California Dreamin'

Ready to move on to day 2 of the California Extrapalooza?!

If you remember, we left off with us looking like a gypsy caravan, minus a sheepcamp. Thank goodness for the easy-to-locate Motel 6.

 We woke up the next morning with a plan in motion. Dad had called a bishop here in Boise and asked him to look up phone numbers for bishops in Winnemucca, which there turned out to be just a few of. Dad was thinking that by talking to a local, we would be able to find out if there were any good car rental places, and anywhere we could have our suburban taken since we were quite done with it.

Talk about a tender mercy, but the very first bishop we called was a farmer who wanted to look at the suburban and offered to buy it to either fix up, or use it for parts! Not only that, but he was so friendly and easy-going, and he even drove all of us into Reno to pick up a rental car at the airport. See, blessings even come in the middle of trails!

The bishop has 9 kids, therefore they have a 15 passenger van! Yeah, we had plenty of room for us and all our luggage. :)

 Thank you, Bishop!!

We were waaay behind schedule from where we'd planned on being by Monday morning. So we drove ALL day through California, got stuck in some road construction, pulled into a ghetto somewhere pretty late to use the scary Rite Aid bathroom, then finally made it to San Deigo at some point after midnight - it's a blur.
   Hi, hotel swimming pool!

 After we got some good sleep that night at our true destination, we got up and set out to find a good beach. Even that took longer than expected, and FYI, just because it's a Wal*Mart, in California that doesn't mean they're going to have all the right things to make a nice picnic lunch on the beach - apparently you have to look elsewhere.
  We found this beach first and it was lovely, but not what we had in mind as far as nice sandy beaches and good wading waves.

  Hmmm, should we try somewhere else?

This is it!!

The beach at last.....

David couldn't wait to get out and play in the waves.

Nani, Malia, and Mom were more of the beach dwellers, while Dad, David, and I went out and jumped through waves.

David was like a kid in a candy shop once he got out there in the waves. At one point he screamed out in pure joy, "Why don't we live here?!!!" He loved it!

    Say cheese!

To be continued ~