Family Vacation Part I

Friday at high noon we departed Chico for the first leg of "Family Summer Vacation 2018" to Santa Cruz. Our minivan cruised through the dusty heat of the valley and we observed fields of sunflowers and squash whip by out the windows between orchards until we reached the desolation of the brown grassy hills before Vacaville. The next couple of hours were sunk into Bay Area traffic - which wasn't as bad as we'd anticipated. We arrived at Uncle Dave's house about 5pm. What a relief to escape the heat of the valley to the cool coastal fog of Santa Cruz. Dave welcomed us with a delicious slow smoked pork dinner that he began preparing at 2am. Sooooo delicious!

We set up a family sleeping area in Dave's home theater where the Rex and Amira popped on the VR headgear and played a bar fight game that was hilarious. Saturday morning I woke early and headed over to "People's Coffee" (a tradition on our visits) where I grabbed my deliciously potent cup of joe and headed back to Dave's where I enjoyed the quiet morning of coffee and reading. Morning solitude is always savored ... as long as there is good coffee. 

The teens slept until about 11am or so in the blacked out home theater while Michael and Dave watched the World Cup game downstairs.

In the afternoon Dave lead us out to Wilders State Park for a hike along the coast to observe birds and harbor seals. (Adorable!)

I learned that if I hand my phone to Amira to take photos, there will be flattering selfies. I can only imagine she took this photo in the hopes that I'd post it to Tifftown:

Bwahahaaaa!

Anyway, what a relaxing day along the coast feeling the excitement of standing on the edge of the continent ... knowing that we had to wear sweatshirts here while it would be about 107 degrees back at home. Valerie was there looking after the farm in anticipation of her own trip back up to Oregon with her Livestock judging team. (She'll fly down to Orange County on Wednesday where I'll pick her up and she can finish the family vacation with us down there).

Waves, caves, sand, salty ocean breeze, birds, bees, seals and a great family visit with Uncle Dave. Why don't we do this more often?!

Saturday night was Pork Part II: Tacos! The rest of the evening we enjoyed the wildlife visiting Dave's back yard. There were gray squirrels, black squirrels, a number of birds and finally a skunk. No photos. Use your imagination. They were adorable.

Today we drive down to SoCal where we will start our adventures in Long Beach to check to check out where Rex will be moving in August.

More adventures to come ...