which accent my choices so well. In addition to not terrific photography skills, I really lack a lot of fashion coordinating skills. Sticking to a few colors makes mixing and matching easier and safer. This necklace safely adds other colors into my scheme.

And, like my style, this necklace is simple. I don't do a lot of fancy. I like simple.

I am so glad I picked this up in Arizona.

Do you have a piece of jewelry or something you picked up on a travel that totally fits into your life?

Perky Mom Needs Help

I have some posts in mind to make... we've been going places.

But coming up this summer, I will need places to go.

You see, Daddy Doc is taking Mr. Genius to summer camp for a week and leaving me to keep "the littles" occupied. We had thought to eat our way through a certain community/state/metropolitan area to the east, but they start their school year the same time we need entertainment. Bad planning.

I want to go eat my way through summer camp. I want to find fun, different places to try. Ideally they would not be major fast food chains. (Although I am very seriously wondering how sick and twisted would it be to make a really short road trip to a Cracker Barrel? I think it's been 2 years since I have had Cracker Barrel. Is anyone interested in hitting a CB with me if I was just that insane? E-mail me if you are interested. I am still considering the idea...)

Cracker Barrel aside, please send in your suggestions? Moderately priced, preferred. Keep in mind, I will have two elementary aged children with me. Two well behaved children, to be sure, but nothing too "adult". I do not want everyone else in the place giving me the stink eye. I can handle it but I prefer to not have to return the stink eyes for suspecting I would even be one of THOSE parents bringing children who would misbehave to a restaurant beyond their abilities.

The northern boundry of consideration is Solvang. The southern boundry of consideration is San Diego. (Edited to clarify: The original version of this post said "San Diego Border". San Diego works. I was debating saying "San Diego" or "Mexican Border" and ended up with San Diego border. What the hey?) Eastern? Well, I would rather not go all the way to Palm Springs. Except of course, if we were to drive past Palm Springs on the way to Cracker Barrel. (Three shall be the number thou shalt count, and the number of the counting shall be three. Four shalt thou not count, neither count thou two, excepting that thou then proceed to three.)

So. Please give me feedback. Given the boundries described, what food experiences would you suggest for a Mommy and two somewhat adventurous eaters?

Camping and Feeding a Crowd

Ok before we begin, we need to live in a world where I am a totally put together woman.

• Everything out of my mouth is golden, perfectly eloquent.
• I am an amazing event planner. I can anticipate how many people will attend an event even if they do not all RSVP or they respond at the last minute.
• I am an amazing time planner. I can anticipate how long it will take to cook food for 100 people, even when the wind cooling the charcoal briquettes faster than normal.
• And throughout it all, I remain completely gracious: calm, cool, and serene.

Got it? That's me. Totally. TO-TALL-LY.

In my control-freakness, I volunteered to coordinate a Dutch oven dinner last week for about 100 people. We ended up feeding over 100 people. I volunteered because I had goals I wanted to achieve: A variety of recipes to choose from, including a variety of meats to hopefully address any potential dietary issues. Recipes which we had not made before at other such events. Providing enough food to feed everyone. And, lastly, accomplishing all of this while keeping to a budget.

For the record, my shopping partner and I purchased all of the necessary food to feed over 100 people for $175. We used no coupons but we shopped at one warehouse store and one ethnic market. (We may have stopped at the food court for carne asada tacos and a carnitas burrito, but I'll never tell. And if we did, we did not submit those receipts for reimbursement. We are upstanding women.)

Perfect? No. Mission accomplished? Yes.

Cooking looked like this:

Photo by Perky Mommy

After a group of parents, siblings and scouts assembled the main dishes, Daddy Doc and Mr. Very Good Friend manned the coals. The giant Dutch oven is a 16" Dutch oven. The rest are 12" Dutch ovens. The 16" is twice the capacity of the 12" Dutch oven. Now you know. This set up is designed to approximate about a 350°F oven.

These Dutch ovens only contain dinner. We had three more set aside to cook dessert during our evening program, to serve after the program. Most of the ovens came from Scout families. Each time we go camping, more and more families decide to acquire a Dutch oven.

And by families I mean this:

Dad sees the Dutch oven cooking. Thinks it's really cool. It's like using a barbecue but there's other gadgets. And it means going shopping at Bass Pro Shop.

Dad says to Mom: "Honey, I think we need to get a Dutch oven." And so it goes.

Full Disclosure: Sometimes it happens that a Cute and Perky Mommy encourages and/or enables the aforementioned process. But you didn't hear that from me.

(See how happy Dutch ovens make Dads?) Photo by Daddy Doc

Shortly after this picture was taken, Mr. Very Good Friend cut up this pot roast to make serving the crowd easier.

