Economic Stimulus Check 2008

$1800. That’s right. Though sometimes our children drive me crazy, when it came to the economic stimulus check, our family of four really paid off. In mid-May, when I noticed it had been deposited into our account, I called Jim at work. What should we do with it?!?! I cast my vote for the standard goodies that I’m always wanting to buy . .. a new lens or some other photography related treat. Jim suggested his usual . . . a 60″ plasma tv.

That same day, a new post went up on The Image is Found’s blog. I’ve been a regular blog stalker of theirs since the beginning of this year, because I LOVE their photography. They are a husband-wife team based outside of San Diego, and they do AWESOME work, mostly portrait-related. On this particular post they announced the date of a new shootshop . . . a one-day intensive workshop for 15 photographers. It seemed like fate. The government had JUST deposited $1800 into our bank account, and a Wilson vacation was long overdue. So that was that. With our $1800 we decided to road-trip it to southern California, with a one-day shootshop for me on June 10th.

Here’s some photos from our adventure:

Day one was a bunch of driving and portable DVD player enjoyment.

We spent day two in Las Vegas, which was. . . hot. We had lunch at Jimmy Johns where James tripped and hit his head on the corner of the table. Ouch. Wish I would have had my camera to get a photo of the goose egg on his forehead. We stayed at Circus Circus, walked around and saw various attractions on the Strip, etc. etc. etc.

Are baby backpacks unusual? Everywhere we went I heard people laugh, “HA! Wendy, LOOK! That baby’s in a BACKPACK!”

Jim caught this one while we were stretching our legs after a long day on the road (day one).

Somewhere in the middle of nowhere, Nevada, James needed to go potty, where, of course, there were no “services” for miles. He wasn’t sure about it, so Jim gave him some encouragement. Soon, however, he seemed quite comfortable with the idea of not using a toilet, and asked repeatedly if he could pee on the street while we were in crowded public areas of CA. oh dear.

By Sunday we were at our destination, Oceanside California.

This photo perfectly illustrates James’ enthusiasm for the beach. He LOVED it. This photo (captured on my piece of junk point and shoot!) is one of my favs from the entire trip. Remind me again why I have spent thousands on high-end camera gear?

Jim and Colin on the Oceanside Pier. Loved it!

Tuesday was my big day at the shootshop, while I kindly left Colin and James with Jim. :) They stuck around Oceanside until lunchtime (when I skipped my lunch with the photographers to feed Colin in the parking lot), and then they took off for the San Diego zoo. Jim took this super cool photo of James at one of the exhibits. Though I’m not sure their day was quite as fantastic as mine, I understand they had a pretty good time at the zoo (talk to James…something about a disorderly elephant spraying water all over its onlookers is what seems he’ll never forget).

We spent one more day in Oceanside, and took lots of photos…of course. :)

James and Daddy in downtown Oceanside. This was my attempt at creating an Image is Found “engagement shot.”

After dinner we took a stroll on the beach and then the pier.

The days we were driving were long ones, and every 3-4 hours we’d have to stop somewhere so I could feed Colin. We stopped here on our way home and I was SOOO excited to bust out the camera after Colin finished eating. A junky, abandoned building in the middle of nowhere . . . a photographer’s DREAM!

“D for DADDY!” is what James kept saying here.

And finally. On our way out, we stopped at a gas station in Utah with a deer head mounted over a dining table. I totally regretted NOT getting a photo, so on our way back I made sure to get one. A deer head over a gas station dining table…how awesome is that?!

Good times, but it feels good to be home again. I sure won’t miss So. Cali’s gas prices ($4.80/gal.) !! Here are a couple more memories, not documented in a photo:

*Lady on the beach that fed James 2/3 of a bag of potato chips and then told me, “he’s a very good eater.”

*Road trip theme song: Akon-Dangerous

*On the last night of the trip, we had planned on stopping in Richfield, Utah for the night. Unfortunately, nearly all of the hotels/motels were full (because of a motorcycle rally…who knew?!). We finally found a place that had a room available (reminded me of the types you always see on CSI when they’re doing some sort of drug bust). We ate a late dinner, got James and Colin to sleep, and then jumped into one of the double beds. I pulled the comforter over me . . . it smelled like MAN . . . ewwwww. Lucky for us there were two double beds, so we switched to the other one. Does it gross anyone else out that those comforters never get washed?

*In Baker, CA, we decided to eat gyros at the Mad Greek Cafe. We waited one hour for our food in an un-airconditioned room. Yummy food, but two hours later I got a Mad Greek stomach ache . . . which then turned into Mad Greek you-know-what. Guess I should have listened to Jim’s vote for Taco Bell. :)

*James watched a good share of Disney and Pixar movies on the portable DVD player in the back seat. Two of his favorites are The Emperor’s New Groove, and Monsters Inc. He started calling the latter, Monster’s New Inc. TOTALLY cracks me up every time I hear him say it.

Whew! That was a long one. Congrats if you made it this far! :)