Mar. 5-Mar. 10. Pacific Beach, CA

It wasn’t exactly sunny and warm at the beach the first week of March which allowed us to take advantage of the many games at our house including Connect Four with the boys with a little coaching from Mom and Dad. 

The boys don’t believe in sleeping in yet, waking around 5 most mornings, especially challenging for Michelle and Adam. Early breakfast led to early walks, too early for the ice cream stand to be open during this scooter walk!  Patience boys, patience. 

Angela and Ryan teach Graham the ins and outs of Crown Five.  He’s a natural game player, taking after his Nana and Uncle Ryan!

And the boys patience is rewarded with a scooter ride down to the Crystal Pier and a cookie/brownie ice cream sandwich at Baked Bear!

Sometimes Miles walks ended in an outdoor nap on the patio. Unfortunately Miles became Patient Zero in a bad cold that was graciously shared through most of our family that week!  Oh my. 

We still had plenty of time and energy to enjoy the beach at sunsets....

....or to help Graham spell his name in big letters at the beach...

....or to enjoy reading in the sun. 

On Friday afternoon I shared an annual virtual toast with 3 of my friends from Arizona Public Service to celebrate our friendship started 37 years ago.   Salud James, Art and Scott!!!  La Tuya!

We had the good fortune of having Angela’s sister from Ft. Lauderdale spend Friday and Saturday with us because of her work travel to Santa Monica a few hours up the coast.  It was a great but too short visit and she graciously helped with our departing logistics of getting the kids and grandkids to the airport to catch their flights back to Denver.  Thanks Sandy!!

On our first days drive back home on Saturday Ang and I made a stop at the In-N-Out Burger in Barstow.  Ryan is a big fan and challenged me to eat something called a “Double-Double Animal Style” Burger, his favorite.  Besides double patties and cheese the onions are carmilized and the mustard is grilled onto the burger while being cooked, plus extra pickle.  It was a tasty beast and lasted me well beyond our arrival in St. George, UT that night!

On Sunday we find ourselves once again in the beautiful canyon lands of Utah.  Up ahead a few more hours into the Colorado Rockies the highways officials were intermittently shutting down I-70 for blasting due to historic volumes of avalanches.  There would be delays. 

☹️

Finally safe and sound back to Home and Hearth. It was a great three weeks in San Diego but there really is no place like home. Now to ride out the snowiest month of March before my my next big adventure in April.

Feb. 27- Mar. 4. Pacific Beach, CA

Life continued as usual during our second week at Pacific Beach in our little cottage on Reed Ave. with a series of activities like biking, walking or pickle-ball  interceded with episodes of  more eating including Mr. Frosties soft serve or burgers on the deck of Lahaina’s.  

On Saturday March 2nd our routines changed quite a bit when we moved to our new place on the beach and welcomed our children and grand children for our last week in San Diego. A cloudy, rainy arrival day ended with a wall to wall rainbow shining down on our 4 yr. old grandson Graham perched on our son-in-law Adam’s shoulders. 

Graham and two year old Miles love the beach and spent hours playing on the beach collecting shells to give to their Nana. 

We celebrated my Rochdale pledge brother from Purdue, Mike Kerchner’s 61st birthday with his wife Carolyn and their wonderful daughters Emily and Kristen on Saturday night. They live in San Diego so we connect when we can. It was a very nice evening of pizza, wine, beer and home made dishes brought by the Kerchner’s with all of our kids, grand kids and the Muhleisen’s, Dave and Cindy. 

Sunday Dave and Cindy spent some time with the grand boys so we could do some sea kayaking. 

Angela led the way in our kayak. 

Our son Ryan and his wife Mattie are waiting for their turn to explore one of the caves in the cliffs of La Jolla.  Our guides had to time the entrance and exits of the cave with the sea swells.  One time they misjudged the swell a little bit and one of the others kayaks had a little excitement with the rocks!

Our daughter Michelle, 6 months pregnant with our third grandchild, and husband Adam opted to pass on the cave exploration this time!  Good call!

Adam, Michelle, me, Angela, Ryan and Mattie after our fun and successful sea kayaking adventure. 

Adam was able to temporarily slow down the boys with the help of some sand. 

Mattie and Ryan don’t need any help to slow down. It came quite easlily for them!

Angela sits with Graham for some quiet time watching The Beauty and the Beast. 

...and then Angela decides to slow down even more!

Ryan, who’s basically a kid at heart, decided to dig a 2 foot deep hole on the beach. Graham decided to help fill it with the bottom part of his body. 

Graham enjoys his first experience flying a kite while Angela and Michelle look on. 

Angela takes Miles on a low tide exploration for interesting things at the water’s edge. 

After our afternoon on the beach, before heading in for burgers and hot dogs on the grill, we tap some unsuspecting beach walkers from Seattle to take a group picture before Dave and Cindy Muhleisen head back to Lincoln, NE tomorrow.  We had a great visit with them but still have 4 more days with the kids and grandkids!