More extras!

The boys wanted a picture in front of the Guy Fieri sign from Diners Drive Inns and Dives... this was at the end of Day 11:  

His spaghetti with a HUGE meatball!

Our tasty pizzas!

Here is us eating dinner with my sister and family at our beach house after a nice beach day together, on Day 12!

Some extras from the trip

I'm finally somewhere with Internet.... As I said i a previous post, all of those posts from the trip were done between my phone pics and a Blogger app on my phone, with my thumbs!

So!  That meant I couldn't put up pics from my actual camera, and also the app doesn't seem to allow uploading videos!

Here is that walk through the tiger area at the Safari Park that I spoke of on Day 11 of the trip  (click here to see what I'm talking about):

SO COOL!!

Here is the kayaking day (from Day 13... click here if you want to see that day):

On the other side of the surf!  They have someone help push you over the waves by the shore while you paddle really hard... then it's just gently rolling...

My kayak buddy:

Our tour guide said this was a beach house used by Dr. Seuss!!  So cool!  The white one in the centre of the photo... Dr. Seuss' actual house is on top of a hill in the distance...

One of the caves!  We went into one which was really cool!  Just enter La Jolla Caves into Google Images, because I didn't want us to be knocked up against the sides taking pictures that someone else has probably taken... and if you go look now, you can see I was right!  Plenty of shots, and I have no scrapes on my knuckles from trying to do it myself! 

My little kayak partner enjoying the sea lions!

My littler dude picking up some sea kelp as we learn about how it works!  That big bulb thing keeps it floating near the surface so it gets sunlight!  Way to go nature!  Pretty smart!

Fun!  And off for a fantastic lunch!

Lovely day today (again)

A beautiful day at the beach today again! 

The boys had swimming in the morning; so we all went down as Kurt is still here... Then off to the bakery and playing in the park while visiting our friends... 

Today the water was calm, so perfect for my kayak... Went out over towards Elk Island, but didn't get much past the pump house because in always thinking that is going to be a 2 hour round trip... And I line hanging out on the beach with my family too!

A nice visit on the beach with our friends... Then a nice dinner after which we rode down to the pier:

It was beautiful!

First they jumped off one side:

Then after trying the side with the sun, the older boy decided that side was warmer... Certainly pretty:

Then the Moonlight Inn for ice cream!

They will sleep well tonight!

Weekend

Time to pick some Saskatoons for jam :-)

Building a mega sandcastle with friends:

Watching the sunset:

Evening swim

We had such a nice visit with friends from Calgary yesterday... We walked them out to their car and then I surprised the boys by having their towels with me so we could go for a fantastic evening swim:

It was so calm and refreshing... Good way to settle down for the evening :-)

Back at the beach

We came home, spent a day getting ready to come down to the lake... Then we got up, packed and went to Booster Juice with our reusable cups on the way:

And off to the beach! We went to hang out on the beach with friends that afternoon. Here are some random beach shots from the first few days... From 3 different beaches:

Connaught:

King Edward:

Sandy Bay:

King Edward again:

A lovely couple I know spent years creating this amazing book about the history of Victoria Beach... Here it is:

http://www.mcnallyrobinson.com/9780993648700/gregory-thomas/100-summers-lake-winnipeg#.U89AKXi9LCQ

I read it with my morning coffee... So interesting!

Getting into the routine here... Swimming lessons, beach time, VB club events...

I'm still so tired from the trip... I didn't sleep well there... It was super comfortable, but I was just antsy about what we were doing each day, and the endless walking caused joint problems while I was there... I just am thankful for these online yoga videos with this incredible teacher, Jason Crandell:

http://www.yogaglo.com/teacher-44-Jason-Crandell.html

I was doing them while I was in California, sometimes without watching the video because I know some of the sequences... He was actually in San Diego while we were there so I could have gone to a real class... But I decided to just do tourist things and just keep enjoying these excellent videos!

Off to do one now, to help me sleep...

Every wave....

This is on the wall in this lovely beach house... Something to think about and carry around with us...

Good bye...

Good bye play structure, and shaved iced place...

Good bye pier...

Good bye surfers...

Good bye, brown pelicans:

Good bye, tree, at our beach stairs...

And hello to our beach again...

Day 14, aka last day

Woke up this morning to the shock that it had rained overnight. That is how unlikely it is. By rain, I mean 7-15 drops. The weather websites say it will rain today... But, it already did, and now it is sunny and hot again. Perfect, because this is our last beach day.

We went for a little walk to check out some local stores...

We stopped here and had lovely cakes before lunch... Wow, they were tasty! And the lady was soooo nice!  My little guy has learned that he likes cheesecake today!

Quick lunch and off to the beach!

