California Dreamin

Pictures of the Santa Cruz skatepark, Natural Bridges State Park, Johns tattoo (see the J's on the inside?) and the boogie boarders.

From San Francisco we stayed for three nights in Santa Cruz. This was the city in which surfing was brought to the US by the Polynesians. We got to watch the surfers in their wet suits taking in the big waves, as the seals and sea lions sat on the rocks and howled. It was still to cold really to hang on the beach although we did that for a few hours at the Natural Bridges State Park. John decided to get a tatoo in honor of his little girl since he read good things about the tattoo parlor in Santa Cruz. While he got hammered with needles for two hours me and the kids went to the local skatepark. It was a great park with a little bit of everything.
We settled on the idea that we would continue down the coast instead of going to Yosemite. I had read that many of the waterfalls there were dried up this time of year so the CA coast won out. Our next stop was at Pismo Beach. This was our first go at boondocking/dry camping. That means no electricity or water. It was not bad and the location of being only a few feet from the ocean made it worth it. Jadon gathered tons of sand dollars here and all three kids had a blast boogie boarding. I still couldn't get out of my sweatshirt as it was too chilly. Sometimes I think our children are part eskimos. This was a beautiful place to spend our 13th wedding anniversary. Our kids enjoyed the day playing in the sand and getting along wonderfully so it really was a date for us on our special day.
Our next location was south of Santa Barbara and just as lovely as the previous. Here the kids were able to explore the tidepools with sea anenomes, starfish and shore crabs. Again they boogie boarded for hours. Our camper was steps from the sand and we could watch the water from our front window.
Now we are living just about and hour north of San Diego. It is warm and sunny here and it is a surfers paradise. We are debating going into San Diego or heading east.
The kids are getting excited to see their mam and pap who will be flying out in Oct to visit us in Phoenix. They are staying for the week and we will be visiting Sedona and the Grand Canyon. It will be wonderful to spend time with people we know and love. We are hoping to get to Utah before hitting AZ.
Today is clean up the CA coast day so we are planning to hit the beach and pick up some trash.