Monday, March 22, 2010

And then there is San Diego...

We had a Vacation!
While we have done a lot of traveling here and there, and moving across the country, and seeing new things, all in the past year, last week we actually took our first week long Vacation (with a capital V) that we have had in a VERY long time. (I'm not counting El Salvador as a vacation, I had the flu, and it was a family visit.) I'm not going to let that much time go again. Vacations are fun! I had heard that was the point of going on a vacation, but now I know!

We left Albuquerque and drove the first leg of our trip to a hotel outside of metro Phoenix. The stretch between Flagstaff and Phoenix is gorgeous. Except when you have three hungry, cranky kids in the back seat. But we finally did stop, got dinner and made camp. In the morning we did it all over again, and questioned ourselves more than once about what we got ourselves into "driving" again. While there is not a lot of "note" between Phoenix and San Diego, there are still some pretty crazy things going on out there. The desert is weird and wonderful.
  
But, just as much as traveling to El Salvador was a trip to another world, so is taking a road trip with 3 kids to Southern California!

The White Sand Dunes were super cool. But I guess we'll have to go check out New Mexico's version of them in the next month. And the boulder covered mountains are super crazy. But we had San Diego and the Pacific ocean on our mind, so we had to Go Go Go!

Driving straight to Sue and Donald's house. And while we were imposing our family of five onto their home, they oddly accepted us with wide open arms, great hugs and amazing generosity! They are just that sort of family!  Though when we actually got to their house, they weren't there, so we snuck in, snuck out and headed to the beach.

We didn't know how to get to the beach or even which one to go to, so I just picked one and we left.
La Jolla Beach, we here we come!
Such a great place. Apparently very high end, so I didn't step into a single store. We took one look at the ocean, headed to the tide pools to play, and immediately forgot that we had spent the last 2 days locked up in the car.

How does the ocean do that? Immediately frees your soul, lets your body breathe and your mind forget what it doesn't need to remember. I think I like that. And after about 5 minutes Elmer says "I think I could live here"

The tide pools were super cool. 
Sea Anemone,
 snails, 
crabs,
hermit crabs, 
 live clams, 
 tiny squid... 
and lots of Sea Lions!
We were Tidepool Researchers for the afternoon,
Botanists,
and Geologists.
Can't you smell the salt water in the air?

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