Surfing and roasting marshmallows

Spent the day hanging out with friends. Our good friends Frank, Lori, Guilia and Ben spent the night and we woke up to some pretty dismal surf, but we went out anyway and had fun. Any day surfing is better than any day not surfing.

Later we had some more friends come for a visit. Jessica, Jarrett, Nathan and Ella came by for dinner and some marshmallow roasting. We're very lucky to have some really great friends everywhere we go.

I also got schooled on the banjo by Nathan.

USS Midway

December 2nd.

We spent the day on the USS Midway down in San Diego. It's a U.S. Navy Aircraft Carrier that's been converted into a floating museum. Very cool. The boys had a great time. All 3 of them. Paula enjoyed being up on the deck, but the small spaces down below decks were challenging for her.

We spent about 4 hours touring around and learning all about the ship and the aircraft on board. There were dozens of planes, helicopters and jets we could climb in and around. Ezzy could have spent 8 more hours on board. He was in heaven.

A day at the beach

Walked down the sand to Buccaneer Beach this morning. There's a great little open air eatery across the street from the sand that serves the best pancakes, french toast and bacon, egg and cheese sandwiches on a toasted english muffin in Oceanside.

Then we just played most of the day on the beach. The waves were nice with some strong off shore Santa Ana winds to groom the faces and carve out nice little barrels.

Made a sand boat for the tide to wash away tonight. It's amazing how long two little boys will sit in the sand just because it's shaped like a boat. And we dug up about a 100 sand crabs. Ezzy really liked catching sand crabs.

Also went to the Sunset Market in Downtown Oceanside and saw some old friends at MainStreet. Great downtown evening market with food, vendors, live music and activities. I helped to get the market started over 4 years ago and this was the first time I had a chance to actually go there and experience it.

San Diego Wild Animal Park

November 30th and we're at the Wild Animal Park. Ezzy practically grew up here. Hmmm... that might explain a few things.

We spent the day feeding birds, ducks and goats. Ezzy and Levon went through 5 bags of cotton candy. Not a record I'm sure, but a good warm up. I wonder what the record actually is? They determined blue cotton candy was superior to pink. I strongly disagree.

Spent the rest of the day hanging on the beach with friends.

Oceanside

November 29th and we're settled in to our cozy beach house for the week. The sunset is beautiful and the waves, if not warm, are still pretty inviting.

The boys are excited to see their friend Max and to play in the sand and surf. Unloading "Foop" wasn't too bad, but I didn't have far to drag everything. Let's see how much of the stuff we brought we'll actually need as the weeks go by. My giant computer box is amazingly unwieldy and will probably give me a hernia before this trip is over, but I "need" everything in there to keep working.

Oh yea, the "high-speed" internet connection totally sucks here. Streaming Netflix is impossible and I'm starting to appreciate the 25 milla-somethings we had at Tierra Nueva. I hope this is not a trend.

We went to the open gymnastics in Carlsbad this afternoon. We took Ezzy there every week when we lived down here. This time it was Levon's turn to play. Ezzy was an amazing big brother -- as always. He wasn't allowed to play on any of the equipment because he was too old for the group, but he played with his little brother and spotted him on the balance beam, set up foam walls for him to break through as he dove into the pit and swung him on the rings like a seasoned coach. It's wonderful to watch the two of them.

Tomorrow we've planned to go the the Wild Animal Park all day.

And We're off!

Sunday November 27th and we leave behind our friends, neighbors and community that have become a much loved and wonderful part of our lives for the past 4 years. The house is empty, the storage unit is packed to bursting and our Honda Odyssey, "Foop Super-speed" (the boys named her) is loaded and ready to hit the road.

We also leave behind our 13 year old cat "Dido" and and our soon-to-be 10 year old chicken, "Blossom" who are being cared for by a two of our neighbors -- (see previous description of "wonderful and beloved").

Our first destination is the beach, to visit with old friends, surf and get into the habit of letting the days just flow one to the next without too much expectation. This may take a while...

James