Vacation part two Cayucos

On Saturday afternoon we headed down to Fresno. Dad and Beth took the girlies to the circus and Frank, Nolan and I shopped around town a bit and then went to the college for their wonderful corn and tomatos. Fresno state is known for their sweetie corn! Yum. Dad and Beth assembled a wonderful dinner for us and breakfast in the morning. You can't get out of their place without a hot breakfast! No matter how I try to assert that we really don't need that much. But as always, we had a wonderful time with them! On Sunday we went to the church Frank grew up in. His brother and sister in law and niece met us their and then went out for pizza with us before we hit the road. We arrived in Cayucos about 5:00 and let me tell you it was a delight to watch the in van thermometer drop mile by mile it dropped from 102 in Fresno to 68 at the coast. This was the hotel we picked. Our room was the one right be hind the sign at the top of the stairs. It was a nice big room with two king size beds, a small fridge, a small micro and pet friendly. Oh and did I mention that it was about 12 steps from the beach? Worked for me!
Here's the kids on Monday as we headed out for a visit to Solvang. Frank and I found it very enjoyable, but I can't say as it was the kids favorite day! Haley and I both got needlepoint kits and I went right to work on mine, but Haley lost her needle right off and their wasn't an easy place to get a replacement once we got back to the beach. She is saving it for later doings this summer - when she isn't swimming at a friends or sewing aprons.
This was the view from our room. Frank and I walked out to the pier several nights and way down it and back on the main street. The grass area in the bottom of the picture had a nice adirondack chair set and a dogwalk.
Here was our room from the beach. Nolan's wetsuit is hanging over the balcony. The furthest upper room on the left. On Tuesday, we bought the kids a boogie board and a skim board because the waves were terrible. Haley and I set out and hit the thrift shops in search of a second hand wetsuit for her. About midway through that trip, Frank called me and told me Nolan had hurt his wrist falling off the skim board and needed to have an xray. Well, guess what? We already know from experience with the other wrist where the nearest hospital is in San Luis Obispo. And thankfully it is usually a sleeply little ER that can see you in and out in about an hour. Pretty nice. And also thankfully, it was only sprained. AND we did find a nice little wetsuit for Haley for a reasonable price that will last her at least another year or two. She used it several times to boogie board, so it already paid for the cost of renting one.

This trip we saw more sealife than we have ever seen at the coast. And I mean not in all the decade we lived in HMB did we ever see so much action in the water. We constantly saw seals, dolphins and pelicans all fishing. Although, the people on the pier were catching nothing! Haley quite frequently saw seals within four to five feet from her while she boogie boarded. I'm sure that alone will make the tirp memorable.

We had a wonderful, very relaxing time. We sampled lots of ice cream and gelatto, decided who had the creamiest, tastiest clam chowder, flew kites, built sand castles, cooked in the coals of our bond fire and wished the prices had gone down as far on the coast for property as they have at home.

Today Frank and I have extended the vacation. Haley went to swim with a friend and Nolan went to see Batman. We went to the farmers market, had a wonderful lunch together, and browsed some antique stores. I feel like we are still gone. And best yet - we were in our own wonderful bed last night and all is well with the world!