Kids playing in the sand with the Golden Gate in the background.

Beate and the girls.
Fish and Chips in Pacifica with the mighty white chariot standing by faithfully.
Sarah jumping into the pool for the first time on her own (actually, one could imagine she is jumping out of the pool onto the concrete)
Dude, those glasses are so you. (Alcatraz in the background)

In San Fran

Good day, eh. Just practicing my "eh"'s for the return trip to Canada. Nothing like a trip to the States to remind you how much you say "eh". In fact there was a fella we met at Bruce and Linda's in Ojai (he was replacing her windows) who wanted to bring his daughter over because she had always wanted to here a canadian say "eh". I offered to record it for a price but he declined. Actually, it seems like south of the 49 eh is just replaced by "huh". Each to his own.

We've had a bit more relaxing time the last couple of days in the San Francisco region. Yesterday we went to San Fran and went to Golden Gate Park. That was pretty huge and hard to find the right entrance for so we ended up not doing much there. I kind of directed a trip to the children's playground but we never made it because it was too far. The kids had enough fun feeding the ducks at the lake though. We then looked at the map and found a route to the "Presidio" park region and that was very nice. A nice view of the Golden Gate and Alcatraz. We thought of going through San Fran to Fisherman's Wharf and ride a trolley, but then, I really didn't feel like going through the city again so we went the other way and we saw some beautiful coastline in the towns of San Mateo and Pacifica. We had fish and chips in Pacifica and watched the fog roll in.

We then went to an outlet mall this morning and bought a bunch of stuff from the Gap Outlet and a few other stores. Oli is now home from Germany so we are visiting with him tonight. We have ordered Thai food and then I think Cath and Beate are heading back to the outlet mall. Anyways, I guess thats a good sign i should get back to work pretty soon.

Talk to you all soon. I'll post some pictures in a few minutes.

Not much to add today. We are at Beate and Oli's place in Sunnyvale, CA just below San Francisco. Everywhere I went today, people were talking about the Oakland Raiders and San Francisco 49'ers game tonight so I take it football is big here (or is that volleyball?). We mostly did a bit of shopping today. Mom and Dad, you'll be happy to know you're money you gave the kids to spend is now gone. The boys ended up spending it at toys r us while Sarah spent hers at the San Diego Zoo on a snow leopard she named "fally" because she fell off the shelf. The boys bought an aquatic themed lego set and a racing track. Nothing very souvenierish except for the fact they probably could not have afforded the same stuff with the same amount of money in Canada. Beate is doing well. She has a very nice place. A 2 storey condo with a huge pool she has access two in the middle of several buildings. We spent our afternoon there. I believe we will go to see some sights tomorrow. I'd like to ride a street car in San Francisco and see fisherman's wharf. We may take a ferry ride around the Bay area as well, we'll see how much it costs. If the kids don't stop whining about food, we may leave them at Alcatraz. Just kidding. Over and out for tonight. Sorry, no pictures on this one.

On the beach in Mission Bay, San Diego, we had supper here and it was a beautiful sunset.

The carousel at San Diego Wild Animal Park



Well, here we are on the way to San Franciso. Is anybody else tempted to spell “Francisco with two s’s and one c? Mapquest keeps getting after me for spelling it wrong. We’re in the van traveling at about 75mph and I’m blogging while we drive to pass the time. We’ve just come from Ojai, spent the night at the Nofry’s again last night. Brooke, your parents are unbelievably hospitable! We’ve come through Santa Barbara on the 101 Freeway and have passed through San Luis Obispo (“I would have flown but I can’t stand planes” for anyone who knows the old Mark Heard song), and just got back in the car after stopping at Carl’s Jr (again) in King City. Sorry Grant, we haven’t made it to an In and Out burger yet, they just haven’t been around when we’ve been hungry but we intend to make it to at least one before we’re home. I sure like this 101 better than the I5 Two lanes most of the way and not nearly as many trucks. Its still pretty dry through the area we’re in now (between Salinas and King City) but not as bad as the I5 through Kettleman City. Bruce Nofrey said they haven’t had rain since March or something like that so this whole area is in a pretty extreme drought. I really liked Pismo Beach as we drove through today, I think I could spend some time there. Our drive back from San Diego was kind of hectic through LA. There was a semi flipped over on the 405 near LAX and the masses of cars backed up was unbelievable. Actually on the way down, we had a guy pass us at what must have been 90 to 100 mph weaving through 6 lanes of traffic and then lose control and do a 360 on the I5 in mid Saturday afternoon traffic. By some miracle, he was able to regain control and keep going without anybody hitting him. We couldn’t believe it! He was only a couple of lanes over and about 100 feet away. So, anyways, I’m somewhat glad to be out of Southern California traffic, that’s for sure.

This morning, as we left Bruce and Linda’s, there was ash floating all over the place. The Santa Barbara fire is apparently huge and heading towards Ventura county (where Ojai is). As we went through Santa Barbara area, you could not even see the sky the smoke was so heavy.

What else can I tell you? Since I last wrote, we spent another day at Sea World. I’m not sure if I mentioned it before, but one of the kids favorite areas was the bat ray (sting ray) interaction. They cut all the stingers off these wrays and then let you pet them in a pool (theres a whole bunch of them). Its so funny the way they seem to love to be touched and swim up to you for it. Cath had one chomp down on her hand as she was touching it.