We went out for dinner at a restaurant by the shore:

It's just open to the outside... You can feel the breezes coming in... 

Then the older one went with Kurt to quickly change to have one last swim... The little one and I slowly walked down to meet them by the stairs we usually swim at... When we got there he said he wished he had chosen to run back to get his stuff too, so we thought he could just go in his shorts... They jumped in the shallow waves one last time together:

I wonder if this is the only time a Jets towel has been on this beach :-)

Time to go to our beach! What a great time with our family!

Going home

I love home. 

I love my family... 

I love prairie skies, and beautiful sunsets that take up my entire frame of vision.

I love going to my cottage, and am blessed to spend day after day in the summer laughing, creating and imagining with my boys...

However...

I have been reading FB posts for the entire time about the mosquitos that are - to their descriptions - more horrendous than other years.

I have been reading FB posts and messages about how it is cold, rainy, windy and stormy - which is off for July... It's usually mostly sunny and very hot...

So; as much as I love home and love my beach, I am dreading the return of my boys scabby and bleeding legs from mosquito bites that come even with mosquito spray... I have been spoiled by non stop sunny and hot weather in a place that never seems to rain (and as I pointed out in an earlier post, that fact is actually quite a problem here)...

I'm sitting outside as I write this, in the fading evening light, because it is one of the only times in my life that I have EVER been able to do this... Back in 2010 there were pretty much no mosquitos... That was the only other time in my memory. I love Manitoba, but now I know when people complain about mosquitos when they visit, it is truly a nuisance..

On the other hand... Here it is noisy, and extremely crowded, whereas at home it is quiet - not just at the beach, but in my neighbourhood... My neighbourhood is a place where everyone walks and rides bikes... People say hi to you whether they know you or now, and it is so small (in the middle of a city) that I usually knew those who pass by in their car or walking... It's like that at the beach too.. 

The little one asked "do these waves  ever stop?" And we said no... He has been missing how our lake can be very wavy, but is usually calm and fun to just splash around in with floating toys...

I love my home, and my family, and my neighbours, and my neighbourhood... And my beach and friends out there... So lucky... And I look forward to seeing everyone again...

And maybe not walking for 7-12 hours a day :-)

Day 13!

I can tell we are nearing the end of our adventure, because the boys - well, the little one, particularly - are getting weary of exploring and endless walking...

It was a slight bit of work this am to convince him to get up so we could go on a kayak tour of the cliffs and caves at La Jolla (said "Lah Hoyah").  But, we did it:

There will be more pictures of this tour later because I only took my regular old digital camera out into the kayak, and not my new phone! 

As an aside, using the camera makes your kayak drift, and turn in odd directions... Mostly I felt ok with this because I can catch up fast and can manoeuver pretty well, so if one feels ok with all this then ok... I did NOT use the camera in the cave because the walls were too close and it wasn't worth it... There are plenty of pics of these beautiful places all over the Internet to remember them, so do what you are comfortable with... The camera has a cord on it that I could attach to my life jacket, plus I had it in this pouch that my brilliant mother gave me:

http://www.amazon.com/gp/aw/d/B0010Y0ZOG?pc_redir=1405068172&robot_redir=1

We also stopped in to get a different memory card for just this kayak tour, so that if we lost the camera, we would only lose the kayak tour and not the beautiful zoo and Safari pics... That pouch my mom got me before I left helped me get over the crazy surf so we could just be in the gently rolling ocean for the tour... It was crazy on the way back too... But I've had a kayak for years at our beach and I feel pretty good in it, even with a camera that I usually take on our lake ... The 11 year old rode with me and the little one with Kurt... That meant I was kayaking myself in these waves, with a double sized boat, an extra human, and no extra help... So we earned a good lunch!

And maybe a mimosa... With a photo bomber:

Then we went to an area called Torrey Pines...

http://www.parks.ca.gov/?page_id=657

This one above is not knocked over... It seems like it actually grew this way...

Beautiful canyon type area:

Down there is the ocean:

And a beautiful beach that we didn't go to because everyone is tired, and more so because of the 2 hour kayak tour... 

On the way back to the beach house, we paused for a bit at The Museum of Making Music (http://m.museumofmakingmusic.org/m2/app.html?v=140710 ) in Carlsbad, which is so close to where we are that it seems like the same place. It had a fantastic interactive room for us to try stuff out!

On the way home, I took a few pics of street names I love and will miss:

We are also often on Oceanside Blvd, and Vista Way... So great!

Kurt and the 11 year old have gone for a sunset swim after a fantastic dinner of leftovers. I'm not being sarcastic... We had leftover food and Kurt turned it into flavorful awesomeness... 

More pics of the kayak tour and sunset swim later!