Day 2 ... today was take it easy and grocery day ...

The kids went swimming before a big breakfast of fresh eggs, toast, bananas, juice and coffee.  Does everything taste better?

   We set off for groceries in Santa Cruz, about an hour away.  Two cars, seven people, eager appetites ... it was a winning plan.  First we parked on a side street ... watch for cars and bikes. The ATM didn't "funciona'" but that didn't stop us. We went to a vegetable and fruit store and saw lots of fruits and vegetables that were new to us.  Then to SuperMega grocery store and got the necessities, plus dulce de leche, ingredients for guacamole. Last stop was the carnicería for chicken. Andy's going to grill them and use the Lizano sauce we picked up yesterday.

   But wait! There's more. The German bakery truck pulled up to the house when we got back. OMG! Drew was excited to try out his concoction of German-Spanish-English skills.  The rest of us were excited over the beautiful pastries and desserts. The German bakery guy was glad he stopped at Casa Ohana. So were we.

   After lunch we went to a nearby beach, Playa Avellanas. It was beautiful, good-sized waves, spotless beach. The children brought boogie boards and must have ridden hundreds of waves.  They have a lot of confidence and had a ball. Spending last summer in San Diego helped I'm sure. There were surfers next to us. This is prime surfing they say.

   We went down the road (not as easy as it sounds ... bumpity bump) to have supper at a little pizza place. We ate outside, perfect night, had everything from pasta to pizza to casados, which is local cuisine. Muy sabrosa.

molly practicing snorkeling

open air pizza  place

Day 1 ...
As usual I am little slow in getting this blog going and I will be slow in keeping it going too I am sure but here we go again ...

We are very excited to be blogging about out first ever international trip.  This year the trip is to Costa Rica!!  Today we made it to our "new" home.  What a ride ... 60 km in over 2 hours. Cattle, interesting trees and plants, horses, baby goats, curvy road bumpy road, bursts of heavy rain ...

In spite of that excitement, nothing prepared us for this house, Casa Ohana.  Built by an L.A.  architect, this is a dream house. Three levels, all glass with beachfront views and balconies and beautiful teak furniture, special lighting throughout, a fantastic lap pool with a big lanai fully furnished -- even a ping pong table.   

Drew and Joan walked the beach (he's finding some neat shells and driftwood). Molly and Alex swam. Diane and Andy spent a long time talking to Mary, the realtor, who is a wealth of information. John practiced the art of relaxing, and I am so glad to see him do that!

We had supper delivered by Mary from a local restaurant. Arroz con pollo and a great salad with cucumbers, avocado, and carrots. The meal was outstanding. Alex raved about it and that's a real endorsement. Everyone ate like famished  world travelers and now as we settle in with strong winds and roaring ocean in the background, we know we're somewhere special.

our room at the top of the house

our beach

Surf Camp Day 3

Here are a couple of videos...not bad for a few kids form the south...

Drew



Molly



Still working on one of Alex...

Surfin' USA

Our first day of surf camp – everyone surfed – not sure if I got pictures of everyone though – they all look alike in the wetsuits! Molly wasn’t even signed up (I thought she would hate it) but she begged me to stay and can’t wait until tomorrow!

(L-R): Alex second to left, Drew 4th (and quite pale!), and Molly on the end at right.

Molly showing me her moves on land.

Molly far left, Drew center.

LEGOLAND!

We are on our own now … no parents or Andy. First stop after dropping off Andy was LEGOLAND!!!!!! The kids loved this place. Simple stuff like building and racing a Lego car, rollercoaster and rides, Lego Mindstorm robots and the water park were all favorites. Alex had been looking forward for months before the trip!

Oceanside Pier and Mission San Luis Ray

La Jolla again

The kids loved La Jolla so much that they wanted to go back there so today we went to Torrey Pines and back to La Jolla.

Sea World

Sea World was our adventure for today. I think we were a little tired though as we all pretty much agreed to see all the shows. We went on one wet rollercoaster early which was pretty cold so shows were probably a good call.

Point Loma, Cabrillo Monument and the tide pools

We went to Point Loma and Cabrillo National Monument today. It was definitely a highlight of the trip. The Point was very nice, it juts out into the bay and you can see Navy ships leaving port. We saw this Amphibious something or other (Drew or my dad can tell you) leaving today. We also went hiking around nearby tide pools which was very exticiting. For dinner, we had Drew’s favorite meal so far – he keeps asking to go back for Mona Lisa’s Pizza in Little Italy.

