A week in SoCal....

We have been traveling up the coast from San Diego, stopping here and there to visit friends and family, and to fill in the blanks in our "Magical History Tour." Since Jack and I have been married, we have been sharing our old stomping grounds with one another. That has taken us to Oklahoma, Texas, Georgia, New Jersey, and California. Oh, Oregon too.

We left San Diego on Monday 3/31 to wander up the coast to San Clemente.  Jack has a wonderful friend, Ken, who he has known since they were both young twenty-somethings in Newport Beach.
We spent some time with Ken, which we always enjoy. We also visited Mission San Juan Capistrano (which I had not visited since 4th grade), and walked out to Trestles, one of Jack's old surfing haunts.

Mission San Juan Capistrano. Beautiful!!!

The old bell wall

An interesting succulent (the one on the right!)

Surfers at Trestles

La Playa

From San Clemente, we drove up the coast to Newport Beach. Stacy lived here until she was 10 years old, and Jack lived and surfed here in his teens and twenties.  We stayed in the old Balboa Inn, which is on the ocean front, and two blocks from the Balboa Island Ferry. We took the ferry over to the island, and had a chocolate covered frozen banana.

We drove around Costa Mesa and tried to find the house that Stacy lived in when she was three years old. And we drove by the house in Tustin where Jack lived when he was in high school. Stacy enjoyed a glass of wine with her friend, Diane. They were in third grade together, so you can figure out how long they've been friends.We also found the gravesides of all four of Stacy's grandparents, something she has been wanting to do for a while.

The Balboa Bay Pavilion

After that, we drove up to Los Angeles to visit Stacy's sister and brother-in-law, Dana and Rob, and her 10 year old nephew, Nathaniel. Between the Watson's birthday parties and tennis and just being busy, we got to visit and catch up a bit. We also visited Stacy's oldest nephew, Grant, and his lovely family in Thousand Oaks. I am chagrined to report that we did not get any photographs.  But believe me when I say, they all looked great.