Drop Off Time

Hard to believe the summer is over, but we made the quick trip down to SD to drop Bean off for year 2 at SDSU (and then get back in time for Bug to start school the next day.)

Her new place has this gorgeous pool that feels very San Diego. She's still on campus because SDSU requires two years of on campus housing, but now she's in a suite where she has her own room, but has 8 other roommates who share the living room/"kitchen" (only a fridge, microwave, and small sink with almost no counter space) and two bathrooms. It's a great change from the dorms! (More pictures to come when she's done getting settled in.)

We moved her in Thursday afternoon and did a little shopping so we could spend Friday and Saturday playing. First up--the SD zoo! 

It had been a few years since we'd been, and Bean has a pass right now, so we wanted to help her use it.

I love the botanical garden feel of the zoo as much as all the animals. It's just such a beautiful place to walk around. (Can you find the crocodile?)

The aviaries are a favorite--so many different birds. I tried using my identification app (Merlin) but since you have to download bird packs for different parts of the world, it didn't have much luck finding most of the birds we saw.

It's a long day walking around the zoo--we rode the tour bus in the morning, but then walked all around the middle part which we'd rushed through last time, and then rode the skyfari back across the zoo and walked back through another section.

Love when the animals are having fun.

And when they're just hanging around.

Glad we've raised 3 kids who love animals and are game for some long, tiring days.

We left a couple hours before it closed, which was a challenge for the die-hards, but the friends we were staying with had planned dinner.

And of course I got no pictures of our friends, just their gorgeous backyard.

The sunset was pretty and the weather was perfect for dinner outside.

The next morning, my friend Ruth and I went for a walk at the beach. We used to walk or run together when Bean and her son, John, were toddlers, so it was fun to fit this in.

Low tide at Torrey Pines meant a few minutes to explore the tidepools.

Lots of snails in this area.

And some beautiful anemones,

and on the walk back we saw a fisherman who was about to release the leopard shark he caught!

It took a few minutes to get oriented and swim the right way. So cool to see!

I love being able to walk at the beach--our neighborhood at home is fine and all, but this would be my pick if I could every day.

Then, we had another beach trip with another set of friends. We only had a couple hours because we had more errands to do with Bean, but they were nice enough to meet up with us at La Jolla Shores which was the beach we always went to when we lived nearby.

It was funny because we were getting texts from both the grandmas worrying about the hurricane on the way and we were headed to the beach where it was mostly sunny and the waves were pretty small. Hard to believe there was a storm on the way.

And according to the old sailor's addage, "Red at night, sailor's delight", we had nothing to worry about. We picked up Bean's cubbies, took her grocery shopping, and then said goodbye--and drove back to University City to find this gorgeous sunset.

This goodbye was easier than last year--Bean's living situation seemed great and we all felt a little more sure of what to expect. Of course we'll miss her but we know we'll be chatting regularly and see her in a few weeks.

And then, Sunday morning, we woke to rain--the start of Hurricane-turned-tropical storm Hillary. We had been watching the weather on Saturday and decided we needed to get through LA before 11 a.m. when the rain was supposed to get a lot harder, so we took off at 7:30.

And I'm so glad we did! It drizzled and rained the whole way through to the north side of the grapevine. It wasn't hard most of the time, but the roads were wet and we did hydroplane for 1/2 a second a few times. The plus side of the storm was that the freeway in LA was the emptiest I've ever seen it.

On the other end of our drive, we found blue skies!

We beat the worst of it--from pictures and stories we heard from people who left a couple hours later, the roads got a lot worse--muddy water flowing down the freeway on the grapevine and really hard rain. It wouldn't have been fun driving, for sure. And Bean survived the storm in SD just fine--they actually only had hard rain for a few minutes, but it was a weird way to start the school year. 

More Summer Playtime

I realized that our zoo pass was expiring soon and we hadn't been all summer. Luckily, Bug had his last day of work and was ready for a little summer fun, so we planned a morning to go before high school starts back up.

We got lucky and found the wolves--I think the trick is definitely to head straight there after the zoo opens. This is the second morning visit where we've seen them.

I need to find all the pictures I've taken of Peanut over the last few years in this spot and see how much he's grown--I'm sure it's a lot!

Seeing the wolves was exciting enough, but then the bears were playing in the water, too! We watched them for a long time and they were so fun. One was dragging stick around and then collected a plastic float as well, while the other two kept wrestling and chewing on each other. Best day up in the California Trail we've had!

We'll miss the zoo pass, but our fall is shaping up to be packed so I think we'll be taking a break for a few months until it looks like we can go more often. I'm glad that my boys still love the zoo.

Glowfari at the Zoo

I decided to splurge and get tickets to the Oakland Zoo's Glowfari and I'm so glad that we went! Started it off with a gorgeous sunset view from the restaurant at the top of the hill.

And then we spent a couple hours exploring the lanterns that were set up all over the zoo.

They were beautiful.

And huge!

It was a really fun evening.

And always good to have new things to get us outside. Winter can be harder, so events like this get us out there when we might otherwise just stay home and watch another movie.

 

Zoo Field Trip

Peanut and I got to go to the Oakland Zoo with a group from our homeschool organization. We only knew one of the families, but it was fun to hang out with them and meet some new friends, and of course, seeing the animals is always fun.

We even got to see the wolves, which have NEVER been out when I've been there. I didn't have my good camera (of course), so they're hard to see, but I had to document it (they are the white blobs--I think we saw 6 or 7.)

It was a gorgeous day.

The zoo is all set up for their Glo-fari they do at night for a couple months. Even in the day, it's so fun to see all the lanterns.

We rode the train to the Australian exhibit.

Lots of walleroos.

And a few of the kids begged to go on these cars--Peanut and one of the other boys his age quickly realized they are too big--their knees barely fit, haha. I guess that's the last time I'll have to pay for the zoo rids besides the train.

Getting up close with the tortoise. 

Love getting to have these days out and about. This is a big part of why we homeschool.

 

Zoo Trip

We couldn't have asked for a better day to visit the zoo. Our pass expires on Christmas Eve and 3/5 of the family hadn't seen the new California Trail exhibit, so we wanted to make one more trip before then. The weather was perfect, and I think most people must be busy with Christmas shopping and holiday events because there were a lot fewer people than normal.

We got to see pretty much all the animals there.

And spent quite awhile in the new area.

These kids crack me up. I'm so glad that they still love going places with us, and that they love to be silly.

This boy--I think the positive way of describing his way of going places is that he is very focused and knows what he wants to see. What that means in reality is that he spends most of the time asking when we are going to see/do "X" and what food I have for him, haha. But I think he had fun, too.

One of the highlights of the day was seeing the grizzlies, not only out, but active. They were interacting and digging for food and jogging around a little. It's fun when the animals wake up!