Mitchell Park

We tour several playgrounds when we are here.  After the morning jaunt at the Dinosaur Caves, we came home for a spontaneous outbreak of “family band”.  That’s right – grab an instrument and jam!  We had bottles, pie plates, the cooler, and various other noise-makers going on in the side-yard, next to the fuschia garden.  Good thing I made a few voice memos on the spot so we could enjoy that round later.

We then when into San Luis Obispo to do some shopping, and then have a play-session at  Mitchell Park.  Huge fun there, with some other local kids in a round of something like “good guys or bad guys”.

Returned home in the PM to cook up family-dinner, then get ready for story-time, and lights-out….

The solstice approaches….

Shell Beach, CA

Took the road west out of Tracy, CA this morning, and drove through this neat windmill farm on the way to the Bay Area.

We took route 505 west, and then went down south past Gilroy, heading for Salinas, and the 101 route south.

We’d driven hundreds of miles through farmland, ranch territory, and wine country, and the kids were really looking forward to getting off the road.

If you’ve driven south on the 101 past San Luis Obispo, you know that you get the first glimpse of the ocean just past the Avila Beach Road exit, just over the crest of that hill.

We told the kids that we’d play a fun game as we crested the hill – first one to glimpse the ocean could shout it out.  I watched in the rear-view mirror as they were both peeping wide-eyed through the front window, looking so expectantly for that wide-open ocean, marking the end of the long road-trip.

Right after the Pacific was spotted, we took the first exit, and landed at our destination, in Shell Beach, CA.