I just noticed your post - guess they're there by now??? Well, was going to suggest maybe a campground with a tent (or two). (Or, hide the kids in car, get a cheap hotel for two adults, bring air mattresses or sleeping bags, & make sure the kids are QUIET! LOL!) Well, it's probably too little too late. My son graduated from a "tourist trap, college town" several years ago. His graduation was going to be in June, and as it happened, it was the same weekend of "Fathers' Day", AND all schools were out - people getting early start on vacations. I did research on internet (new to me at the time), and got the free maps/books from auto club. I found NO hotels for less than $200.00 per night, and most were booked anyway! I did some local shopping, and found an 8' x 8' tent for $50, TWO sleeping bags for $20 each, a "queen sized" air mattress with a foot pump for about $30 or $40, and a cmaping lantern for about $20 or so... Anyway, I spent just under $200 on "gear", found a very nice campground @ about $11.00 per night. We spent 5 nights / 6 days there for about $500.00. That INCLUDED GASOLINE in the car for an approximate 1400 mile trip (plus the extra wandering we did along the way), PLUS, we STILL HAVE now a tent, sleeping bags, camp lantern... I took old bed sheets, blankets, pillows, towels...(I can't throw ANYTHING away - LOL!) We had a wonderful time!

Lou - no, I've never seen Maggio's around here. I'm HORRIBLE with names lol!! I can see the containers of the two most popular brands we have here, the label designes and everything, but can I think of the names? No!! It'll come to me. I haven't had a chance to deal with my Lodge pan yet - I usually have to cram everything in on the weekends. I never have time after work to get much done and now with gardening season here, if I do get anything done, it's usually in the garden! I plan on taking care of it this weekend tho. And I'm going to check out ebay as well. Besides the nice way they cook and all, I really like that if you need to, you can take the cast iron from the stovetop to the oven. They're just so versatile. And not having to replace pans a couple times a year because they're ruined will be great as well!! I hope I can find some of these older pans everyone else is talking about! I go to flea markets all the time, but I was never looking for cast iron before so I never paid attention to what's available! Hopefully the cat isn't quite out of the bag yet on how great these old pans are and there's still a lot out there to pick from!! Lisa

I'd check out TravelZoo for links to lodging. You can get some deals this way and know right away if there are rooms available. Or you can check out the lodging choices one by one via the chamber of commerce listings. http://www.carlsbad.org/DirectoryByBusiness.aspx?cid=1113 Here is a link that might be useful: Travel Zoo lodging search engine.

When was the house itself built? The interior design aspects are on point with the mid 1980s but the architecture is earlier mid century. I can't really picture someone building a house in that style and decorating aspects of it in late Modernism/post Modernism at the same time. I can picture someone updating a 1960-odd house this way.