Photo by Daddy Doc

And then we served over 100 people, from the bottom of the picture to the top:

Pot Roast with Sweet Potatoes, Carrots and Onions
Cheesy Potatoes a la Perky Mommy
Bratwurst Bake (with Apples, Onions and Potatoes)*
Teriyaki Chicken
Enchilada Casserole

For dessert, later that evening, we had:

Bread Pudding
Apple Crisp
"Almost" Pumpkin Pie

* The Bratwurst Bake is the one that made me happiest. I totally worried that this would be the least popular recipe. Parents later confided that they did not expect to like it nearly as much as they did. It was the sleeper hit of the evening.

Very Good Friend offered to let me get out of line to eat but being the calm, serene and gracious creature that I was, I stayed. I needed to make sure that every person ate and clearly, by staying at the table to serve enchiladas, I controlled the food and could guarantee there would be enough for everyone.

Clearly, I was right because it worked.

You may now marvel at what a totally put together woman I am. (Which is why I plan to spend this weekend recovering from last weekend.)

Someone REALLY Won!

I was using reusable shopping bags before every store sold plastic-ish and strange not quite fabric-ish bags. When I was in college, I had a few canvas bags I hauled with me to and from the local grocery store within walking distance of my apartment. That store would rebate my bill five to ten cents per bag. They held much more than the regular bags, too.

Now those spoiled college students have a Trader Joe's walking distance from my old apartment and my old dorm. I cannot begin to describe how insanely jealous I am of them. I take consolation in remembering the malted cookies and cream ice cream from the ice cream shop that is no longer in that shopping center.

My parents have several Trader Joe's locations within a 10-minute driving radius of their home. For years, this added to my bitterness because we had no Trader Joe's in our town. The closest locations were at least 15-mile drives up or down our local, very crowded, freeway. The day that Trader Joe's finally opened up in our community, the heavens opened up and the sunshine fell in rays directly over the location of the store.

I try to remember my reusable shopping bags when I visit. I usually write my name on the little receipt with my phone number to enter the monthly contest that rewards those of us who do so. In the beginning, they rewarded shoppers with a gift card but several months ago, a clerk advised me that the prize changed to a "gift basket" of products to circumvent laws against giving away alcohol. (With a gift card prize, shoppers could purchase alcohol. Gift baskets avoid this dilemma.)

On my visit to Trader Joe's last week, I decided not to ask the clerk for a slip and pen. I never won anyway and he seemed focused on his job. Why bother to distract him? I had several errands to complete, I decided to save us both the fruitless time and effort. As I started to take my bag and leave, he called me back to the counter and encouraged me to fill out the slip. I protested but he already tore the receipt paper off the register so I filled it out anyway.

On Tuesday of this week, the manager of the store called me to advise me that I had WON! I believe I squealed. Then I asked "Does everyone react like that?"

B replied "Yes, I think everyone's just happy to find out that SOMEONE actually wins these things and we really do give them away!"

I asked if I could wait until Friday to pick up my bag and he assured me that would be fine. Today being Friday, Mr. Genius and I visited Trader Joe's to do some shopping and pick up my prize!! At the request of other Trader Joe's shoppers, I present a list of what I won. By my choosing, I offer visual aids:

The bag as I collected it at the Trader Joe's customer service desk:

Note: B was significantly impressed that I came and picked it up on Friday, just like I said I would. Huh. I knew when I would be in the area.

Two bags of snacks right off the top:

I happen to adore the cheese puffs, which are the Trader Joe's version of Pirate Booty. Yum!

I presume this jar in the bottom of the bag goes with the tortilla chips:

But the jar might end up poured over some chicken in a slow cooker. Or some baked potatoes.

More snack foods:

We have yet to try the trek mix. The package only includes nuts, no dried fruit. We are finicky about the nuts we like and tend to make our own trail mix by shopping for the individual ingredients among three different stores. The mix is really only peanuts, almonds, cashews and honey roasted peanuts. I doubt we would purchase this in the future but in the future, we might find some toffee peanuts to add to our custom blend in lieu of regular peanuts. I plan to send these packages with Daddy Doc and Sweet But Sneaky on an upcoming snow camping trip with Scouts.

I apologize for the quality of this photo:

I love these crackers. I purchase at least one box on almost every visit to Trader Joe's. I especially like them with the cheese, pesto and sun dried tomato spread from the refrigerated dips section of the store. I take them on camping trips and serve them often at parties. This explains why I forgot to take a picture of the box when I took the others, earlier in the day when the daylight was much nicer. I forgot that this box came in the gift bag. I have several others in my kitchen already!

