Heading South

It was time, yet again, for our annual pilgrammage to San Diego to visit Aunt Karen and her family. So, we loaded up the mommymobile for another day-long drive to the Southland.

We made our regular stop at Fort Tejon on the Grapevine for lunch. They'd installed a new, rather impressive flag in the middle of the grounds since our last visit.We also used the occassion to check on one of our letterboxes, which is always kind of fun. There have been a least a dozen "finders" since I planted it there.If you've noticed that I don't mention letterboxing much anymore, it's because we don't do it anymore. After I'd thoroughly annoyed my family with my letterboxing fervor, I had to cut it out, at least for a good long while. I may be back to it someday, but someone else is going to have to express interest first!

We arrived in San Diego around dinnertime. The kids were overjoyed to see SPENCER! again. Aunt Karen is now 8 months pregnant, so it was really their last opportunity to see "Spencer, the only child". Somehow, the idea of a new baby in the family failed to excite them, however.

We spent our first day kinda hanging around the house and then, while Daddy went to tour the U.S.S. Midway (again), the rest of the adults took the kids to the fun park with the great water feature.It was a nice day, a mellow day. Aunt Karen, Uncle David and I sat there under our SportBrella and the kids ran around like crazy.

Mam ended up losing her Crocs, which was annoying. I have to imagine someone stole them...since we went back for them to no avail...but they were so disgusting and dirty that it's hard to imagine. Whatever. Not enough to ruin a relaxing afternoon!

Woodbine

There isn't a lot to say about Woodbine, Illinois. Its a township (not even a town) of about 75 people, located in the upper left hand corner of Illinois, most of it along the highway. Daddy's family emigrated to Woodbine in the late 1800s or early 1900s. Aunt Susan and Uncle Quentin live in the house where Daddy's grandfather was born. It's a fairly unremarkable house for the area. It's right on the side of the highway. The entire place shakes when the big trucks go by...all the time. As a native Californian, I admit I woke up a few times wondering if there was an earthquake.

Fortunately, the weather really did take a turn for the better. The rain had stopped by morning. And that's a good thing because this is what you do in Woodbine...And when you get board of swinging and chatting in the shade, you can always throw rocks or ride a tricycle very far from the street...which is the highway, after all.Mornings in Woodbine are pretty relaxed and go by slowly. I've clearly been living in Silicon Valley too long. I'm too stressed out to slow down that quickly. I'm itching to get out and do something. And lately, that means letterboxing, but I'll put all that in its own post a little later. Suffice to say the pace of Woodbine is particularly conducive to sitting around carving things.

After lunch we headed to Elizabeth, the town next door, to check out the Apple River Fort. It's not much of a tourist attraction. We were the only people there, but there were still a couple of girls in period dress to tell us a little about the place.
After our trip to the fort, we drove over to Stockton, the other town next door, and visited a couple of parks. The kids are particularly enamored with "KidsTown", an awesome wooden play structure. There's nothing like it around here...probably because someone would sue over a splinter. We went to KidsTown a couple of years ago and the kids were happy to see it again. We had a hard time dragging them away to go home for dinner!