More travels, continued, with more photos!

Following our day in D.C., the Hurwitz's joined us! Hooray! We went to Annapolis and played at the park, walked the wharf, and drove around the historic sites. 

"Don't take my picture!"

I love being loved by you!

Discussing music and culture.

A surprise push! "Not so high, Gramma!"

Love the beards.

Wearing her favorite Little Orphan Annie dress.

This is not a stick. It's a bomb. To keep the bears away.

I told Laura she didn't have to buy Poppy a present, surely she had something at home that would make Poppy glad. Despite her protestations, Laura found a bin that was a treasure chest of Barbies and dress-ups. 

Poppy loves this Snow White dress that Laura once made for  Molly.
It was Emma, Laura says, who once cut a chunk out of the hem to use for a project.

Crazy-hair Barbies are still precious.

On the way home we stopped to take a peek at the oldest, continuously active social club in America, formed in 1700, house built in 1742. Take that, facebook!

You can get a glimpse of a flowering cherry tree behind Bethany and Poppy. We saw beautiful foliage; white and pink cherry blossoms and dogwoods, and tulip trees. We were fortunate to be there when everything was so beautiful!

Traveling

Sometimes I think poor John lives with his boring, old parents who never do anything fun, and I try to drag him along to the local festival (strawberry, art in the park, kite flying), or for a walk at the beach. Sometimes he'll go along with it. Then, I sometimes try something bigger, like two weeks ago, when I gave myself a 3-day weekend. My classroom was being used for meetings, so I took John out of school and we joined Ralph in San Diego where he was taking a class.
We joined up with Linda and Randy S., and Evelyn joined us for some  yummy dinners,

Phil's Barbecue

Amazing Brussel's sprouts at Bo Beau

and some walking around some artist studios, and we toured the Pt. Loma lighthouse.

Funny, when we were on the beach, our phones were telling us we were in Mexico. We could see it from there...

Yes, John's a little shaggy and windblown, here! We all like the long hair look, but John was ready for a change, and a more student-appropriate look.

 Now we're on Spring Break - woohoo! More adventures to come...

Spring on the Central Coast

We took a drive yesterday afternoon; it was a glorious sunny day, and I wanted to take some photos to share with you. People love how beautiful the hills are in the winter, when the rains have come and the hills are lush with green. It's beautiful, alright, but I really want to be able to show you how the hills compare to their summer glory, when they are golden, and dotted with dark green oaks. So when summer comes along, I'll take some more pictures for you, and we'll see if you can agree that the golden summer

look is especially beautiful.

Because of the sun's direction, it wasn't such a great time for photos of the hills, so we headed to Guadalupe State Beach to breathe in some ionized ocean air! It was one of those days when the wind was blowing sand into our faces, and the road was covered in places with sand drifts.

The waves were churning, and foam piled up at the edge of the water. Then, a gust of wind would blow clumps of sea foam across the beach, and the little fluffy, "bubble bunnies" that skittered across the sand made me laugh! The wind was too much for us, though, so we went off in search of other scenery.

Who doesn't love a turquoise barn? There are some very picturesque farms around here.

Turning toward Casmalia, we saw these cows enjoying the sunshine, and when we stopped to take their picture, the steer decided to stand up and show off. The calves are so cute! Happy California cows, but you know these cows are not where cheese comes from, right?

The wildflowers are just getting started! It's going to be riotously colorful in a couple more weeks! Here are California Poppies, our state flower, blooming in time for Poppy's birthday!

We live in a beautiful place, and I'm glad we can enjoy it!