Cat cookies...

... for people!! I purchased the regular variety in the past and we enjoyed them very much, although it has been several years since we had them. We look forward to trying the chocolate variety. I love spice cookies but I tend to prefer chocolate in candy as opposed to cookies.

Another pairing:

I tend to purchase whole wheat pasta when I can, or else I stock up at the regular grocery store during sales. I like funky pasta shapes. I look forward to trying the marinara sauce.

Another jar:

I grew up on Laura Scudder's Natural Peanut Butter but I confess that I am a Skippy mom. There. I said it. Natural peanut butter is a pain in the tush to spread cold out of the refrigerator.

And finally:

Of everything in the bag, I am least likely to purchase this in the future. I tend to avoid pre-sweetened cereals and I work the Cheerios sales like no one's business. Just today I purchased four boxes of Cheerios, the same size as this box, for a buck a piece, after sale and coupons, at my regular grocery store. I do stuff like that all the time. I have a stock-pile of Cheerios in the garage. But the boys look forward to trying the frosted flake cereal!

Of course, the bag itself is another gift. We will definitely use everything in the bag. Nothing shall go to waste! What a fun opportunity to try some new items and get some old favorites for free!

After we took the bag to the car, Mr. Genius and I shopped a bit. I told the clerk that I was happy to win last month's prize. She actually ripped off a tape for me to sign up for this month's prize which made me giggle. I decided to let someone else have a chance this month.

One Year Later

One year ago, (it was actually the weekend of February 12-15 but it was President's Day Weekend,) I was going to bed in a tent, about 50 feet from where I'm sitting now. It was very cold. So cold that this happened:

In response, about two weeks later, THIS happened:

And so this weekend, we're back. Same campground but parked in a trailer spot with electric and fresh water hook-ups. (No sewer, but that's ok because our grey tank and black cartridge are portable.)

I feel extremely grateful because this is happening:

A Restaurant Story.

Hi. Remember me? Yeah. Sorry about that falling off the blogosphere thing I did there. But, I'm back for now. So if you're checking in or have me on an RSS feed, here's something new to read!

Most Sundays, after church, we go out for lunch or brunch at a local restaurant. This is most definitely a habit we inherited from DaddyDoc's side of the family. When I was a little girl, we always attended 9:00 mass. IF we were good, SOMETIMES my dad took us to Bob's Big Boy, Sambo's, The Jolly Roger or The Parasol Coffee Shop for breakfast after church. We had three critical intersections between home at church at which he could either turn left or continue straight. As we passed each one, I held my breath wondering.

Number one: Are we going to turn? No, darn it!

Number two: Are we going straight? Dangnabit, he got in the turn lane.

What about this one last shot? If we turned left there, all hope was lost, Mom was making something at home.

Daddy Doc's family went to 11:30 mass and they almost always went out afterwards, usually with at least one or two other families even.

And now we have our turn. We have our regular stops. At a few of them, we have our regular servers, too. I love having regular servers. They walk up to my table carrying our diet sodas without even having to ask us first. But we find that the servers like having regular customers, too!

Before our children, we had a regular server at Mimi's. On one occasion we heard her shout and cheer when she returned to the kitchen. She knew we loved a particular appetizer and that day the staff had a tic-tac-toe game and contest going on. All she needed to complete her row was an order of Fried Artichoke Hearts with Lemon Butter Sauce. She saw us walk in, looked to her peers and announced that she would be right back with that square. She came to our table and said "Hi, can I get an order of the artichokes for you?" We said yes, she cheered and she won!

Several years ago, we ate lunch at Islands and sat in Tarin's section. Tarin convinced her manager that day to play a name game. When Tarin introduced herself to us, she let us know about the contest and asked us to use her name whenever possible during our visit. The server whose guests used his or her name the most that day would win the contest. And so it began...

Our boys were much younger but they understood the rules and we all had so much fun with the game. "Hi, again, Tarin! You know what, Tarin? We could use some more Diet Coke, Tarin. Thank you, Tarin!" Mr. Genius joined in, "Excuse me, Tarin, could I have some more ketchup, Tarin, french fries, Tarin?"

When the manager stopped by to see how we were doing, we informed her that "We're great. Tarin's our server. We love Tarin. Tarin's really helpful. Tarin's doing a great job helping us today."

Yep, you bet we did. I think at some point, we just said her name to say it: Tarin, Tarin, Tarin!

And, obviously, we remembered Tarin's name. Every time we returned to Islands since that day, we ask for Tarin. At first the staff recognized us: "Oh! You're the Tarin Tarin Tarin family!" Over the years, the staff working there that day left the restaurant and now only a few remain. But we still ask for Tarin.

