Hey Kids...We're Going On Day-cation!

We knew heading into it that this summer would be kind of an odd one for us.

Our older son attended a school in the district that lets out last in our area, and was on a completely different schedule from the school where my husband teaches.

My husband had only a short window of four days off (with our son still in school) before he began teaching summer school and the whirlwind of graduations, youth group outings, our anniversary and some birthdays came up.

We really needed a change of scenery.

A break from the well-worn grooves of everyday life.

However, with gas prices being what the are and with watching every dime we spend right now due to the possibility of purchasing a home in the near future, we knew that an actual vacation was pretty much out of the question.

So, taking a page from J.D. and other bloggy proponets of frugal living, we decided to do something a little different this year.

Something that would still give us the feeling of a restful and relaxing vacation, while not traveling too far from home or spending too much money.

We went on a day-cation.

For this daylong adventure, we invited grandma along. We took Jericho out of school for the day, packed a cooler full of food, and went on a road-trip.

Our destination was a historic mansion that we'd heard about and had wanted to go see for ages.

And I'm so glad we did!

It turned out to be a very enjoyable, inexpensive little get-away. It cost less than $75 for the admission fees, snacks we wouldn't normally buy (but splurged on since it was a special outing), and then the cost of gas.

And the kids couldn't have been happier. You'd have thought we had taken them to an amusement park, so great was their delight in all they got to see and do. And all without the crowds and the much greater expense a trip like that would have been.

Before our scheduled tour, we had a fun-filled time exploring the quaint little town the mansion is in, as well as the park adjoining the mansion grounds.

We had our picnic here, among a plethora of humming birds, butterflies, lizards and beautiful flowers and plants.

Here Judah is peeking around a palm tree near where we at our lunch. He wouldn't sit still when he saw there were ladybugs on the trunk of the tree.

And like any true brute boy, he promptly squashed several before I realized what he was doing and told him that ladybugs were good bugs. Bugs that ate aphids and helped to protect the flowers in the garden.

*sigh* I'm afraid in my vigilance against the black widows and crickets that have found their way into our garage, and flies and spiders that find their way into our house, I may have inadvertantly given him the impression that the only good bug is a dead one.

His Samurai training is a bust...complicated.



Jericho got to pick his very first orange. A real treat, which we're told tasted "way better than the kind from the store". Of this I have no doubt, though I'm sure that the novelty of getting to pick it himself also had a little something to do with his conclusion.



Incidentally, I found it interesting that most of the residents that grew up in the historic mansion lived to be well past 90, no doubt benefitting from the abundance of Vitamin C in all the fresh orange juice and lemonade they drank on a daily basis thanks to their private citrus grove.

Here was a stand of lovely Madilija Poppies which formed a hedge outside of a residence not far from the entrance to the Mansion grounds.



These chest-high flowers smelled sooo beautiful...not overpowering or heavy, but a light and dainty fragrance that would be especially pleasant to enjoy while swinging on a porch swing during breezy summer evenings.

Though it probably doesn't appear so in these pictures, their very delicate blooms were quite large. Cupped hands could barely contain the full size of the deep blossoms, the shape of which resembled a fine porcelain tea cup.

The petals are papery and delicate, and the inside was bright yellow.

I can now understand the lengths my mom went to in order to track down some of these lovely flowers for her own garden in the Pacific Northwest.

Judah, who was sitting on my lap while I posted these pictures said, "Wook, mama...da egg!" MMmm...sunny-side up.





One of the beautiful gardens on the mansion's grounds.



Here is the Koi pond where our boys would have happily spent hours, perhaps even days, if we'd let them.



We did spend at least an hour here, because there was so much to see and do.

Though none of my pictures of the fish turned out very well, the koi inhabiting the depths were at least 16 inches long, and there were hundreds of tadpoles swimming around the shady areas.

See if you can spot what we found in the next few photos.









Also along the walkway to this pond and the steps leading to the landing above it, the boys stopped to chase small lizards that were basking in the sun along the stone railings. Though we live in the desert, we have always lived in housing developments and so have rarely experienced such things except when camping.

We were told by the docent that the owners grandchildren, in the late 1920's and 30's, also used to spend hours of their freetime playing around this same pond and one near the carriage house.

And one day, while their grandfather was gone, the children rounded up some of the rare specimens of Koi and took them to a pet store in the city to sell them for some spending money.

Needless to say, their grandfather wasn't too happy about that, having to go and buy back his own fish.

I took great comfort in knowing that there were mischevious children like my own living during the early 1900's.

Here was a beautiful sculpture, aptly named Shy Girl, which stood in an area near the Koi pond that was reminiscent of the grounds at Hearst Castle.

Click on the image to enlarge it.



This was a fountain which the docent told us the grandchildren were permitted to play in when they came to visit, as it was within sight of the porch where the grandmother spent her time in the afternoons doing handiwork and catching up on her correspondence.



It was 95 degrees the day we visited, and the idea of taking a dip in that fountain sounded very tempting. At one point, I did have to snatch Judah back from the edge, where he looked behind him as we moved away, "Da poo-ow, mama! Can I go hwimming?"

On a side note, allowing one's toddler to use binkies at bedtime and first thing in the morning when he likes to be cuddled can be detrimental to their enunciations of the "s" sound. It comes out sounding like a wheezy-nasal "h" sound. As though one is saying it around a pacifier. (Betchya tried that sound out just now, huh? Go ahead...it's fun! Hwimming. Hnake. Htupid. Hpit. Hcawy Mon-toe!)

Anyway, at long last, here is a picture of the lovely mansion.

I only wish we could have taken pictures inside.

The interior decorating had been comissioned by the owners, and had been done by the famous Tiffanys. They also had several Tiffany lamps in the home.

The walls in one of the rooms had been done with a patina of actual silver and copper, which left a metallic silvery sheen to the walls that was exquisite...unlike anything I've ever seen before. They'd also used damask cloth as a wall covering and for window treatments.

The library, otherwise known as The Peacock Room, contained a fireplace, some beautiful period furniture, and a fabulous Persian rug that had peacocks on the four corners.

The kitchen itself was rather small and ordinary (and had been poorly updated in the 1950's), but the butlers pantry, a shelf-lined hallway where all their china and other dishes were stored was amazing. Floor to ceiling shelves with beautiful woodwork and glass doors so that you could see where everything was.

There was also a thoroughly modern device installed in here for the waitstaff, which was rather like an intercom and could alert them when they were needed in a particular room of the home. It had been installed in the early 1900's.

It was a beautiful home, and it was apparent from all that the docent told us that many, many happy memories were made in that home back when the family lived in it. And the thing was, you could tell. It was an elegant home, but had a lived in, happy feeling about the place, as opposed to a museum for fine objects. I enjoyed knowing that the family viewed the place as a home. That children once chased each other through it's halls and rooms, and brought pet frogs and toads inside in jars, and maybe slid down the bannisters.

The last family member to reside there was a prominent member of the community, died childless and donated the entire property and all it's contents to the people of the city, to be maintained as a historical site.

That little day-cation put us in vacation mode, which helped the remainder of Jeff's time off to feel just as restful and relaxing as if we'd gone on a long camping trip. It also gave us some ideas for other trips that we plan to squeeze in later this summer.

It was great to get away and see some new sights.

To absorb the history from a different era.

To enjoy seeing some of the lush vegetation that grows in a climate so different from arid desert we live in.

And what trip of this nature would be complete without rolling down the very inviting hills on the immaculately kept grounds?



Good thing this wasn't Hearst Castle, or we'd have been booted out for sure!