The Lee Family: California, Day 10: Full Beach Day with Aunt Becky and Uncle Mike

On Saturday morning, Sofia and I walked over to a local coffee shop and picked up apple juice, hot chocolate and two coffees and walked back to our little hotel. The four of us relaxed and enjoyed our morning drink before we got up and ready. We walked to a nearby beachside restaurant and had a delicious breakfast before walking across the street to the beach. The girls ran around and played and we finally headed back to our hotel where we changed into swimsuits and cover-ups and drove to El Capitan State Beach, about 30 minutes north up the coast. Becky and Mike were spending the weekend in their camper there and we planned to go to the beach with them.

We walked the short distance to the beach and set up chairs and towels while Sofia ran straight into the water. Olivia was even interested in walking into the water without being afraid. The beach had some great rocks and tide pools that were perfect for exploring. The girls and I climbed on the rocks and I showed them little crabs, sea enemies, mussels and other ocean life. There were a lot of mussel shells and Sofia, our little collector, started collecting the best ones. Olivia had a hard time negotiating the rocks and wasn't as into exploring as she was just wanting to be with me. Finally we returned to Mike and Becky and Sofia swam while Olivia played in the sand. At one point a group of girls SOfia's age walked by and she followed them back onto the rocks and made a little friend. Her new friend and she were two peas in a pod and were very busy exploring and collecting "treasures" including a huge piece of wood. Both girls' hands were so full of rocks, shells, wood, etc that they didn't have any way of using their hands on the rocks while the walked. They had a ball and were exploring for well over an hour. Finally they returned to the beach side and Sofia swam after having some crackers and a bubble gum popsicle, which Olivia had already eaten (and dropped in the sand a few times). Olivia really enjoyed playing in the sand and going into the water a little bit. Finally it was time for us to get going since we had dinner plays at 6pm at John and Lynn Seigel-Boettner's house in Santa Barbara.

We walked back to the camper and the girls were so covered with sand that we decided to walk to the campground showers and rinse off quickly. The showers were coin-operated and brought back a lot of memories of camping from when I was younger. We had to wait a while for one of the two showers to open up, but it finally did and I rinsed both girls in record time. We returned to Becky and Mike's camper for some snacks and to feed the squirrels nuts. The girls would put a peanut in it's shell on the fire pit grill and the squirrel would inch up until it could grab it, then run a short ways off to eat it. Finally, they would just sit on the grill to eat, knowing another one was coming. The girls loved it!

We had so much fun hanging out with Becky and Mike and hated to say goodbye, especially since it will likely be a year before we see them again. We had a fun and relaxing day with them though! We said goodbye and drove back to our little hotel where we got ready for dinner. Both girls had fallen asleep on the drive, so CK told me to head into the room where I could actually shower by myself for the first time in memory. It felt great! He and the girls came in and got ready and we drove over to John and Lynn's house.

John and Lynn were out on their front deck with one of my junior high friends, James, and his wife Carrie and their two kids Caroline (10) and Henry (7). I hadn't seen James in 8 years and never met his wife and kids. It was great to see them and Henry and Sofia started playing with the huge box of Legos in John and Lynn's living room. Lynn took the girls to their backyard to meet their chickens and Olivia loved it! She was so interested in the chickens and loved petting them. The girls had so much fun and Lynn was awesome at diverting Olivia whenever she was trying to crawl all over me and also negotiated disagreements between the girls like a pro (she's a kindergarden teacher, so she is a pro!). John had his super cool pizza oven fired up and made cornmeal bread that we ate as appetizers with different spreads on it. It was incredible! Another one of my junior high friends, Ethan and his girlfriend, Molly, showed up and it was great to see them. Molly is a children's book author and illustrator and she gave the girls and James' kids two of her books, which was so thoughtful! We enjoyed pasta, salad, bread and great catching up and it was such a fun night! We headed out around 9pm with John and Lynn offering to hang out with the girls tomorrow!

My morning coffee buddy