Today we decided to have Islands for lunch. It had been awhile since our last visit. I saw Tarin when we came in and asked the hostess for a table in her section. The hostess at first apologized and said she just sat the table we needed. Then she changed her mind and offered us the "large" table, meant for a much larger group than ours. I told her not to worry, Tarin knows us. Sure enough, she apologized to Tarin and she laughed saying "No problem, I know them! They're great!"

Tarin greeted us, squatted in front of our table to write our order, and started to write down three kid's milks on her pad before asking if we wanted Diet Coke today. (Sometimes I order Paradise Iced Tea at Islands. She had reason to ask.) Then she dropped her news. Tarin and her husband are moving to Oklahoma in a few weeks and she was glad we stopped by before she left.

OKLAHOMA?? Oklahoma is far away! Oklahoma is cold! Oklahoma is humid in the summer! How could she do this to us???

We asked more questions. Her husband will be attending a specialized school for nine months and they may come back when he finishes. I told her that I expected her to come back. She mentioned that Islands assured her that they will rehire her when she returns.

We gave Tarin a little extra in her tip today and wrote a little note on our receipt before we left. Then I hugged her on our way out the door.

Because I'm just like that.

The Chinese Bakery Story

Several people in my life know the Bay Area well. My number one rule in visiting an area is always to ask the locals where to go. And so I turned to my local experts for advice. One very good friend who lived in San Francisco and knows of which she speaks, highly recommended a bakery in Chinatown. She advised me that they "always" have a line because they are just that good. With that I knew I had to visit. Thus our mission on Thursday evening, once on-board a Hyde-Powell Cable Car, was to find the Golden Gate Bakery to order Dan Tot.

From our tourist map, we knew to jump off the cable car at Washington and Powell. We wandered down streets to Grant Avenue keeping our eyes open for the Bakery. We found it! We found no line, even! We found a sign....

I called my friend back home. I reported our findings. She directed me back to her second suggestion on Stockton. We back-tracked and found the bakery. I went inside and asked the young woman at the counter: "Do you have dan tots?"

"They finished for today. All gone! Sorry!"

No Dan Tot.

I called back. I was getting a little testy. We had passed another bakery around the corner. I had no idea what Dan Tot even looked like. I was feeling very out of my element. I told my friend that I was going to just walk into bakeries until I found one. And so with that we walked into the Golden Bakery. The room was filled with older Chinese gentlemen sitting around tables and talking in Chinglish. Chinglish: It's like Spanglish but with Chinese instead of Spanish.

I asked the woman behind the counter the magic question: Do you have dan tots?

She tapped on the glass and said "Here!" I looked and saw little egg custard tarts. OH! So THOSE are dan tots? And that's when it allllll started. I'm not naive. I knew about Chinese women. I've been around. But I had forgotten how pushy they can get!

PCL: "How many you want?"

Me: "Four."

PCL: "I be right back."

She went to the back of the bakery and came out with a big tray full of buns. "These buns with barbecue beef. Still warm from da oven. You want some?"

Me: "I'll take four dan tots."

The Chinese lady took a styrofoam box off the shelf. "You want six? Six fit in the box."

Me: "OK, I'll take six."

She gestured to the big tray of buns "What about da buns?"

"OK, I'll take one bun." Hey, we were still at least an hour or so away from dinner. We could call it our appetizer.

She packed up the dan tots and bun but never gave me a total. I handed her a $20 bill and watched her punch numbers into the cash register. She handed me change and as I turned to leave the bakery, she pointed to the display case asking "You want cream filled roll?"

"NO!" I told her. "But it was a nice try." She smiled.

Then we left and took pictures outside her bakery. And on our way back to the Cable Car. Eating our appetizer.

Trying to Be Helpful

This weekend my wonderful husband took me on a three-night no-children getaway weekend. We flew on an airplane, stayed in swanky hotels, visited with friends along the way, and ate a bunch of AMAZING food. It was an incredible weekend not just for the fun we had together but for the blessings of our friends and family - my mom and sister who watched the boys, friends in town who helped us with schlepping the boys around a bit, and friends who set up amazing opportunities for us on our trip. In a nutshell. But that nutshell doesn't begin to tell it all. We had so many things happen along the way.

We flew up to San Francisco (SFO) on Thursday afternoon. Our Thursday night reservation included two passes for the famous San Francisco Cable Cars. I wanted to visit Chinatown again so on Thursday evening, we waited for the cable car at Hyde Street. Now, this particular line has a stop at the top of Lombard street, right at the edge of the crooked part.

