Ojai

This is Ojai Valley.

This place is amazing.

You'd never guess that LA was just a few miles down the road.

Farms and orchards flourish.

All kinds of natural spaces to explore.

Rocks to jump in the river

with friends.

Nature to observe.

Sasquatch huts to discover.

And good books to be found at this adorable outdoor bookstore.

Love it!

It is so exciting to see the kiddos diving in, searching for those favorites that just must come home or discovering something that holds a new adventure for them.

This is what we added to our library...

2 Harry Potter books

The Thief Lord by Cornelia Funke

a Little Monster book by Mercer Mayer

On Good Land by Michael Ableman

Have you read any good books lately?

Come Visit Cali (the pacific coast)

Coming out of the woods onto a bluff that drops hundreds of feet into the vast Pacific Ocean is an awesome thing.  It has been seen many times before by many, many people.  But it is still an awesome thing to see how an ocean so big greets the edge of a continent.

Highway 1 twists and wiggles along the California coastline.  We drove until we got to a strip of beach that was wide enough (and safe enough for the littles) to explore.

This is Stinson Beach.  Just a short drive away from Muir Woods and San Francisco.

Plenty of room there to just sit and take it all in or explore the beach for treasures.

Or for signs of Sasquatch.

Look at those footprints! 

And see those logs--no human hatchet has touched them, raw muscle power must have ripped them in two.

We also played a game of advanced hopscotch.

They were the winners.

We tried to replicate the victory leap but our family didn't fare quite as well.

Trek said he was holding all of us up in that last one.  He is pretty strong.

Have you been to the west coast?

Operators are standing by to help you with your reservation!