We then went to San Diego Wild Animal Park yesterday. It was stinkin hot (100 degrees farenheit) and more inland than the other attractions. It was more of stuff we’d already seen so we didn’t spend a whole lot of time there. It was a bit disappointing as you could only see one tiger at a distance and a few lions. There was some other stuff but it was enough just to get the kids to walk around the once and we ended up only spending about 3 hours there in total.

Well that’s all for now. Hope everyone’s doing well




In the park in Mission Bay San Diego


.Old Town Mexican Cafe in Old Town San Diego


Some quiesy (is that how you spell that?) weirdo at the tidal pools at Sea World

What a day yesterday! We started out by enjoying the pool at the Best Western we have spent the last 4 nights at. Sarah has learned to swim with her life jacket on and the boys are having a hoot! We then crossed the Coronado Bridge and saw the Coronado Hotel, which is apparently famous for being the inspiration for some part of the Wizard of Oz. It is also a national landmark and one of the largest wooden structures in America. After that, we spent the afternoon at SilverStrand State Park where there was an amazing beach and waves that were big enough for the kids to have fun in but not too big. We boogy-boarded for a while and Sarah collected a ton of shell and sand dollars. Then, a pod of dolphins swam within about 20 feet of us and continued to jump and play in the water around us. It was great. We were pretty exhausted after that so we came back to the motel. We then went to Old Town San Diego where we wandered around, dragging Joshua because he said he was too tired. We eventually found the Old Town Mexican Cafe which we eventually got into and had some interesting food. Suffice to say, I slept well last night.

A few pics above from our two days at San Diego Zoo and Sea World. There was a ton to see. (or is that a tonne? i think one is american and one is canadian). We saw sea world yesterday. Those shows are amazing. The kids got some good laughs and saw the dolphins, killer whales, sea lions and otters do all sorts of stunts. But the funny thing was, their favorite show was the "pets rule" show where ordinary dogs and cats doing some pretty neat tricks (and a pig). Above, the pictures show Joshua and Samuel in the Skyfari at San Diego Zoo. Sarah was scared to go on this at first but after was asking all day to go on it again. We bought a 3 day pass which allows us to go to the Zoo, the Animal Park, and Sea World as many times over three days as we want, so we've actually come back to the motel in the noon to 3 time, had supper, and gone back for the evening which has been kind of nice because it allows the kids to have a swim in the heat of the day. Today, we will swim in the pool and then go see Coronado Island, which has miles and miles of beaches and then perhaps have an authentic mexican meal in old town, San Diego.

That's all for now

Jeremy, Catherine, Joshua, Samuel, Sarah

Well, we are in San Diego now after much driving. The trip from LA to San Diego was probably the worst part of the drive. I though it would be just be a short bit. I don't know what I was remembering from when we were down here 11 years ago for Dan and Brooke's wedding, but I thought it was 2 lanes and fairly light traffic after you got through LA. Ooo boy, was I wrong. 4 to 8 lanes most of the way and man do these guys fly. I think they drive faster the further south you guy. But we made it. We are at the Seven Seas Best Western in San Diego. We spent lst night at Brooke's parents. Bruce and Linda were awesome and our kids had a great time. Sarah found a three legged lizard (above) and caught it. The pictures above are of Ojai Park mostly. It was quite interesting with a tennis court that hosted tournaments won by Jimmy Conners, Lyndsay Davencourt and many other famous tennis types. We also saw Johnny Cash's house on the hill today. Anyways, tommorrow we head to one of the local attractions, probably Sea World or San Diego Zoo.

Signing off for now.

A few pictures of the trip so far. To the left, Cabin in Sacramento. Center, Million dollar motorhomes in sacramento, to the right, cascade locks cabin.

So Grant told me this blogging thing was easy. So far, so good, except this is the second time i've written that exact same line because I just lost my last post somewhere in the cyberspace around my KOA Kamping Kabin (did you notice all the "K"'s instead of "C"'s? clever) when my konnection terminated (my own cleverosity just came out). Anyways, this is my second post, but I haven't figured out how to invite anybody to view this thing. That's my job after this post. So for now, its just me. Does that make it a "monoblog"? (hey, did I just coin a term? -like monologue)? We are currently in Sacremento. Man, it takes a while to drive here, doesn't it? Thought I'd jot down a few things I've learned on this trip so far.

1)Man, do the Americans ever use a lot of concrete.

2)There's a lot of people in this world who can afford million dollar motorhomes and then park them on gravel KOA parking lots.

3)Pine trees are healthy in the US.

4)Don't sleep at Cascade Locks KOA if you don't like train whistles going all night.

I've probably learned other things, but those are the ones that come to mind most readily. We stayed last night in Cascade locks in Oregon. Kind of a neat historical area but we did not have time to look around much. Apparently, this was where the early pioneers of Oregon had to decide whether they would risk the rapids on the Columbia River or take a longer toll route with its own perils. There was a huge waterfall we could see from the road (starts with an M, ends with?) The Bonneville dam looked like an interesting place as well, but we had to keep going. Anyways, I'll post a couple pictures below. Hopefully, I can update this a few more times on the trip.

Signing off.

Jeremy, Catherine, Joshua, Samuel, Sarah

Day one on our San Diego trip. We just made it to Cascade Locks, Oregon after a 11 hour trip from the cabin at Princeton. Wasn't too bad. We are at a nice KOA Kamping Kabin and eating our cereal for supper (minimalistic packing for this trip has its good and bad points - supper's a little lacking). Anyways. We'll post some pictures tomorrow.