The cable car was packed with tourists. One gentleman was trying to hold on while taking pictures of the incredible views. His wife stood just in front of me, while I sat on a bench. She faced away from the view of the crooked street. Being the cute, perky and helpful person I am, I naturally wanted her to see the amazing sight just behind her! If I were so close to a world-famous location, I would want someone to point it out to me. And so I tried. I really tried.

I started with "Turn around! Look!"

The woman looked at me as if I had two heads.

"Famous street! Look!" I pointed. Pointing is the international sign for "TURN AROUND AND LOOK IN THE DIRECTION I'M POINTING." Right?

She replied, still facing ME, "I do not understand what you are saying," in an accent that sound German to me.

DaddyDoc says that at this point I drew a bunch of "Z"s in the air and said "ZIG-ZAG STREET" while demonstrating the international sign for "Zig-Zag". (He laughs when he tells this part of the story.)

The woman still did not turn around. She repeated "I do not understand you" in an exasperated voice. She left "You stupid American woman" silent but I heard it in her eyes and exasperation. I know she thought it.

I tried to show her the map, with the picture of a crooked street. I continued to POINT behind her back to try to get her to look. I was standing up to emphatically express the urgency of the situation. Standing up to make a point is the international sign for "HURRY UP BEFORE THE CABLE CAR STARTS DRIVING AGAIN!"

Finally I sat down again and turned to Doc saying "I was just trying to be a helpful American. I would want her to do it for me if I was missing an opportunity to look at something famous."

We did not help any other tourists during our stay.

Actually, I take that back. A woman in front of our hotel asked us where to find the Fisherman's Wharf. We told her to continue walking down the street and she could not miss it. As she walked ahead, she told us she was looking for the Holiday Inn on Fisherman's Wharf. I few hours later, I saw it on a map. Yeah, it's a few blocks away from the Fisherman's Wharf. We sent her out of her way, actually. Oops.

Feeding the Village

The chronological diary thing isn't working for me so I'm giving it up.

But way back when we went camping in Vail Lake, one of the things I loved so much was food in the village. Very Good Friend brought her dips and I brought mine. Everyone just pulled the food out of our trailers and put them on tables for everyone to share. Saturday morning, Mr. VGF made bacon and pancakes and started feeding children when I was barely awake. So I just made a big skillet of scrambled eggs and brought them out to share.

We had our Saturday night dinner planned out.

(Ahem, with apologies to Laura Numeroff...)

If anyone spends any decent amount of time camping with Scouts, they quickly find themselves eating out of someone's Dutch oven at some point.

If you feed a family out of a Dutch oven, they're going to want to buy a Dutch oven themselves. So the family will go out and buy one.

If they buy a Dutch oven, they're going to want to cook in it the next time everyone camps together. The more recipes they try, the more they will want to cook. So everyone will have to bring their Dutch ovens so the village can cook as many dishes as possible in the Dutch Ovens.

Sort of. Because in this village, we also have access to cool portable grills, too.

And so after the taco dinner with Dutch oven lazy cobbler on Friday night, we had grilled tri-tip from one family, vegetables from another, a salad from another and so many months (and so few pictures) later, I can't remember what all we had but I remember that...

I made the very famous very complicated cheesy potatoes (whose main ingredient is hash browns) in our Dutch oven.

And for dessert, one of the Village people joined us with a giant glorious flan and freshly made whipped cream. And s'mores.

We were serenaded by two Cub Scouts who had a cute little song from one of their Scout camps that they wanted to share with us. Even though one of the scouts is notoriously shy about standing up in public.

And there was Herbie... the family pet. And he was THIS BIG, he was THIS BIG.

And that's the power of the Village.

Finally Camping in Our Trailer, Part One

One of the most delightful things about camping with a trailer as opposed to just tent camping is that there is far less last minute packing to do. Many times when we have left for a short weekend of camping, the biggest hurdle to leaving in a timely manner has been packing the car. Usually I have to run errands and take the kids too and from school, so packing in advance does not work. But with the tent trailer, almost everything we needed was already packed inside the trailer. We only had to fill the ice chests and add few things in the car before we could leave. Doc took a half day off of work to try to get out a little earlier than we might otherwise.

We packed the car, attached the trailer to the car and headed out. Doc was still figuring out the electric brake so every time we stopped, we stopped HARD. I was waiting for Opal to come through the back window. She did not.

We found a way to pull the van and trailer into a drug store parking lot so Doc could pick up a prescription. So we waited and waited. Finally we were off.

