Here's the thing about San Diego. There's too many things to do. And if you're one person deciding what to do in San Diego, that's one thing - but when you start adding multiple people to the mix, you're looking at a sightseeing dilemma. Fortunately, we are more about hanging out together and if someone shows a sign of making a decision, we can all pretty much go with it.

Uncle Steve has a fun toy...a traveling recording studio. First add a shaker, then add a horn, loop it here, add some reverb there. Insert random silly comments from Abby and you've got a hit single.

Want to hear it?

Click here...

Enjoy the Lemon Cake String...oh yeah, the "beat box" is also done by Abby.

In case you were wondering - yes....it was weird leaving Patterson and taking the 5 South on-ramp instead of heading north.

But, 426 miles (and about 8 hours) later - we arrived in sunny San Diego. I love this city....my favorite part of the long drive (which by the way only seemed like an hour to me - of course I can't speak for the driver!) is the 5/805 split. It means we're close to the Hwy 8 which is MY freeway, baby. Good grief - enough about that.

On our way down, we took one of those "vista point" turn offs around the Camp Pendleton area...it's basically a parking lot, then a sidewalk, then some dirt, then some iceplant, then a cliff, then this road that tanks and other military road vehicles do practice ops on, then OCEAN. Oh and by the way, the sidewalk and dirt area are covered with 2 things....seagulls and seagull poop. If you look beyond that, you get an excellent view of a piece of God's amazing handiwork - the Pacific. This particular day was overcast, but there were a few holes in the clouds where beams of sunshine were breaking through to hit the water....it was beautiful.









Once we arrived in SD, we got checked into our hotel, set up camp then headed out for some grub. We turned in early - we were all tired and poor Mike had a headache the whole drive (staying up until 1 in the morning playing the Wii with me was partly to blame).

This morning we woke up, well rested (except for a me - I had a slight "pillow headache" which is what I get when I sleep on pillows that are not mine). Grandaddy came over to the base camp and we hung out for awhile before going for morning grub at a cafe in La Mesa that served Gyros omelets. Yum-o.

After brekke, we headed over to see TapWater rehearse in their "practice facility" (some room in a business park that's shared w/ a few other bands....interesting place with some slightly unsavory wall decor!) - we always enjoy seeing Uncle Steve and the TW guys play and today was no exception. We finally got to meet Simon and Rudy (although we already briefly met Simon at the Jupiter show in Bezerkeley last summer). S & R are AWESOME additions to the band - man, I couldn't believe it! For those of you following the adventures - if you were TW fans before, you will love them 10x more now. I can't even tell you all the instruments they play (some that I actually recognized: trombone and steel drums...then there was that xylophone lookin thing - I think it was called a miramba). The only thing that was missing was Tim, the keyboard/accordian player - he was out of town.

Abby, Mike and Grandaddy also did a little Frisbee with the guys outside of the practice joint. You gotta love a bunch of musicians playing Frisbee in a business park parking lot.

After the jam session, we stopped at the Flying Leatherneck Aviation Museum. The museum consists of an outside park with a bunch of old aircrafts and helicopters from Vietnam & WW2 - as well as a great museum that had memorabilia, movies and the sweetest little old men docents you ever did meet. I'm discovering that Abby loves aviation...you should have seen her take in all the airplanes. She walked them all 1 time with Grandaddy (Mike and I were in the museum checking out some of the stuff there) - then when we came outside, Abby took Mike around to each of the planes sharing what she had learned the 1st time around. She walked that thing like she was the tour guide...quite a sight. Even the little old docent man was impressed.

Next, we got in a little kite-flying session at the Allied Gardens park (a park that I grew up playing at.....yes, they had parks in those days). Abby REALLY loves flying kites....2 buck kite + breezy San Diego day = lots of fun for the family. Grandaddy and Mike got things all set up then Abby got to fly....I sat on a park bench and observed my girl squealing her heart out at the 2 dollar fish kite flying through the sky...I love that she loves that.

Uncle Steve showed up at the park a little later and although he missed the kite-flying, he played with Abby on the structures....Steve and I got to reminisce a bit about those Allied Gardens Rec Center days gone by.

