Just your average tsunami!

Last weekend we escaped to Avila  to celebrate Mark's 40th birthday. 

Saturday morning we woke up to news of another horrific earthquake in Chili.

(Why so many earthquakes lately?)

After breakfast and a nice soak in the hot tub,

I headed down to the beach with Chloe, Seth, Lulu and Payton.

The tide was lower than usual and we wanted to find a treasure!

As we searched, the officer in this police car nearly ran us over...
literally!

"Hello, officer!  Does this have anything to do with the tide being soooo far out?"

Suddenly all of the footage from the Indonesia tsunami flashed into my mind! 

All of those unsuspecting women and children wading in the low tide...

AUGH!

"Yes Ma'am.  That's exactly what this is about!"

He then explained with URGENCY that we were to evacuate the beach IMMEDIATLY due to a

TSUNAMI WARNING!

hello!

He did not have to ask twice.

I was outta there.

I found Jim and the others up at the park.

"We have to get out of here NOW!"  I told them

I was nervous!

Lindsey understood my need, as a mother, to flee!

"WHAT?"

Jim was shocked!

What I saw as imminent danger...

Jim and Mark saw as an "adventure of a lifetime"

So, instead of getting out of town

we headed for a hill with a view.

And, we would walk because

Jim was hoping that our car would be flooded

in the underground parking garage!

The exodus to the hill with the view!

No, Jim...by all means save yourself!  I'll get Seth and Lulu!

They closed the Pier.

All the beach entrances were blocked!

Lindsey with her 72 hour kit!

We decided that the hill was too far away (another 1/8 mile, MAX)

So we stopped

at a spot

that was pretty much level with the ocean.

By now it was about 1:30 pm.

When Mark and Jim started to get antsy at 1:33 pm,

we asked the firemen in the firetruck behind us for more details!

They explained that there would be one initial large wave with several that followed.

They expected them around 2:30 ish!

They said that if we heard a siren,

we would have between 2 - 30 minutes to get up the hill!

(Not an exact science, apparently!)

We role played how that would work out...hilarious!

So we waited!

The older kids got bored and went looking in the shops behind us!

(They were the lucky one's)

Jim, Mark and Lindsey had their fancy phones to entertain them.

(again, the lucky one's)

I don't have a cell phone, so...

Miles, Lulu and Payton...bored!

Patiently waiting for the end of the world with my Sonic cup/floatation device!

Sethie taking his last self portrait!

Lulu harassing Miles then...

twirling and...

twirling some more!

By about 2:10 pm I looked like this...

By 2:12 pm we were all hungry!

And for us, hunger trumps a tsunami!

So we aborted mission

and

headed back to our rooms for lunch!

Luckily, nothing ever happened with that good ol' tsunami.

No sirens! 

No "run for the hills"!

No flooded car!

But it made for a great birthday adventure!

Nothing like a near natural disaster to ring in a new year!

Happy Birthday friend!