The Aesculap Reception

Tonight we enjoyed the company of a great surgeon in Albany, GA; Dr. Mark
Wolgen (pictured next to Ted) and his companion of 13 years, and an OR nurse at the hospital in Albany, Merle Santos (Pictured next to him). Merle is originally from Manila. On the far left is a new friend Dr. Eda Van Dyke, who is a doctor of Sports Medicine, currently taking a break to raise twin, ten year olds! She is a fascinating lady originally from Denmark.

I'm up, they're down!

This is really an amazing picture. Ted took the kids on a bike ride while I stayed at the bus. I got a call from Evan to step out of the bus and look down. If you look in this picture, my kids are down below, and that dot above them at the end of the fence is me standing in front of the bus! I knew there was no access to this beach and when I asked the kids how they got down there, they only said "what happens with Dad, stays with us and Dad"!

Ted at the West Coast Office

That is not a bad view for a day at the office! Ted spent the day at the AAOS meeting at the convention center. Here, he is home and about to enjoy some downtime before we go to the reception.

Tin Can Economics

Ted and I have had a good time watching a lesson in supply and demand economics unfold in our family. Lacy bought a box of sugar cubes at the store with her own money. She has almost spent all of her spending money for the trip so she wanted to figure out how to make more. She began selling sugar cubes to her sugar-loving brothers for a quarter each (they had to put the money in her tin can because she liked the sound of the money in the can). After a while they started complaining that she paid $1.50 for the box and she has made so much money off them. Connor announced that next time we go to the store, he will buy a box and charge a dime; thus, putting her out of business. Once we broke the news that there will be no more purchases of sugar, we were able to give them a great lesson in economics!

Alcatraz Education

Did you know that Alcatraz was a military instillation before it was a prison? Union troops had 300 soldiers and 100 canons on the island pointed at the mouth of the San Francisco Bay. Since the war never made it to San Francisco, I imagine it was a boring job! After the prison closed, the island was taken over by Indians (as in Native Americans) in the 60's as a protest of the land that was being taken away from the Indians. They occupied the island for 20 months before the National Guard stormed in and kicked them off. There were results though because much of the land was given back to the Indian nations. We really enjoyed our day at Alcatraz and walking around San Francisco.

Our First Family Picture

Someone offered to take a picture for us so this is the first one of all five together. We took a ferry over to the island of Alcatraz. It began with a really great Discovery Channel video about the prison.

Before Heading Out to Alcatraz

Evan does his schoolwork in style and Ted brushes his daughters hair before we start our day. Ted got his work done before, during and after our visit to Alcatraz!

The Most Beautiful Spot Ever!

I don't think we will ever be able to top this location. We are parked atop a 90 foot cliff looking out with an unobstructed view of the Pacific Ocean! You can see what it looks like out our bus window. The waves below are crashing against the hill and we can hear the loud wave action. It is just lovely.

Hilly San Francisco...but what a reward!

I knew San Francisco was hilly, but you don't know hills until you are 60 feet long, going down a 17% grade with cars parked on both sides of the street and oncoming traffic trying to get past you! This picture does not do justice what we came through to get to this campground! I think if poor Ted heard me say "slow down" and "watch out" one more time, he would have pulled over and put me behind the wheel! Oh, but once we arrived the campground is well worth it! You can't see it because it is too dark, but over Evan's shoulder is a 90 ft cliff that overlooks the Pacific Ocean. We got parked at sunset and it was so beautiful! Tomorrow, we go to Alcatraz.

Connor and Pepe Enjoying a Meal!

This is pretty hilarious! Connor put Pepe's food at the table so they could enjoy breakfast together! Pepe really likes this life on the road!

Forgotten Child

This was one of those days that, as a parent, I would just assume forget! We had an unusual morning because we had to drop a few of the bikes off at the bike shop down the street to have some repairs done on Saturday. Ted and Lacy went to get the bikes, but they weren't ready. It was now close to the noon check-out time. We let the kids go to the arcade together while we got the bus ready for departure. Ted called them and they all came back promptly. Ted pulled out, and Pepe and I followed in the car. The plan was to meet up at the bike shop about a mile away and hook up the car there. We got parked and Ted took the car across the street to load the bikes. Connor and Lacy were doing their work and I thought Evan was in the bathroom (which he does a lot when he wants to postpone doing his schoolwork!). After a period of time, I checked and to my horror, Evan was nowhere to be found. The kids assumed he rode with me. I called Ted across the street and said "I am trying not to panic, but we have driven off without Evan!" Ted was on his way without explanation to the bike shop owner. As it turns out, the kids did load up and for some reason Evan decided to have one more go on the playground. He walked off the bus and we left! When Ted got there, Evan never even knew we had left. Believe me; we have implemented some new departure protocol after today!

