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PART ONE

I thought I'd check in for a quick "hello" before we are off on our next adventure. This week seems to be flying by with ever growing to-do lists and never-ending piles of laundry and packing. On top of all of that, I've been furiously filling in my garden, as the summer heat finally tapers off and we enter our second growing season. Ahh... how I love fall! I'm hoping by the time I return, everything will be once again, in bloom.

We had a wonderful week in California, complete with daily beach visits, a trip to the Santa Barbara Zoo, the Natural History Museum in LA and lots and lots of laughter.

The resort we stayed in was pleasant with its lovely furnishings, Hacienda-style architecture and sprawling grounds- but in general, I would've been disappointed if we had paid the exorbitant ($475-600/night) room charge ourselves. Between the required valet parking and the outrageous pricing for mediocre food and libations, it became painfully clear that I'm just not cut out to be a Yuppy. I'd much rather rent a holiday apartment, park my own car and cook my own food every night.

And probably the biggest disappointment was that the beach there was totally unusable- which sent us in search of a different beach each day. We did a lot of driving, but in the end, it was kind of fun exploring different stretches of sand along the Pacific Coast.

Speaking of beaches, did you know that Santa Barbara has a problem with tar? I didn't either and I used to live there! Apparently there are "natural seeps" in the ocean floor that leak oil and natural gas. Some of it evaporates, some degrades and the rest eventually washes onshore and ultimately onto beachgoers. The worst thing is, it's hardly visible when you step on it! I wasn't too happy about finding it all over our swimsuits and the bottoms of our feet- but thanks to some terribly toxic towelettes the hotel provided, we were able to remove it from our bodies.

Needless to say, we drove down to Zuma for a day, where we were able to swim without seepage and we saw dolphins!

{Just in case you were wondering... Ava is wearing my swimsuit in that photo. I forgot hers one day and she had to don a rather large one-piece. Whoops!}

On the same day we went down to Malibu, we also drove into LA to visit my friend Jessica, who works at the Natural History Museum as a dinosaur puppeteer. The children were both frightened and in awe of her dressed as a 9 foot long Triceratops! After the show, she kindly took us around the museum which was fabulous. I highly recommend it for those traveling to LA with children! We learned about all kinds of amazing animals and insects. We had a private story time with Jess and even dug for dinosaur fossils. I had to drag Max out of the insect room, where he unabashedly yelled at the millipedes and ginormous cockroaches. We also bravely stepped into the new Spider Pavilion exhibit where we viewed "Banded Garden" and "Golden Silk" spiders hanging above our heads. It was creepy, but pretty cool. All I can say is, the whole day was way better than school!


*click to enlarge*

Up next: The Santa Barbara Zoo, revisiting old haunts and the best part about this trip...