family, friends and beach time!

So you may remember me writing about our weekend in San Diego, reconnecting with John's uncle and aunt, Neil and Carolyn. If not, you can read about it here. They have 2 older kids - Annie working in New York and Emily at university at Cal Poly in San Luis Obispo (Central Coast of Cali). Zara slept in Emily's room while we were there, and tried on all her old costumes and paraded around in her highest heels. Zara also did some texting with Emily on Carolyn's cell phone and just felt a real connection with her. So we were all thrilled when Neil and Carolyn stopped by GG's place on the way home from picking up Emily at the end of her school year. Zara loved Emily before even meeting her, and they just clicked right away!

                                                            

GG with some of her clan. It was a super short, but super sweet visit! We were all sad to say good-bye... again. We also said our farewells to GG as our time in LA was ending. We look forward to visiting her in Washington again this summer! 

The next day we drove up a long winding mountain road to Lake Arrowhead to visit Danny and Nancy Eager, some friends that we hadn't seen for about 7 years. We ate lunch by the lake, then played in the park and raced go carts. Zara had never driven a go cart before and was bit nervous about it, but she just cruised around that race track! Bella loved being her co-pilot!

Zara doing a little happy dance after the racing!

We spent the night with Dan and Nancy at their lovely cabin, then headed back down the next morning to pick up the motorhome and make a beeline for the ocean! We arrived at Refugio State Park that afternoon - what a beautiful spot! A lovely sandy beach, bordered with palm trees, dolphins swimming by! Blissful!

                                            Bella doing her "Stick tricks" (Musketeer moves!)

                                                           The view from the RV! A sweet spot!

That night after dinner, the sun had set and the sky was turning a pinky grey, when Zara yelled "Dolphins!". We raced outside to the beach and there were 6 bottlenosed dolphins hanging out in the bay about 50' off-shore. They were playing, interacting, rubbing up against each other, jumping, spyhopping, just enjoying each other and in no hurry to get anywhere. What a gift to witness these magnificent creatures! We watched them for about 20 minutes before they slowly made their way out of the bay. Wow! We said good night and thank you to the dolphins and went to bed!

The next morning we loved exploring the point with all the amazing rocks.

We spent most of the day on the beach. There was a cool breeze blowing much of the day that kept us deceptively comfortable! We all ended up getting a bit sunburned - we're not used to being out during the hottest part of the day! We won't let that happen again. It was just too beautiful to leave!

Late that afternoon we headed north about 45 minutes to John's folks place in Santa Maria. We've now been here for almost a week, enjoying time with family, and taking some down time after a busy month on the road. We are now more than halfway through this part of our adventure! We'll enjoy a couple more days here, then will hit the road again. I wonder what adventures are waiting for us just around the corner?



fun at the magic kingdom!

We spent a day last week at "the happiest place on earth"! At least that's what some people call Disneyland. I think that might be pushing it a little bit, but we did have fun! It was busy and the line ups got long, but we found little quiet spots throughout the day to rest and relax and catch our breath in the shade.

We got on a little train that chugs around the entire perimeter of the park and this sign was right in front of us. Bella said "So I guess you're not allowed to dance on the train. We have to stay sitting down"! I thought that was such a cute interpretation of this sign! 

The girls loved seeing the princesses. They no longer wander around the park so we had to see them at this show and meet them afterwards. I love the look of wonder on Bella's face as she met Cinderella! 

We saw the new "Mickey's Soundsational Parade" - the floats were great as was the music. The girls were excited to see Arial on her float.  

I'm not sure who was having more fun on Mr. Toad's Wild Ride. Thor loved "driving"! We all finished the day tired but happy.

The next day we drove to Pasadena to visit an urban homestead that I've been reading about online for years. Here's the link if you'd like to learn more about them. The Devrae family homesteads here on .10 of an acre! They grow enough for themselves as well as some restaurants and a porch farm stand. They also have bees, chickens and a goat! So inspiring to see it firsthand!

            From there we visited Kidspace - a very fun, interactive kids museum. The kids enjoyed all    the different things to do and explore.

We are now on the Central Coast with John's folks and family, enjoying some downtime and connecting with family. Before I get to that though, I'm going to do one more post to get caught up from last week.

fun in the sun in southern california!

As much as we enjoyed our time in the desert and the gorgeous red rock landscapes, we were very happy to arrive at the coast! We've been enjoying Southern California since middle of last week, catching up with family and friends. We've spent some time with John's very special grandma - the kids call her G.G. (for Great Grandma). She's recently moved into a beautiful facility for active seniors with a pool as well as so many other amenities. We've loved visiting in the courtyard, swimming, and having dinners with her.

4 Generations - G.G., Bruce (John's Dad), John and the kids

Last weekend was spent reconnecting and getting to know John's Uncle Neil and Aunt Carolyn in San Diego.... what a fabulous weekend! The kids swam in their pool, we had a picnic on the beach in La Jolla, saw lots of seals and enjoyed the ocean, did a bit of thrifting, played games, ate lots of fresh fruit and other good food and LAUGHED! We were all so sad to leave!

