Cali Baby!!

(Part 2)

Really nice, free beach in Malibu, CA

Isn't this a most gorgeous site with the iceplant in bloom and clear skies and miles of sand?!!  

We were in heaven!!  Little A was done with the water first but the sand kept her plenty busy.

This fun game never gets old

We saw a pod of 3-4 dolphins from the beach.  If you see big J you'll have to ask him the story of how we became alerted to them.  So classic.  Also saw a large mammal swimming; we think it was a sea lion or seal.

More of this game.  We enjoyed watching them have so much fun together & joined in on occasion!

Hermit crabs at Leo Carillo Beach!!  I wanted to take one home.  I wasn't the only one.

Sea lion sunning himself

This beach, Leo Carillo off the PCH, was really cool.  The small tide pools with tons of hermit crabs and sea anemones are right where we started from but then we just started walking down the beach after checking those out.  We knew it was low tide mid-afternoon so figured we could maybe find something else cool.  What we found was one of the coolest beach offerings ever.  Leo Carillo beach is sorta split up into smaller beaches because of the rocks so several of them were quite secluded.  Luckily we didn't see anyone who thought it was secluded enough to tan nude--whew!  Then we found this pretty big cave that ended up going thru like a subway tunnel to a very small beach as you can see below....

The scene was gorgeous!!!!!!!  Incredibly picturesque.  I can't even put it into words.  

When we timed it right we could get up on this rock without getting soaked where we saw more sea wildlife...

...starfish and bigger sea anemones, big crabs and even some sea urchins. I was pretty nervous about getting back to our car before the tide came up and made it harder to get back mostly dry so we didn't spend too long but long enough to explore and see cool animals and incredible rock formations with blue skies.  It was a perfect day.  

We visited my sister in Ventura and went rock climbing with her and a friend in this beautiful gorge.  The kids were having so much fun running amuck and following the stream that they didn't even climb.  It was a beautiful, fulfilling and relaxing day with her.

Beach time in Ventura.  California definitely is not lacking in awesome beaches.  We played frisbee here, got in the water and on the playground that was next to the beach and went on some beach runs.  It was a nice day, especially after the marine layer cleared up! 

On the way home we stopped by Vegas to check out some of the cool hotels and things there.  Man, even in the daytime it is a little tough to keep things G and PG rated!  The picture above is in the beautiful botanical garden in the Bellagio where we also drooled over the hotel pools, the blown glass lighting and the triple chocolate chocolate fountain.

for our adorable little bug.  :)

Beautiful tulips!!!  The garden was Dutch/butterfly themed.  We loved it!

We decided to share a cool, delicious treat from Pinkberry (we can recommend the coconut and mango yogurt) because we had just realized we'd walked quite a ways the WRONG WAY in 103 Vegas heat!! looking for the Venetian.  We made it back there thanks to big J saving the day and grabbing the van to meet us outside the yogurt shop and driving right there.  He maybe felt a little guilty because for once he was the one who was turned around!!  Hehehe.  I was too hot though to gloat about being right.  We saw the cool gondolas and somehow made it out of the Sweet Shoppe that has cereal box sized Nerds with NO candy!!  However, I think my blood sugars spiked just from walking in the door!

We just had a ball on this vacation and can't wait until the next--Cali again, only this time my family reunion at Lake Tahoe/Yosemite!!