Catching up - again.

Today is Saturday, and it's been a busy week.  Monday we were still in the San Diego area and we went to the Safari Park (formerly the Wild Animal Park).  The park is about 45 minutes from where we were staying, in an amazing semi-mountainous area.  We saw pretty much everything we wanted to see, including the Safari Tour.  We were a bit disappointed that the balloon experience (a tethered hot air balloon "ride") was not functioning due to the wind that had picked up during the afternoon.  Other than that, it was very satisfactory.  It was nearly 100 degrees so we went slowly. 

My younger kid wanted "face painting," but on her arm.  I convinced her to get a henna tattoo instead, which will last a lot longer and wasn't significantly more expensive.  She got a barn owl in her right forearm.  The artist, a guy named Alex Boston, did a pretty good job. 

We were very tired when we got home and pretty much had leftovers, took showers and fell into bed.

Tuesday we went to Seacoast Village, a little collection of shops and restaurants on the harbor (hence the name) that we heard (from our Old Town tour guide, Philip-with-just-one-L-still-Phil) had been designed and built by Disney in 1980.  I had been there before (probably 35+ years ago now) and remembered liking it.  We did some shopping, got some soft pretzels and some ice cream, walked around the harbor, and came home.   Then we packed and watched a movie (see last blog).

Wednesday was kind of a lazy morning, because we weren't due to check into our next Airbnb until 1 PM, and had promised not to arrive before then (the host said they wanted to do a "thorough cleaning" - can't argue with that), and we didn't have to check out of our current digs until noon.  We left around 11:30, and it was a 2+-hour drive to the next place.  With the LA area traffic and construction, we didn't roll in until 1:30ish. 

Our current lodgings are amazing.  The last place was nice, but this is a cottage, one of 6 that share a small pool.  It has two bedrooms, a living room, dining nook, kitchen and bathroom.  It is very spacious and has AC in all the rooms.  The decor is wonderful, very beach-themed (though I think we are pretty far from the beach).  We had a problem with tiny ants in the kitchen on our first night (Wednesday night) but we let the hosts know and they took care of the problem while we were gone Thursday.   The master bed is like a big marshmallow - one sinks into it and has trouble getting out, it's so soft.  I'm sleeping well on it, so that's a good thing, but it feel so odd.  The girls have a bedroom with two twin beds; they are excited to have their own space. 

For dinner we ordered pizza (take-out) from a local place based on recommendation of the host.  He's right; it was very good, and I don't really like pizza much.  We went to bed fairly early because we had to get up early for our Disney adventures. 

I think I'll do the two Disney days in a separate post (or possibly two). 

peace,
wb