Russell Beattie

We reserved a car for a long weekend a week or so back from EasyCar.com, but that was before my parents announced they were arriving on the 20th for a visit, so we had to change our plans around a bit. But because the rental agency should actually be called EasyScam.com, we couldn't change our plans without charges etc. What a rip that agency is! Never again! When's the last time you rented a car without unlimited miles? Yep - after I "booked" the car (i.e. paid) I realized that they were going to charge me 12 cents a kilometer after 100 kilometers per day. Since the speed limit is 120 kph, you can imagine how far you'll get before you start paying out the nose. Seemed like a good deal at first - nice car for a decent rate and no hastle, but the fact is that there's more hidden charges than you possibly can imagine: Don't bring the car back clean? �16. Arrive one minute late returning the car? �120. So it's really going to cost me more than going to Avis. God help me if I get into a fender bender or scrape a bumper. What a joke.

Anyways, that left us to have a car for the weekend for normal stuff and it's a real treat for Ana and I (and now Alex of course). Where American babies have probably spent half their life in the car already, Alex has very little experience in one so far and he seemed to like it a lot. We used the opportunity to get some errands done that we've been wanting to do for ages - like head out to the Toys R Us and one of the other Malls out in the suburbs. It was very fun. First we ate at a nice restaurant at a Southern California outdoor-mall like complex called Diversia, just north of the city. It was a nice day, so we were able to eat our crepes outside and Alex got a little sun, etc. Pretty nice. You can see some mob-photos here of course.

Afterwards we headed over to the toy store and it was great. Alex is VERY bored of his toys already and we desperately needed to get some more advanced toys for his age, as well as a walker because the kid is going to kill himself moving around the room hanging on to unstable furniture, etc. We, of course, went nuts and got him all sorts of cool stuff, including a bucket and shovel for the sandbox at the park.

We ALMOST came out of there with an indoor swingset. Ana put him in one on display and he loved it. Check out the video, note that we didn't push him or anything. He got in and just started swinging! And kept on swinging for like 15 minutes - Ana didn't want to grab him... he was just swinging and looking around content as can be... ;-)

Afterwards we tackled Alcampo - this HUGE Super Wal-Mart sort of store outside of town. We bought everything from socks and a couple shirts for Alex to Soy Milk that we tried from one of those "tasters" that roam around and other stuff. The place was a bit TOO big actually, and it took over and hour to get through it (I was hoping 1/2 hour Max) and we got home dead-tired. Alex was great all day - a bunch of new things but he just was mellow and relaxed all day. What a great kid!

:-)

We're going to watch a DVD now... We're going to go on another road trip tomorrow, so I may not go to bed ridiculously late tonight reading/programming... but we'll see.

-Russ