I had entered the address for Vail Lake into Google Maps and had a plan. We took the I-15 south of Temecula to the Immigration check point. According to Google Maps, Vail Lake should have been very nearby. But Google Maps was wrong. I do not know what we would have done without Daddy Doc's iPhone but we fortunately had no reason to find out. I found the Vail Lake website on the iPhone and learned that we should have exited the freeway much earlier, in Temecula. We took side streets back to the road to Vail Lake. In traffic. So we waited and waited.

We finally arrived, I hopped out to check-in only to find a really long and slow moving line.

I waited and waited.

I do not like to wait and wait. I just wanted to get to my spot! Finally we checked in and were able to leave. The Enablers and Very Good Friends had already checked in.

As we drove into the park, we witnessed a child on a bike who hit a curb and landed hard. He was bleeding profusely from his mouth and nose. Doc and I, along with others, stopped our cars and jumped out to help the child. One woman grabbed a towel. Another man who had come by on a bike, tried to comfort the boy and clean his face. I grabbed my overnight bag in which I always carry certain supplies, no matter what. You just never know when you will need them. I opened the sanitary napkin and said to the man tending the child "I know this may seem gross but it was made for absorbing blood." He said "Oh, I don't mind at all. You're absolutely right."

At that point I asked the crowd "Does anyone know where this child's family is so we can find them?" That was when I learned that the man tending to the child was actually his father! Everyone's first instinct was to help the child, as it should have been. No one asked questions until we knew he was tended to.

Knowing that the father was there and seeing the situation was under control, we decided that we had contributed all that we could to the scene and proceeded to our campsite.

As we drove up the street, I was very glad that the operator had advised against the sites I had originally asked about reserving. They were unshaded and looked rather dusty. That said, I was a bit disturbed that she did not mention that the sites I selected sat right on the edge of a very steep cliff. The back side of our sites dropped straight down to a dry river bed below. There was no fence between our sites and the edge of the cliff. While the sites were lovely, they made for a bunch of nervous mothers watching our children very carefully all weekend! The Very Good Friends had parked their trailer in the middle spot. Mrs. VGF hoped to block the campfire smoke from embedding in the tent fabric of our trailer! She said once that gets in, it never comes out. She hoped we could postpone that as long as possible.

When we came upon our site, Mrs. Enabler and Mrs. Very Good Friend were waiting for us, all right. One had a digital camera and the other a video camera. They were determined to film Doc backing the trailer into the spot... and hoping to mock him in the process! Alas, Doc disappointed them as he very capably backed Opal right into her spot! Mrs. Very Good Friend complained that the experience was entirely too boring.

Captain Stubborn started to crank the trailer up.

Sweet But Sneaky, who is most often found in his father's shadow, took a turn cranking, too.

The boys all got right to business helping Doc set up the Tent Trailer. And our friends came up with ways to help us. Mr. Very Good Friend pulled a "step" out of his pick-up bed for us. It was a box built out of 2x4s, great for stepping up and stomping dirt off our feet on our way into the trailer. He also had a slunky we used... Now, Opal does not have a sewer hook-up. We have hoses for fresh water and grey water drainage, but the toilet is a cartridge. Doc just pulls out the cartridge "box" and dumps it into a sewer dumping station. But the kitchen sink drained very slowly. In order to help solve the sink draining, we tried the slunky.

Note Mr. VGF's 2x4 step.

Please note the cute little buckets from the Target dollar department. They're no wood ducks but they're cute and practical at the same time.

The Pantry.

SBS really wanted someone to come play a game with him. Please note the PVC pipe trash bag holding system to the right. We also tied a grocery sack to the frame to collect recycling. I might need Doc to just build another frame.

With the trailer set up, I wanted to start getting my pieces of dinner ready. Before heading up to Temecula, we planned our dinner menus. "Many hands make light work!" Each family brought something to contribute. For Friday dinner we planned carne asada, tortillas, beans, rice, cheese, salsa, guacamole, with the most traditional of camping desserts: Chocolate Dump Cake with Trader Joe's Amazing Jars of Cherries. I kept wanting to show off the trailer but the Village wasn't coming over. I couldn't figure it out.

That is until Mr. & Mrs. Enabler and Mr. and Mrs. Very Good Friends came over together with a beautiful wine gift bag. And they were giggling. They had planned an absolutely perfect Trailer Warming Gift for me:

A cheap bottle of merlot!

A cheap bottle of Merlot is the most perfect Trailer Park Warming Gift ever. It's pure brilliance. But most of all, I felt special that my friends knew me well enough to know just what to get me. I suggested that I might mix it into spaghetti sauce so it wouldn't go to waste. They laughed and said that this is one time they don't mind that a wine "gift" would be used for cooking.