Animal Safari

We went to the Wild Animal Park today. This is a part of the same organization as the zoo but more oriented to keeping the animals in a natural habitat to promote breeding. They have helped bring some species back from the brink of extinction and introduced some back into the wild where they had been completely hunted out (presumably with some sort of security). It was neat to see the animals, especially the babies including gazelles, giraffes, ostrich eggs and more. We also saw a cheetah up close which Alex loved – who knows maybe someday he will be here at the zoo training wild animals …

Strawberries, strawberries everywhere

We spent a laid back day exploring a nearby Strawberry festival and picking fresh strawberries. Check out Drew and Alex in the strawberry pie eating contest. Sadly they didn’t win!

Off to the zoo

We went to the San Diego zoo today. Drew’s favorite thing was the elephant we saw getting its hoof cleaned – another trainer was feeding it celery and it would use its trunk to take the food. Molly’s favorite thing was posing at every animal statue she saw. Alex’s favorite thing was the Skyfari (gondola). Andy and Diane’s favorite thing was seeing a polar bear right against the glass eating carrots.

Cuyamaca hiking and camping

We decided to go camping at the last minute today. Planning might have been better but it worked out pretty well. Rented equipment at REI and drove over to Cuyamaca Rancho State Park. This is a (still) beautiful park that was wiped out by forest fires in 2003. What remains is a ghost forest of still standing dead trees and an understory of mountain laurel, wildflowers and meadows. We went on a super long 4 mile hike in perfect weather. Afterwards we grilled hot dogs and marshmallows over the fire – the best dinner ever! Sleeping in the tent with the kids was not “the best ever” but still fun. Drew slept like a rock, Alex was a little worried about another fire, Molly tucked her feet under and over me and generally flopped around for the entire night but it was cuddly.

After waking up with the sun, we headed over for a short stop in Julian, Calif. It is an old mining town that seems to be somewhat of a tourist destination. We ate at the Julian Café and had the hugest pancakes ever and headed home to chill.

Busy, busy day

Super busy day today. We went to the Scripps Birch Aquarium in the morning and learned about local marine life. This was fun but even more fun was going down to the water at La Jolla Cove and Children’s Beach. There was a lovely grassy area for lunch and tree climbing, then we walked down to children’s beach which is not a children’s beach at all! No it’s not a nude beach either … it’s been taken over by seals who like to raise their babies there.

After seeing the seals, we went to another part of the La Jolla coast and climbed on the rocks until it was time to go to the Padres game. Drew went down to the bullpen to say hi to his hitting and pitching coach, Griffin, (not kidding) who is a bullpen coach for the Padres. Griffin was fantastic and even got Drew a baseball from the bullpen.

Moonlight Beach

Alex wasn’t feeling too great today but Drew, Molly and I went to Moonlight beach. About a mile down the road, it is a white sandy beach with a playground and volleyball courts. We played in the sand and water and then tried out some beach volleyball.

Off to the USS Midway

Today we went to the USS Midway. It’s an aircraft carrier that’s retired and docked in the harbor and turned into a museum. The pictures don’t do it justice but I highly recommend the audio tour. It was geared towards kids, interesting and everyone from Drew to Molly loved it. We saw everything in the ship … pretty cool. Weather was a little cold and rainy but that really didn’t matter since we were inside most of the time.

Here are the kids in the brig...

...and the kids listening to the audio tour.

Arrived in San Diego

We’ve arrived! Here are some shots of our house.

A view of the house from the front steps...


The view from the patio...

Fishing Part 2 by the kids

Drew:
Today we went fishing by the ferry dock. It was a little windy but it still was fun. I talked with my granddaddy and he gave me fishing tips. One of the tips was "if you lower your rod you will not feel the bite". He was actually right.


Molly:

Today we when to the beach and we built a sand sculpture. It was a water bottle. We made a waterfall, we went in the water, and dug holes. Overall we had a fun time!

Mom:
We also caught fiddler crabs (held by Alex and Molly in the pictures).

Sand Sculptures

We went to the sand sculpture contest on the Isle of Palms today. It was pretty cool (well pretty hot actually) and also inspiring. Here is one of our favorite entrants and also our starfish sculpture created on our beach later that afternoon.





John and Joan joined us in the island - our last guests ... we had a yummy BBQ lunch on Sullivan's at Home Team BBQ and then brought them to our temporary home on the island which was at least 10 degrees cooler than the mainland.