Which is a stupidly obvious observation to those who know it, and completely non-descriptive to those who don’t.
Dwayne loved the architecture, of course, and took lots of pictures of things he will build me when he has time time and coin.
I liked the gardens, and the Japanese Gardens will be first on my list next time as we ran out of time/energy this time. And note: Secret is my favorite perfumed rose, I discovered. Lovely!
This San Diego beach is actually worth the 20 minutes or so it takes to find a parking spot.
We met up with most of the family to walk, play, ride the waves, and relax in the shade.
Dwayne, Debi, and I walked down until we came to this dream sand castle.
Esther dug a Hole. Piper explored it in every way she could.
Then the grown ups left (I guess except for me, but I’m more like the shadow photographer/chauffer/food provider) and then the sand really got a work out!
[Can you see the mini-figures cleaning out Washington’s ear with a Q-tip?]
Our first full day in San Diego was a Big Adventure. We got to take cousin Esther (age 17) with us on our first foray to Lego Land. Not only is Esther a wonderful niece and has the enthusiastic loyalty of her 3 young cousins, she also made our party an even number—a happy benefit on a ride-centric day.
Legoland is a fantastic 
There were more to do than just our rides, and we tried to do it all.
Somebody (ahem, Esther) has a horrible tradition of leaving the soak-you-to-your underwear rides until the very end. Sure, the lines are almost non-existent, but so are the warm temperatures. It’s almost like 99.9% of the park’s attendance are smarter than us. I have to exclude Dwayne though, partly because he doesn’t follow tradition on anyone’s say-so, and partly he went back to the Horrible Ride to wait to have his brand-new phone fished out from the itty-bitty pond it had drowned in 3 hours earlier. Sigh, another story for a less sober time.
[Right before Dwayne’s phone took it’s final gasp on a suicidal jump for The Joust. Dwayne’s face is priceless in retrospect.]
Despite The Most Expensive Ride Ever, we had a wonderful Family Adventure Day!
We were traveling on her true half-birthday, so we found a morning that Daddy could take Piper out for breakfast and took Grandpa along, too!
Nine and a half years, Baby! We haven’t missed a half-birthday yet.
We left Sun River Sunday morning to begin our road trip down to San Diego. We gave ourselves 3 days to go 15 hours with the idea we could drive 5 hours a day and fit in an adventure as well.
Which is how we found ourselves on a boat headed to a bus, headed to the Shasta Caverns.
Piper has taken it to heart that Mama is rarely in photos, so she’s taken upon herself to be 2nd in Command Family Photographer!
Shasta is a beautiful, beautiful area. My first loyalty is to my Western Washington, but almost 2 weeks of driving around California makes my allegiance waver a bit.
My phone camera can’t keep up with dark caves, but we had fun exploring in our group.
Luckily, the bear wanted to be photographed in regular light.
I really like the HDM, and drag the fam there each time we are in Sun River.
[Just play along with Mama, kids. She likes this place.]
As always, we spent time in the living history farmstead, where Wesley and I worked on perfecting our circle tossing…
…and Kyla washed and hung someone’s unmentionables…
…while Piper took pictures of .
I had to add my own picture of .
Tee hee!
The best part was having cousins Parker and Cecily there, too!
We dragged my parents down to Bend for a bit of sight-seeing and play, though until I spied these bikes, I didn’t know what form that would take.
Why am I so charmed by these 1-speed bike limos? It’s probably because I was enchanted preemptively by Old Mill area, with all it’s parks and the Deschutes running through it. We chugged our way over bridges and through tunnels and over Wesley’s whining. And Mom/Grandma sprang for ice cream afterward.
Does Wesley look like a boy who’d whine? Yes. Yes, he does.
We love lazing around with BFFs!
Needopedia 