SoCal no more

It's greetings today from Grants Pass - it was a bit chilly when we woke up to fog this morning but it's now a beautiful, sunny day - and we're just chillin', although I believe a quick trip to Walmart is on the agenda.

Since my last posting we've been to Long Beach (where we went to the Aquarium of the Pacific and also saw the Queen Mary), and spent the Lesinas' last day of vacation down at Crystal Cove - on the beach and in the sea.

But I would just like to say, of all my children it is Lucy I favor the most. I would like you all to know how special she is and therefore, at the time of my demise the 3 others will inherit any debt and Lucy shall get all that is wonderful and of worth....just like her. And yes, cade shall finally get my blackberry as he asked so many years ago, "when Granda Ian dies can I get his blackberry please"

Mmmm - you've guessed - we've had an interloper again.

Anyway, Wednesday at the Aquarium of the Pacific - here's Braeden outside the seal pool:



We went a stroll round the harbour and Scott was taking this one of Cade and Braeden with the Queen Mary as backdrop:



Lucy was feeling a little low today - lack of sleep she said - and it shows in this photo:



We had one of Scott's famous barbeques back at our villa - half a ton of cow - lovely!

On Thursday, the adults walked and the boys scootered down to Crystal Cove and we had a lovely afternoon on the beach and in the water.



Scott and Lucy went to one of the local stores and bought a wonderful side of honey smoked ham for our supper. They had to get to bed as they were planning to be on the road by 3am on Friday morning to beat the LA traffic and get back to Grants Pass at a decent hour.

Jo and I could take our time - we had the whole day before our flight to Medford at 9pm. We had a nice early morning stroll round the State Park then came back for our second breakfast, before checking out and printing off our boarding passes.

We sat by the pool for a while then caught the shuttle bus down to Laguna Beach to go to a bookstore to get something for Jo to read - she had finally finished The Girl With The Dragon Tattoo - it's a long book and she thought it would last her until she got to Oregon, but, as I told her, it's a gripping, can't put down book.

Coincidentally, there was a brewpub just 200 yards from the bookshop so we had lunch there, then read and snoozed on the beach before heading back to get our bags and await SuperShuttle to take us back to LAX. It was hardly an ordeal waiting at such a lovely spot outside reception:



Our driver was 5 minutes late, but he only had one other pick-up to make and he seemed to know all the short-cuts in a journey that took us exactly half the three hours that the reverse journey had done a week previously.

So that was our day virtually over - we had time for a snack at the fish restaurant at the Alaska terminal - rather nice - clam chowder and shrimp, washed down with Sam Adams - perfect - until I saw the bill. My beer was $9.50 and Jo's glass of wine was $10.50!

All went to schedule and Lucy was at the airport to pick us up bang on 11pm and we were back in Grants Pass, tucked up in bed in the trailer before midnight.

This posting has been spread over a few hours and it's been a beautiful afternoon - still and sunny, with the temperature climbing to 76F. Scott's putting the ribs on the barbeque as I finish this, so beers are now called for - Bridgeport IPA for me and Newcastle Brown for Scott.

Back in the saddle

Yes, it's really me this time - no interlopers. Well, what have we been up to? Not much really, just chilling. Our morning walks down to the State Park and along the lovely beaches are a regular feature and we've also had short trips to Laguna Beach (on the Marriott shuttle bus) and Huntington Beach, aka Surf City - it was just like the movies - all volleyball courts, big waves, surf schools and miles and miles of golden sands - I swear I could almost hear the ghosts of Jan & Dean and the Beach Boys.

But I'm getting ahead of myself again - our first trip was the short journey south down to Laguna Beach - the lifeguard stations are so typically evocative of the West Coast:



We liked the decorated VW bug we spotted:



Lunch at the Cliff, overlooking the bay, was nice.

On Monday, Scott and I went to golf at Strawberry Farms (http://www.strawberryfarmsgolf.com/) - sounds like a nice, open friendly golf course? - couldn't have been further from the truth - it was very tight. We bought golf balls at the start - or at least Scott did - I foolishly persuaded him to buy the more expensive Pro V1 balls - fatal error! Still, it was a whole lot cheaper than playing the golf course our villa overlooks - http://www.pelicanhill.com/#/golf/ - lovely looking courses, but $250 per round? - no thanks. If you strayed at all at Strawberry Farms - and we did - there wasn't even any point looking for the golf balls - it was jungle, added to which these signs didn't exactly encourage us much:



There was a nice finishing hole there however:



In the evening we had dinner at the lcoal brewpub - Newport Beach Brewery (http://newportbeachbrewingcompany.com/) - nice ales and excellent food - the complete opposite of our experience last night at Huntington Beach (http://www.hbbeerco.com/) - average food and beers that were over-carbonated and just dull really. There were 2 brewpubs directly opposite each other - I guess we chose the wrong one - we should have tried BJ's - http://www.bjsbrewhouse.com/

The pier at Huntington Beach is an extension of Main St where there was a weekly street fair going on - the boys enjoyed the bouncy castles, but we all enjoyed getting blown off our feet walking out to the end of the pier to Ruby's Diner:



Ruby's maintains the style and standards of a typical 40's/50's seaside diner - all red plastic booths and waiters and waitresses dressed accordingly - it was great - as were the shakes:



OK - that's me up to date again - back to the pool now.

Another nice day at Newport Coast

Hi, Lucy here....online and have come across Dads blog is open.....tee hee hee....all the things I could've written here pretending to be him ;-)

Hope everyone is well and Good luck to Kelly on her upcoming move

We are just lazing around the apartment today....kids pretty exhausted from days of sand and sea. So we are making our way through the cadburys supply that mum brought us.

love to all


Lucy xoxox

Newport Coast

Perfect temperature yesterday - warm enough to go for a dip or sit by the pool or beach, yet not so hot that you couldn't do anything.

We think this is the loveliest Marriott resort we have ever stayed at. On Friday night when we arrived, the boys were in the local pool, but on Saturday morning we went to the main pool. A spot of lunch then a short drive down to Newport Beach - it was lovely - we all went for a paddle, although the boys went in a bit deeper:



We walked along a bit and witnessed some kind of adult baptising - the group appeard to be Mexican-ish, or possibly South American:



Walking back to the car, we looked at some of the lovely little houses overlooking the bay - one of them had a sales tag on, which necessitated a quick double take - at first we thought it was $795,000, but, no - it was $7,995,000!!!! - and it was a fairly modest house too.

We eventually found a nice fish restaurant looking out on to the marina - the Rusty Pelican (http://www.rustypelican.com/) - and booked a table for Jo's birthday dinner.

This morning we were up early again and decided to head down to Crystal Cove before the Lesinas awoke - it was a lovely walk through the State Park and along the beach to Crystal Cove, which is being lovingly restored to what seems like a typical 30's beach resort: