“OK, at the next corner, Keith, May and Marissa get out and run,” barked Dean from the driver’s seat of the 2007 Chrysler Pacifica.
We approached the busy Santa Monica corner, dodging holiday shoppers rushing to take care of last-minute Christmas shopping.
Dean braked hard.
“Go!”
I flung open the second row door and jumped out, flipping the seat forward with one quick pull of a handle as the two M’s spilled out of the third row.
Yes, a third row! That’s golden when you’ve got family visiting for the holidays.
We dashed into the Promenade as Dean pulled back out into traffic, yelling “Meet here in 30 minutes!”
This “Little Miss Sunshine” scenario continued throughout the evening as we dealt with a severe parking space shortage by coming a rolling stop and darting out into the designated store.
Meanwhile Dean rushed off to dump another pair of passengers elsewhere, and then circled the blocks to sweep us all up again.
Santa Monica Fish Market, an Italian bread and cheese bistro, bookstore, mall, and finally Michael’s craft store for the last remaining item: a Christmas Tree!
For the six family members all gathered together to share this Southern California holiday, it wasn’t the shopping tasks that made this evening special. It wasn’t even the fact that we able to find parking where none existed.
This Pacifica paradise moment was special because we were thankfully able to spend some quality family time together, a genuine rarity since we all reside on separate ends of the country.
OK, so we didn’t have a dead Grandpa stashed in the trunk, or angry mute teen writing notes to his suicide-recovering uncle – but we enjoyed it nonetheless.
And it was all made possible because the 2007 Chrysler Pacifica has room for a fantastic family of six.
Happy New Year!
2 comments:
Nice word pictures. I can see it as if I too were jammed back, with my head scrapping the ceiling, in that third row.
It was cool, because on the following Friday and Saturday Dean navigated us around Sunset Blvd. and then out into the desert as the six of us spent quality time together. That's one of the things that 6-7 passenger vans are great at...family time. But my favorite part was the quiet ride. You could hear normal conversation without yelling...a HUGE plus.
I'm still envying the Civic Hybrid though and thinking it may be my next purchase after only having to put 1/3 tank of gas in for the whole week. The Detroit Auto Show Prius touring edition looked pretty nice though. And our governor just convinced Tesla to come to Rochester Hills, the next town over from us and set up shop engineering their bad-ass electric sports cars. A sedan is next for just half the cost, (which still means a staggering 50 grand, but still).
I think we're all on the right track especially with the development of the full hybrids which just use gas when the electricity runs out...normally 100+ miles but with gas 500-600 miles per charge/fillup. Al Gore would be proud.
Good words.
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