We all shared a very good laugh and then Mrs. Enabler and Mrs. VGF came in to check Opal out before everyone went back to cooking dinner.

Dinner was delicious and the Banfi Rosa Regale sparkling dessert wine which I brought paired perfectly with dessert by the campfire. Yes, I can even pair wine for Dutch Oven Dump Cake, thank you very much. And the non-wine drinkers enjoyed it, too. Best of all, Mr. VGF brought out his shovel and graciously put warm coals under our chairs to keep our bums nice and toasty in our camping chairs.

Creating Doc's Famous Dutch Oven Dump Cake.

Mrs. Enabler's friend came along with her adorable little ones and we now had even more reason to worry about the cliffs behind our trailers but we all slept nicely in our trailers that night. And thanks to the full-hook-ups we were able to keep the heater thermostat turned on all evening.

SBS slept on the dining table the first night.

Mr. Genius.

Captain Stubborn is in there somewhere. Really. He is.

Back by Demand: The Trailer Chronicles Continue...

Apparently I have an audience. And my audience is demanding. Yes, I was scolded this weekend. It seems that not everyone has an RSS feed set up like I do and so some people are actually so interested in reading my stories about camping with my Practically Perfect Tent Trailer that they are coming here every day or so looking for an update only to be terribly disappointed by finding incomplete months old Half Marathon trip reports.

And so for "You Know Who You Are" I apologize and I am forcing myself to find time to update you all on the glorious stories of camping with our Trailer. (And by forcing I do not mean that I do not like doing this. I just need to learn better time management skills. Either that or I need a live in housekeeper like Alice Davis (The Brady Bunch Alice Davis, not the Disney Legend.) I think that is truly my problem. Some people were just not born with a housekeeping gene and I am one of them.) But I digress...

When we left off with the saga of the tent trailer, I told you the story of the 50-point turn from heck in the MGM-Grand parking structure on the Las Vegas strip and changing a flat trailer tire in the rain in Baker, California. I also entertained you with a lovely photo tour from my driveway.

Now if there's anything I love to do, I love to shop. The problem with shopping for me is two-fold:

1- In my perfectionism and tendency to set unreasonable expectations, I get these ideas in my head of EXACTLY what I want and EXACTLY what I need to have.

2- I'm frugal. I want the best quality for the best price. I like to buy things on sale. Or with coupons. But then I worry that what if they run out of what I need before I can get it??

Fortunately we already had quite a bit of camping equipment on hand already. We dragged the boxes out of the garage and I sorted through it to figure out what we had, what was worn and what we still needed. I made lists. I made lots of lists. I knew that two sets of plastic drawers from Le Tarjay would be perfect for utensils, cooking tools, chopping boards, and so forth. I got new silicone spatulas from Bed, Bath and Beyond. They are teal, plum and some other color. They're jewel tones and I love jewel tones. Very pretty.

I needed a paper towel holder. I wanted a set of mixing bowls with lids, lightweight so they did not add too much weight to the trailer, stacking so they would not take up too much space, and I really did not want to spend more than $5 on them, $10 max but that was really pushing it. I looked at several stores for those bowls. I went on several trips to Target looking for those bowls. On one trip when we were in a random aisle at a Target that was not our normal store, Doc found a perfect set of bowls! I was so happy.

No, really - cheap, lightweight mixing bowls that could double as serving bowls. I was HAPPY!

I really wanted a bigger variety of pots and pans than what I already had. I was using random pots that I had collected over the years. By collected I mean "When various elderly relatives died, I inherited a really old pot." I do not mean to sound disrespectful or ungrateful to my late grandfather. He was a fine man. But the pot was old when I acquired it. I still have some of his good cooper bottom pots in my kitchen but I did not put my "good" pots in my camping buckets. Who does that? I decided to try to find some better pots and pans. Except that I really did not want something too heavy in the trailer and I really did not want to spend a lot of money on trailer pots and pans considering we just bought a BRAND NEW trailer. I actually found a lovely nonstick set of pots and pans at Target on sale! The largest skillet is probably smaller than I would ideally like but it works!

I may have also picked up some acrylic wine glasses.

The "master" bed is bigger than a queen but so thin that I figured queen sheets would work. We bought a waterproof mattress cover one day at Bed, Bath & Beyond. Let me just say now that was a mistake. We have a water proof sheet thing on Captain Stubborn's bed and it is not plastic so I somehow assumed that this waterproof mattress would resemble that. I know at the time I had a really good reason for thinking that I would need a waterproof mattress pad. It came from our trip to Barstow when water condensed under our sleeping bags onto our air mattress. In restrospect, we have no reason for a waterproof mattress and that is just as well because the thing stank like perm solution. I shall spoil that part of our inaugural trip right now. Perm.Solution. It was horrible. Before our second trip we went to Target and bought a new mattress pad. For sheets I selected navy blue knit sheets from Target. We put the sheets on the bed and use a sleeping bag as a comforter. We purchased two pillows to keep in the trailer.

