It seems that since I’ve joined Facebook, I’m getting further and further behind on the blog. If you really want current info, you can find both of us there.
We left San Diego a week ago, and came to Santa Paula, a bit north of LA. We’ve had a pretty good time here for the most part. Tomorrow we are heading for Sequoia Nat’l Park to check out the trees. After that, up to Yosemite.
While we were here, we got Caitlin’s tooth looked at, she’s fine. The dentist’s office was only a few miles from our friend Marie’s house, so we went there for dinner afterward.
A few days later we went tidepooling with Marie and her family at Leo Carillo State Beach. It was very windy, pretty chilly, and we all came home with lots of sand in our teeth. Tidepooling is always fun, but the ones down in La Jolla were prettier. These were rockier, and harder to negotiate. The wind almost blew us off our feet a few times. I was so annoyed, I forgot to bring my big camera, but given my past luck with cameras and water, I would have fallen in a tidepool with it anyway. The point and shoot just doesn’t take nice pictures in bright sun. A park ranger was leading a tour of the tidepools, and Caitlin and I tagged along. It was really interesting, we learned a lot.
The park we’re in is pretty nice, its quiet and out of the way. There is a meadow nearby where I can let Sophie off leash, and a creek we can walk to. There are a ton of grass seed heads that burrow through Sophie’s fur and will embed in her skin, so I have to check her ears and feet pretty often. That’s kind of a pain.
We have a bunch of peafowl that roam around. The hens walk through our site almost every morning. We found a male displaying one time. The males like to shriek all through the night, I can see why people hate them. Luckily I sleep like a log so I don’t usually hear them.
The kids have been getting too big for their bikes, so we decided to get some bigger ones while here. We found a toyrus and Walmart next door to each other. We found a bike for her at Walmart, and one for him at toysrus. His was new in the box, and when we got it home we found the fork bent enough so the tire wouldn’t attach. We called the store an hour after we bought the bike, and the horrible assistant manager told us we couldn’t exchange it because we hadn’t bought their buyer protection plan. What a load of crap. Apparently they know what garbage from China they sell, and don’t want to stand behind it. Sean spent some quality time on the phone with customer service, and we exchanged the bike the next day at a different store. This is the really short version, but suffice it to say, we will never, ever spend another dime in any of their stores.