Early bird gets...Dad.

Last night, Ted told the kids that whoever gets up early, gets to go on a beach walk with Dad. Here comes Evan, fully dressed, at 6:00 a.m! He and Ted went on an early morning walk on the beach where he found hundreds of fish eggs. The ranger they spoke to said she had never seen that before.

Laundry does not go on vacation!

I am very fortunate to have a nice washer and dryer on the bus. Most campers spend many hours in the campground Laundromat. But I do have to wash at least one load of clothes, usually more, every single day or I get behind. Once a week I wash sheets. The great thing though is that we have so few clothes and the bus is so compact that there is much more gratification in washing here than at home! Tomorrow we only have about a four-hour drive to San Francisco and this bus will need some serious cleaning. There is sand from one end of the bus to the other!

Back at the Bus...

Here, I am eating my lemon ice-cream (I made a triple batch!) while watching the cookies bake, and Connor and Lacy are eating them!

Whale Sightings!

After our whale watching adventure yesterday, we all know how to look for the whales that are migrating through these waters right now. On our way up the coast, we spotted four whales all together. On our way back, as you see here, we spotted two more. It was very exciting to see their spouts blowing high and their massive bodies surfacing on the water! Although what we saw yesterday were Hump Back Whales, these today should be the Gray Whales that are susposed to be here now.

Nepenthe Restaurant

This is an incredible, hippie-run restaurant that Ted and I discovered about 15 years ago (before kids). We sat there, then, overlooking the sea dreaming that someday we would bring our children here to see it. Well, here we are! The Nepenthe has been serving for well over 50 years and the 3rd generation of the same family is running it today. The building was designed by a student of Frank Lloyd Wright and is a work of art in and of itself. The tiered architecture overlooks the Pacific Ocean and has a beautiful view of the winding roads leading to Big Sur.

A Hike to the Ocean

We found this neat little State Park along the road where we pulled off. Lacy immediately climbed a tree and Connor stayed below to spot her. Evan wanted to take a trail he saw so I followed him. You need to understand that we started out on our way to church this morning. Just as we were leaving, a new spot opened up in the park that we had to take because we were on a 30 amp spot and our rig needed 50 amps. Bottom line is we missed church because we had to move the bus. I packed other shoes but at the moment we were headed to lunch so I did not change. Before I knew it, Evan had led me down a steep hill that goes all the way down to the ocean...in my heels! You also see in this picture Ted carving our names in a fence with Lacy. That seems to be a tradition for this particular fence and maybe our kids will bring our grand children to see it someday!

Elephant Seals

Our next stop today was a visit to an amazing location along the beach where Elephant Seals began making their home a few years ago. There were hundreds of them right there within reach; even beside the road. Those black things that look like rocks behind us are actually huge seals! It is too bad this is not a 3-D Blog, because you just can't see the smell in this picture. The tide washes the dead ones to the back which happens to be right where we were standing. The naturalists who were there answering questions said that there have been an unusual number of deaths of the seals this year. We can attest to that from the number of STINKING carcasses before us! They suspect a crazy bull seal has gone mad and started a killing spree or the recent storm drowned them(yes,the pups can't swim at first). What was very disturbing to the kids was a mother seal that was dead lying next to its little baby that was alive and cuddled up next to it. That made a profound impact on them.

Hearst Castle

Today, we are driving up the PCH Hwy 1 to Big Sir. This is about a two hour drive, each way, up the Pacific Coast. It is a beautiful drive of switchbacks and hairpin turns all while cliffs with tumbling rocks are on one side and sheer drops on the other. This is a drive that would be impossible to do in the bus. Our first stop was the Hearst Castle in San Simeon. You can see it atop the hill over our shoulders. We watched a video about the castle before we came so the kids were all caught up on the history. It really is an amazing place with breathtaking views of the ocean.

Pismo Beach RV Resort

We have really enjoyed being here at Pismo Beach. You can see over our shoulders the main recreation area for this park. It has a store that sells local produce, an arcade the kids love, putt putt golf, a heated pool and a lookout station that you can sit in out of the wind to watch the surf. We would definitely come here again.