Staying in a hotel....

Day 16:

When I woke up, everything was still.  The sun shone brightly.  Aside from water saturating the gravel pavement in the RV park and filling the holes, there was no sign that it had ever rained.  We slept in a little bit and I took the trash out with Daniel, stopping at the front desk to ask for a laundromat near a park so the kids could play.

The Snethen boys pose for a photo in the motor-home.

The manager gave me a map and used a highlighter to draw the route that I should take, bringing us back past the shopping center where we had dinner on our first night into Marin County, driving past the restaurant and turning to the right.  It was a small parking lot with a pet shop, a bank and lots of little shops, one being the laundromat.

Kimberly helped load the laundry into the "Big Kahuna" washer.

Kimberly and Ben helped Jenny with the washing machines while Rebekah watched Daniel and Jonathan in the RV.  Belle needed food, so we went into the pet shop and bought some for her while Kimberly and Daniel were enamored by the fish.  After the clothes had been put into the dryer, Jenny set them each for 45 minutes and we walked to the adjacent park.

Daniel, playing at the large park.

As it turned out, it was a fantastic park!  First we had to walk through a big field which was wet but not soaked.  The park was enormous, as big as the two playgrounds put together at Pioneer Park in Fairbanks.  It also had a sandbox and extra swings.  Everyone we met there was very nice and were interested in our life in Alaska.   After a while, Jenny took Rebekah and Jonathan back to the laundromat to gather the clothes and start sorting and folding.  I stayed at the park with the other three.

Three of the Snethen children play on the tire swing at the big park.

By noon, it had started sprinkling and a lot of the locals were leaving.  When I was satisfied that it wasn't going to stop raining, I took the kids back to the laundromat where Jenny had folded most of the clothes.  We brought them out to the RV and drove to Wal-Mart in Martinez, listening to Adventures in Odyssey.

While Jenny gathered supplies, I called hotels in the Modesto area, looking for one with conjoined doors.  Finally finding a Comfort Suites along the 99.  Somehow, driving there through the towns and orchards took the rest of our daylight hours.  On the way in to the hotel, we passed an a McDonald's with an indoor Playplace.  So after checking into the hotel, we returned to let the kids play, going back to the hotel for showers before getting a good night's sleep.

Wildlife count to date:  2 moose, 21 bears, 6 rabbits, 7 deer, 13 squirrels an elk and a kitten.  Maybe egrets in the marsh??