🏡 Where we have stayed:
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| Brawley, CA |
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Menifee, CA
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📍Desert Olive Farms
We spent our first night in California at a Harvest Host olive farm in Brawley, CA. As a family, we enjoyed learning about the process of olives made into olive oil, participated in an olive oil tasting, and had a restful night of sleep.
📍CA Surf Museum, Oceanside, CA
We visited Oceanside, CA, where the boys got their first looks at the Pacific Ocean. We walked on the 1,954’ long pier (one of the longest piers on the west coast), visited the California Surf Museum, and then when Nick finished work for the day, we had dinner at Erie Vegan Food (totally recommend)!
📍Cabrillo National Monument, San Diego, CA
We visited Cabrillo National Monument in San Diego, CA. While there we visited the monument, Old Point Loma Lighthouse, watched for whales hoping to catch sight of their annual migration (we didn't see any), and our favorite part...tidepooling!
We were fortunate to come at the best time of year for tide pool exploration — The fall and winter months have great low tides during park hours. In summer and spring, the tidepools are usually underwater when the park is open during the spring and summer.
We saw rock shore crabs, hermit crabs, acorn barnacles, gooseneck barnicles, a keyhole limpet, solitary anenomes, a black sea hare, and even a bat star(fish)!
📍La Jolla, CA
We surprised the kids with heading over to La Jolla to see the sea lions and seals. While we were there we also witnessed a vibrant rainbow, and hundreds of cormorant nests on the bluffs above The Cove.
📍Annie’s Canyon Trail, Solana Beach, CA
I (Kara) had never experienced a hike through slot canyons, which had been on my bucket list. ✔️ It got crazy narrow, and there was a ladder in the slot to climb up to the viewpoint. Very fun! Now I’m hungry to go climb other slot canyons when we have the opportunity!
And of course, a handful of photos from day-today life...While in Menifee, we unexpectedly and heartbreakingly had to say goodbye to our loved dog, Braxton, who was part of our family for 9.5 years. We were shocked and are incredibly sad for the loss, but thankful for the joy he brought our family.
