Barron Ace is a legend

 I really think that milestones in parenthood should be noted. so that you can feel like a great father at any given moment by remembering just these priceless experiences that were challenging at the time. And so precious later on. today I took my daughter and her friend on a journey. I bought tickets to see the women's college volleyball champion ship game.. It was between The Texas Longhorns and the. Nebraska Cornhuskers.. What I enjoyed the most about this priceless experience was just the feeling that maybe my daughter could recognize how much I loved her when. she would be older and trying to accomplish something like this for herself She would say, wow, this was really hard. And this was expensive. And Dad did this for us. I wonder if it was hard for him And the answer would be yes, it's freaking hard. Yes, it's demanding. Yes, it leaves you feeling drained at the end of the day. My feet hurt. My pockets empty My eyes are drained because I was exhausted from driving 2 1/2 hours there. Two and a half hours back. My head hurts from constantly having the look in weird directions to. make sure that I have an eye on my daughter and her friend. Endlessly being asked questions and making the judgment call of should we go now or later? Because if we don't get the bathroom session in now, it's going to be quite the long wait later. So we go now and I miss the better part of the second set. which was a winner. But they're happy. I kept a smile on their faces at all times. And I hope they'll remember the day as a great one. Yes, we bought overpriced T shirts at the end. We listened to Christmas music the whole time going home. They were tired. I was exhausted. And after all that. I feel like I accomplished something cool for them. My daughter says it was the best volleyball game she's ever been to. Her smile makes me happy.

My wife would work for a company that would arrange for travel for long weekends. and on these weekends she would be reimbursed for herself her room, her airfare, a limited amount of money for food each day, and incidentals Uber tolls. so forth.. So we want to a lot of great places and really only had to pay for us A room was pretty much included. So she would work and I would take the kids around New York City.. Turned it into a fantastic trip. And they liked it. They'd never really seen it We did all the touristy things you could think of.. It was a good time. So then when we did Atlanta. I was pretty lucky because it was a great time of year to go to the aquarium and Coke world in the zoo. And Latin American human rights exhibit and college Football Hall of Fame. And they really seem to enjoy all of it. When we did. Marietta, GA. The kids were a little bored. but the grounds themselves were fun to explore. And it was on a golf course. So that was fun. Boca Raton. was fun because we saw the aquarium and the gumbo limbo park. They had a enormously wooden jungle gym that was full of everyone from the Jewish community. And they had great ice cream right outside of it.. That weekend in particular was my daughter's birthday. And we had her cousin Alex with us.. So I took them all to a safari that was down there And they had a great time.. Then we went to a mall and rode scooters that were shaped like animals all through the mall.. We did all the little things that you could do to have fun. And the kids just said a great time. So that got me thinking about doing other trips outside of these work trips. And when I tried, I did a cruise with just my daughter and my sons. And it was fun. So then I thought I could do a summer trip. Mom has to work and I could take everybody Maybe it would be a road trip. So I dropped the word California. and all of a sudden everyone was interested and wanted it to happen. My original plan was to take the RV out there. Camp. I wasn't sure the RV would make it there and back. then I thought about renting an RV there and driving back. But it's July and I really didn't think that the heat of the S would be tolerable in an aluminum box. So I thought, well, what if I just fly there? Stay in a hotel and turn it into just a regular trip. And that's what I did. We booked about two weeks. I found a place in Malibu that was moderate. affordable. It was central to what we wanted to do for the most part I flew us all there, which was torture. We got the bus to the rental car place Waited in line for like an hour And then the lady told me that the vehicle I'd signed up for. could be a bug.. I said ma'am. Please don't threaten me with an insect.. I thought I was making a joke. She thought I was serious. I then laughed and she got it. I told her I really wanted the kia soul.. That's what I thought I booked. And she said one was being cleaned right now and that I could have it. So that's what I did.. When I got that car and we pulled out of that lot we pulled into a McDonald's parking lot and we got food. And it was the best McDonald's we'd ever had.. So then we go to the hotel. and it's a weird one. Park underground. Anyway, we want up to the room. Long, windy hallway. Got into the room We were all tired. Want to sleep?. So then the next day we wake up. We go out rough around and we just hang out on Hollywood Blvd. We. did the wax museums and Ripley's and we. rode the shuttle all around and got the history of around there. But it was fun. At this point I'm not looking on my phone for things to do. And I noticed a go pass. The more I read about this go pass. The more I like. There's like 40 things to do and you can book it for 3. 