The Water Down South

I guess it was really just a few of weeks between our camping trip in far northern California and our trip to visit Aunt Karen's family in far southern California. The kids were both in sports camp for two of those weeks. July 4th was in there. We took our first trip to the Shoreline Ampitheatre to see the San Francisco Symphony and fireworks. That went well. It was a lot of fun. Don't know that we'll keep doing that in the future, but we might! Then Mam had a few days of "farm camp". I dropped her off a a bus nearby and they took her out to the camp. I was thrilled at how smoothly that went...but not surprised. Mam is hardly a shrinking violet, even when she knows no one else there.

And before I knew it, obviously, it was time to leave for San Diego. This was to be a mellow trip. No big theme parks, primarily the pool and the beach. Oh, and baseball, of course. We can't forget baseball! There was SPENCER! And for the first time in the Ryder family history of visits to San Diego, there was also LUCAS!We started our stay with another new pastime...checking into our hotel. With the Westbrook family expanding, having our own digs has been a nice addition, even if it really cuts into our evening chats. This year, our hotel also featured some educational value, as a swarm of bees had moved into one of the trees by the pool. You could see it from our room. I'm sure some guests were intimidated. But you know me. How cool is THIS??They were there for the duration of our stay. Maybe they've got family in San Diego too.

We spent our first day with the Westbrooks, at their house and at the pool. I didn't even bring my camera, but it was a nice day. I fixed them dinner. We all relaxed. The kids went to bed easily...a marked improvement over our first night. The next day, we headed for the beach in Encinitas. I think my kids could spend their lives a the beach without ever noticing the passage of time.Mam was in the water before I could even turn around from setting our stuff down. And she might have spent half an hour out of the water during the entire four hours we were there. Spencer largely joined her, even though he didn't quite have her stamina.Smunch, on the other hand, busied himself with tooling around on the beach. He went in the water a little, but is generally a whole lot more timid than his little sister and lets her have the water to herself...well, to herself and a bazillion other people.I look pretty mellow, don't I? I mostly hung out with Aunt Karen and LUCAS!while Daddy went out in the waves with Mam. It just wasn't that warm. I was mostly snuggled in a blanket in our shelter. In the end, I went for a short swim before we left. It seemed a pity to let everyone else have all the fun. At least the water was warm! The kids spent our last few minutes there, burying each other in sand, ensuring another trip to the water...and a trip to the showers.We don't usually go to Encinitas to go to the beach, but we chose to go there this time because it was in the direction of Carlsbad and Carlsbad is the home of pick-your-own strawberries.I think it took six of us about 10 minutes to pick $16 worth of berries. Worth every penny for that night's strawberry shortcake!