Southern Cal

After the Walters' visit, we packed our bags, and on Tuesday early in the morning we drove to Santa Paula (1 1/2 hrs. north of LA) for a job interview Newel had.
We checked in our hotel room and rested, while Newel went to his interview. After resting, we went to the pool for a little swim. It was Maya's first time in a pool. I forgot to bring the camera.
After Newel returned from the interview, we drove to Ventura beach to play in the park, watch the sunset and eat dinner. We went to a park by the beach and it was really nice, that's where you can see Arden on the rope.

I love sunsets and this sunset was beautiful.

The following day, we went to Hollywood, and Beverly Hills. We were not that enthusiastic about going, especially myself. I'm not a big fan of the whole, Hollywood, glamour, overrated stuff, so I wasn't expecting much. And it was okay. Beverly Hills has a bunch of big houses you cannot see because they're covered by plants and walls. Although I did notice a ridiculous amount of BMW, Mercedez Bens, Volvo, and other high end vehicles. I also noticed, as we were driving in Beverly Hills, on the side of the roads, by the fancy houses, lots of work trucks, gardeners, etc.

After our self guiding tour of BH, we went to Hollywood walk of the Stars. It was okay. As the day progressed and we walked down that street, the amount of tourists increased and then people dressed as different movie characters came out...there was Batman with a beer gut...80yr. old Marylin Monroe, and as you can see, a starving looking Mickey Mouse. Arden thought it was great, so we let him live it up.

Once we finished our star walk, we got in our car, and found a nice parking ticket waiting for us, for parking in a restricted parking area...however, the sign posted, didn't say anything about being restricted...we're contesting it.

Newel had the wonderful idea of calling Craig, to see if he was available...and he was! He had the day off from work, and was nice enough to drive to LA to meet with us. After our walk, we went to meet Craig, but made a quick stop at the LA temple.


After meeting up with Craig, we went to lunch, and of course, we had to eat some Mexican food...and it was YUMMY! I'm not a big fan of mole, but this mole and all of the food was very good.

We were close to the beach, so we changed clothes and hit the beach again. It was really nice, a bit chilly, but nice. Newel, Craig, and Arden played in the sand and in the water. We also went for a walk to the pier, where it has a ferris wheel, and all sorts of stuff. Pretty cool. Maya and I hung out in the sand and watched the boys play.

She enjoyed playing with the sand.

We had a fun time with Craig, but it was getting late and it was time for us to keep going. Our plan was to drive northbound on Route 1. We had driven on Route 1 the previous year, but the scenery is so amazing, we just had to do it again. I must say, driving southbound is more beautiful (get a better view) than driving north.

We made a stop to see the elephant seals. What you see in the picture are the pups who live by the shore, while the grown males and females have migrated to Alaska to eat. The pups live off of their body fat, and learn to swim on their own.

We arrived home on Thursday afternoon, unpacked our bags, cleaned the house, do laundry, go grocery shopping, and repack for our final Spring Break Adventure.