5 7 days. So I book it for 7 days, which is like 250 a person A thousand bucks for the four of us And in that side of things I. realized that I could do two or three things a day and really get a lot of value. So first and foremost, I decide to book 6 Flags great adventure.. It was so hot but it worked and it was easy.. The kids loved it. We did some scary rides. We were dripping sweat. It was 109 degrees and we did all we felt like doing and left. I can't remember what we did later that day.. I think we went to the beach that night. on Malibu. just outside of the Santa Monica Pier. It was really nice and quiet. It's very well lit, considering there's nothing there. A lot of people though. the water was very cold even though it was very hot out. So then the next day. I think we want to the Los Angeles zoo. And after that we bought some hats from the vendors out front. Right. across the parking lot is the gene Autry Wild Wild West Museum. So we did that because it was on the past two and that was. actually pretty cool and very quick. So that was fun So then we go to the California Institute of Technology which is also the California Science Museum. And they have an imax 3D theater. So we. see the monkey movie in 3D. part of the pass. We stopped and had some crazy local barbecue in the meantime from the food trucks That was good.. Oh, did I forget to mention that on day one we met a cousin from back home. Matt cousin. No, not cousin. It was AJ's sister She was in Longwood. So we met her for lunch and we were talking about how cool it was that we were bumping into each other on this side of the country.. So that was kind of fun. Longwood was very pretty too. So then we did We didn't have enough time to do the museum So we kind of walked in and out. We went to the. Cabrillo aquarium And we went to Catalina Island. on the long bridge. That was interesting. Then we went to. Universal Studios and we got express and did every ride they had a million times for the day. That was a great value.. We went to an in and out burger And we did del Taco. We added a couple crazy doughnut places that were pretty impressive. We wanted to the supermarket there that had all the organic and crazy weird healthy stuff. We. walked from. above Malibu all the way through the stairs. in the mountains down to get to the beach, which was crazy long pathway. Just to get down to the beach. And then we had to go up those stairs to get back to the car at some point. One day I had booked for us a Mercedes Limo bus. for just the 5 of us. And we did a Hollywood house tour. We had the whole limo bus to ourselves It was amazing.. They showed us everything and we got to take pictures and stop and get out.. It was awesome. We want the Newport Beach and we got on the whale watching excursion and we got sick. The boat was full of Jewish girls that were horsing around too much and they were rocking the boat and not listening and falling over and screaming. And the guy said this has to stop. We're going to turn around.. So we didn't see any whales, but we did see about 1000 dolphins. So that was still a win. We want to. a really big mall and played an escape game And that was pretty cool. We want the Legoland that day earlier. That was fun. We want the Knotts Berry Farms. but we couldn't get in because we didn't have an appointment. We didn't have any interest in going to Disney We did universal. We did 6 flags Oh, we want to the Chinese theater which. is now called TCL And we saw Space Jam with LeBron James. That was pretty awesome We want to the K Speedway and the kids did go kart races. They were fastest lightning and they love them. We went to Santa Monica Pier and they played games and they ran around and we got. some fresh churros We watched a lighted bike parade in the evening.. It was very crowded. The mountains were really impressive. That was fun to be able to see all that. You might want to a bunch of shops. We saw. Danny Duncan shop and. we saw. cookies and kicks. It was just a very fun experience. Last day was hard. Could he use a little more time? We waited a little bit too early at the airport. Oh, you're getting sleepy. But when we got back, we were happy. And then. everybody wants to go again.