I went to a lot of stores to put together a game box for the trailer: Target, Toys R Us and... Dollar Tree! We have a bucket with Rummikub, playing cards, Mille Borne, my homemade Yahtzee and homemade mancala games. We have some game books like word searches and sudoku. I put together a pencil bag of mechanical pencils and pens. There are some inexpensive ball toys, too.

We even went to Camping World. I had really high hopes for Camping World. Now, don't get me wrong, Camping World has some cool stuff. At Camping World I found a piece of artificial grass that is designed to wrap around the trailer step, secured with cable ties. With each step we can brush off our shoes before we enter the trailer. Very handy dandy, yes, indeed. One might even say "Easy Peezy Lemon Squeezy". I think if I had a bigger trailer I might appreciate Camping World a bit more. They had a lot of stuff but I really found I could buy a lot of the things for inside the trailer for less elsewhere. We eyed the external gray tanks (oooooh.... ahhhhh.... holding tanks for waste water! With handles that can hook onto the tow hook on the Mommymobile so we can drive them to the dump stations! ooooooooh... ahhhh...) But because our first trip would be to a full-hook-up site, we passed on our first visit.

The sad and lonely external waste tank. But the over the tow hook handle is very nifty.

Then there was the plain stupid fun.

From the Target Dollar Department (gotta love the Target Dollar Department!!) I found some little buckets and rectangular containers. They have a galvanized look and embossed flowers on them. We use one to hold our keys. All the keys just get dumped in one on a counter so we can find them easily when we need them. The buckets are awesome for plastic utensils and napkins. I have one rectangle by my bed to hold my cell phone, watch, etc when I go to bed. Cute. Cute. Cute! (and perky!)

I also found little rugs in the "Not Quite Dollar Department" at Target. We figured out that the entrance to the trailer was too narrow for a bathroom rug but these rugs for $2.50 were just the right size. We have some turtle rugs, some shark rugs and some whale rugs. For $2.50 I picked up a few for when these get too worn and frayed from use and washing.

Almost immediately after buying the trailer I called my mom. My mom crochets. When I graduated from high school she and I went together to Super Yarn Mart! and flipped through the pattern books. We found two afghan patterns that she would make for me to take to my college dorm with me. One of those patterns has become a legend in our family. It uses three to four colors of yarn and is called "Kittens in a Row". Because each "row" of kittens is a different color, you can see their "paws" hanging down to the rows below. She made that afghan for me. Then one for herself and one for my sister. She made one for DaddyDoc when he went to graduate school. She made one for my cousin who went to college "with me". She made one out of all white baby yarn when we were married and we used it for each of our sons' baptisms. She made a pink baby version when the doctor said I was expecting a girl. She went to the store the day my "daughter" was born with a Y-chromosome and bought new yarn. When he was a few days old she came to bring him his blue and green colored blanket. We have three blankets in my family room "colors" and each of my boys has his own "Big Boy Blanket".

So even before I had the trailer in person, I ordered the yarn and had the yarn shipped to my mom and she made a trailer blanket.

We had to pick a place to break in the trailer. Ideally we would have someplace local so we would not have to drive too far should something happen to the Mommymobile or the trailer. I wanted full hook-ups so that we would not have to find ourselves running out of resources or overfilling a grey tank. And I wanted something with plenty for our family and friends to do. Mr. Enabler suggested Vail Lake in Temecula, California. Vail Lake is a private club resort but non-members can make reservations as well. We found a weekend that would work for the Enablers, the Very Good Friends and even my friend the Pastry Chef could join us! I called Vail Lake and the woman on the phone could not have been nicer. She was very friendly, cracked jokes and when I asked about a particular area of the campground, she steered me away from some undesirable sites.

The only thing left to do was to come up with a name. One friend asked if I planned to name the trailer and I liked the idea. I really wanted to come up with a name that fit a trailer. I had an idea but worried that it might offend someone whose mother shared the name. I spent some time talking with some friends about trailer people. One friend spoke of her grandmother and I asked her grandmother's name. It was PERFECT. I loved it!! But I worried I would offend my friend. She promised she would not be offended.

And so I had the Practically Perfect Name for the Practically Perfect Trailer: Opal.