Before heading out for dinner - we took a little drive through the old hood....(Mom - we totally forgot which house on Rodman you lived in!). Vandever looked JUST the same! The old rocks were still out there and the hedges that Steve planted were full grown. The basketball hoop was still in the backyard. Great memories in that house - a time when you could yell to your mama that you'd be home by dinner....you could play in the street with all the other kids in the hood and not worry about a thing. These days....well, don't get me started on that tangent. Anyway - after our trip down memory lane, we headed over to Tio Leo's for dinner. Mike and I are coming to the realization that sometime in our near future, good Mexican, good Chinese and good Sushi will no longer be available to us. So we're trying to stock up a bit before we cross the state line. Tio Leo's is an old family favorite.

No time with Uncle Steve would be complete without goofy pictures of him and Bita...so, I'll leave you with one of my favorites from tonight.

cheers from SD,
k

Tonight is our last night here in Patterson for awhile....we have enjoyed being so close in distance (only 74 miles to be exact) for so many years. When we wake up tomorrow, we say goodbye to Grandma and Grandpa....our hearts are already heavy thinking about it! As we tucked Abby in to bed tonight she showed signs of sadness as she spoke about a dream that she had last night. As best as I could, I tried to help her through the feelings that she was having - careful not to dismiss them, but also gently reminding of the positive. A mother's heart is burdened seeing the sadness of her child....it increases the difficulty in my own goodbye preparations. I do find some comfort in knowing that although the quantity of our visits will decrease, the quality and length of our visits will increase. It's been nice staying a whole week (first time we've done this)....it doesn't feel so rushed, there's just more time for relaxed visiting.

So tomorrow morning when we take off down Sperry Ave - we'll jump on Hwy 5 - but this time, we are going SOUTH instead of our usual North. It will be a strange feeling. Up till now, it hasn't truly felt like we've left home yet - maybe because Patterson feels so homey to us! - but, we're still so close....it's like we could just hit Concord again before we leave.

Next stop on the Road Trip - San Diego...

Today wasn't all heavy hearted....we had a fun night hanging out with Tito and Kim, as well as Mike's childhood buddy, Kevin (who we all call "Lopes"). Mom & Pop took us all out to dinner (Lopes came over later on) to "El Rosal" - Mexican food, yummy. The portions were out of control, but the food was very good. Especially funny was Mom & Pop's "number 2" that they each ordered. If you know Mom & Pop - they are like most 55+ - they eat very little and usually leave with a hearty portion in their doggy bag. Tonight was certainly no exception! There was so much food in their order, they had to bring it on 2 plates (4 between the 2 of them)....good grief. I looked over at their plates when the waitress brought their to-go box....there was barely a dent.

After dinner - Tito and Kim came back to the house and Mom served up some fantastic orangey-goodness bundt cake. Lopes rang the doorbell just as she was cutting up the slices (great timing, Lopes!). So we all got to sit around the table for one last dessert (although there's still breakfast tomorrow), visiting and telling stories.

Now, the night wouldn't be complete with out some Wii-ing....and, since Lopes has never Wii'd before, we had to break him in. Of course, after Mike showed him the official buttons and movements, Abby broke it down for Lopes and showed him how it's done.

We loved our time visiting family here in Patterson. It was the perfect first stop on this crazy adventure of ours....enough like home so that we feel like we haven't gone anywhere. It's been a great way to "ease" ourselves into a "homeless" state. Not sure about feeling homeless - I rather like the old saying that "home is where the heart is". Yep, I'll be hangin' my hat on that one for awhile...

virtual hugs and kisses,
k

Prayer Request: please pray for travel mercies for us as we hit the road...praise that we are blessed with good weather tomorrow.

This morning, Abby and I were cuddling on Grandpa's lazy boy chair. I was wearing a nightshirt that happened to be a slightly low-cut V-neck. The way we were cuddling on the chair, the shirt was sort of pulled down a little lower than I would have normally had it. Abby noticed the fashion foul....she gasped and said to me, "Mom........cover your manage".

For those of you not trackin'......she meant cleavage.