                                   The billboard behind them says "Brave men run in my family"!

Little Miss "9 going on 19"! She had so much fun dressing up in Neil and Carolyn's girl's old costumes and beautiful shoes!

On the way home from our lovely weekend, we stopped at Venice Beach.... what a gong show that place is! Super busy, people hawking everything imaginable, a freak show, a drumming circle on the beach, ice cream, lots of people on bikes .... a little bit of everything.

The kids in front of the drumming circle on the beach. Some of these folks were groovin'!

Another neat place we spent an afternoon was at the La Brea Tar Pits near downtown Los Angeles. This is an area where tar (asfault) bubbles out of the earth and as far back as 40,000 years ago, animals were trapped in the pits and their bones were preserved amazingly well in the tar. Thousands of animals have been excavated from the pits here - mammoths, sabor tooth cats, giant sloths, dire wolves and many other prehistoric creatures. The pits are now in the middle of a city, but the tar continues to bubble up.

We drove home through Beverly Hills - always a fun drive - with a side trip down Rodeo Drive.... just because! Beautiful streets lined with palm trees, and fancy cars everywhere... including this Bugatti. (The most expensive car in the world.) Ahhhh.....only in Southern California!

a visit to sin city!

When I was a kid, we had a cat named Tuffy. He was put outside every night then came back in every morning. Sometimes I’d take Tuffy up to my room at night and snuggle with him until my dad came looking for him, then I’d reluctantly turn him over. While we were waiting for my dad to come find him, I’d sometime rub Tuffy’s fur backwards in the dark to see the static electric sparks fly off his fur. He was patient for a short time, then he’d scratch me or nip me to let me know he didn’t like it. Why am I telling you this story?

Well, we spent a day and half in Las Vegas at the beginning of this week and most of the time we were there, I felt like I think Tuffy must have felt when I rubbed his fur backwards! Unlike many of the other towns we have visited on this trip, Vegas is NOT a place I’ve ever wanted to go. But we figured since we were so close we may as well see it. Well, right from the moment we drove in I knew it was not where I wanted to be! Smutty billboards of mostly naked women plastered everywhere didn’t make it a nice welcome. They call it Sin City for a reason!

The afternoon we got there we swam in the pool, which the kids enjoyed, then headed over to Circus Circus. We had parked our RV in the KOA “campground” behind this casino. (If you can call a hot asphalt parking lot a campground!) The kids loved the rides at the Adventure Dome at Circus Circus. They enjoyed it so much we went back again the next day and spent more time. Zara and I rode the rollercoaster then she went on all the other “scary” rides alone. Zara was fearless! Bella and Thor enjoyed the little kid’s rides as well.

That next afternoon I decided to catch a bus down to the opposite end of the “the strip” to get tickets for the Lion King Musical that night. During the bus ride there and the walk back I just couldn’t get over the excessiveness of all the big resorts. Everything in Vegas is BIG, grand ….. over the top…. and I couldn’t help thinking of all the precious natural resources that went into building them, then running them, not to mention keeping “the strip” lit up all night, every night. What a waste of energy! This is a smallish city, smack in the middle of a desert, with a massive ecological footprint. I just didn’t feel comfortable there. It rubbed me the wrong way and sent sparks flying!

Speaking of sparks…. on my walk back, there were men on many street corners handing out flyers for “women to your room in 20 minutes”. The streets were littered with cards and flyers of naked women. These guys were shoving cards into the hand of every man who walked by INCLUDING men walking with their wife or girlfriend! I found it appalling and disgusting. If you had been near me, you would have smelled the smoke from all the sparks!

On a more positive note, that night we completely and totally enjoyed the Lion King - a fabulous show with amazing costumes and beautiful singing. It was a fun, late night outing! It ALMOST made the trip to Vegas worthwhile!

I hope that anyone reading this who likes Vegas will not take offense to my thoughts on this city. Everyone sees things through their own unique filters, and personally, I just couldn’t see past the excessive and ugly side of Vegas. It felt so “in my face” most of the time. I’ve seen Vegas touted as a family get-away….. oh my…. I can think of so many better places to take my family!!! This is certainly not a place we’ll be returning to!

It likely didn't help that we had just come from 6 blissful days in Sedona, a spiritual mecca with the most amazing energy! Vegas is at the absolute opposite end of the spectrum and the contrast was shocking. Two "h" words come to mind when I think of the contrast! Any guesses what those words are?!?!

From Vegas, we drove to Los Angeles, and have been having a lovely time with family. It was so nice to get out of the desert and to an area that is lush and green and full of beautiful flowers! The purple jacaranda trees are in full bloom as are the bouganvilla and so many others. Will post more about that soon. (I promise my next post will be much more positive!)