Some of these days are running together for me....Monday came around again...Jason went to work. The kids and I did our usual clean-up, summer school stuff, a walk, and by then the marine effect had blown off and we headed to the pool. Every day the kids have found others to play with. We found a couple of fun adults to hang out with (who shared their Miller Lite with me;) and stayed at the pool til 4 pm or so. Dinner at the picnic table when Jason came home. Lily and I also snuck away to take her 9th birthday photos in the cute Danish village of Solvang. I just snapped these two with my iPhone and can't wait to get home and get the images off my Nikon onto the MAC.
Jason has been leaving for work by 6:30 or 6:45 a.m. everyday. On Tuesday, he came back around 9:30 to pick us up and gave us the Jeep. Once we dropped him back at the office, we headed South to Santa Barbara for the day. We went to the Zoo. SB Zoo is small like our Akron Zoo at home and easy to get through in several hours. I took Charlie to the Akron Zoo last month while Lily was at sailing camp. What a waste (other than spending time with my boy) because it was hot and all the animals were sleeping. Santa Barbara has the breeze from the Pacific Ocean in front of it and the mountains directly behind it, and it was a cool 70 degrees. All those animals were out. We really just enjoyed taking out time and didn't snap a ton of pictures. We took Lily's little Nikon Coolpix camera to throw in our day packs along with our snacks, water bottles, wet wipes, all the stuff you need. We saw gorillas, birds, giraffes, lions, gibbons, leopards and more. We even heard the lioness roar several times. Charlie got a kick out of that.
Mac & Sam....showed the kids where you old condo was, right by the lions;)
After the zoo we went over to Stearn's Wharf to walk around, view the beach, watch the sailboats in the little harbor, look at the tourist trap shops and have a scoop of ice cream. There were a bunch of little sunfish hauling butt so fast in their race. Lily said she wasn't quite ready to race in that type of wind.
We went to Trader Joe's down the street afterwards. There are two locations in Cleveland that are closest to us and I have been trying to make runs there every other month to stock up on our favorite things. The kids picked out some BHT-free cereal, and I was able to get some gluten-free items that's I like. Wish we had a location closer to us at home, great prices on items. You know you should never go to the grocery store when you are hungry, right? Well the three of us just had a " snack lunch". That's a Charlie-ism. On the way back to Buellton, we stopped at one of our favorites In & Out Burger for a snack. Love this place and their 5 menu items, that's the way to do it. Kids split a burger and fries. While we're waiting in line, Lily says, "Mama, this is the only fast food we should ever eat." I said, "really, why is that?" "Because the buns are baked fresh everyday and have no preservatives in them, the beef patties are never frozen and the fries are hand cut." Nice to know that my habits have grown on them and they too are considering these things! Not that a burger and fries is healthy but it's how things are made that make a difference too.
Wednesday and Thursday we spent at the pool in the afternoons. From talking to some other campers and from seeing some other camp sites along the beach, Flying Flags is pretty nice. It's right off the California Highway 101 for those traveling up and down the coast. It offers tent sites, cottages, and trailer/camper/rv sites, and yes there is a difference. It's so busy on the weekends and it seemed like most were from within a three hour radius. The park has really clean bathroom/shower house, BBQ dinner for $20 on Friday night, live music on Saturday night, scanvanger hunt and outdoor movie for the kids, ice cream, carnival, and more. We made the observation that most don't seem to leave the park once they set up camp. We actually avoided all those activities cause we like to get out to explore, try the local food, the beach, the wine, etc. It was empty one day at the pool, I snapped some pictures. 
Charlie has really done great in the pool this week, and got a little more comfortable to swim without his float. Just needed to decide for himself that he was ready and could do it. A couple more weeks or swimming and I think he'll be well on his way. Both kids used their snorkel gear so much that this masks broke.
Wednesday evening we met up with Jason's VP of a Sales, Kirk, his ever so funny wife Carrie and their almost 16 year old twins Chance & Madison. We went up to Nipomo, close to wear they live to a place called Willow. Kind of a cross between general store, tasting room and bistro with excellent food. Charlie was pretty tuckered out that night but Lily fit right into the conversation with the teenagers and us. Jason and I were able to have dinner with Kirk and Carrie last October when we were out. Both times were so nice because we don't usually have a chance to hangout with co-workers as a couple with Jason telecommuting and traveling.
Last but not least to report is our pup Saylor. She is still very sick but much better than last week. She is awake more and barking at things around her. We have talked to the local vet twice this week and had a stool test run on her. Good news it came back negative for parasites and other bad stuff. But even on a chicken, rice, probiotic, pumpkin diet, she's still very sick. For now she seems comfortable and are glad we can get her home. We really didn't think that was possible last Friday. She'll see our vet as soon as we get home.
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