The Happiest Place on Earth

We arrived in Laguna Beach late Friday evening, dropped the camper at a storage facility, had a great sushi dinner, and headed up the hill! David and Elizabeth Haines, our great friends who lived in Pennington, but moved to Laguna Beach last year, allowed us to use their house while they were visiting in, of all places, Pennington, NJ! Their home is at the top of a hill with an unobstructed, spectacular view of the Pacific Ocean. The house had 3 levels, with huge sliding doors on the main floor that allowed the outside to flow inside. We had our morning coffee on the veranda as we watched a Dragon Boat race on the ocean below. Our original plan was to head to Lego Land in San Diego, but realizing that we were all exhausted from the constant activities since we left home a month and a half ago, we all agreed to spend the day relaxing and hit the beach. We had fish tacos for lunch and went to a secluded beach called Table Rock. The waves were so powerful and we watched with awe as 9' waves crashed along the shoreline.   It was the perfect California day we've been dreaming about.

Sunday we woke with excitement, as today was the day we were headed to "The Happiest Place on Earth", Disneyland!  The kids chanted "Mickey's House" as we approached, just as they did 7 years ago when we visited Disney World.  What a great day we had!  We went on every ride we wanted to, ate dinner in New Orleans, watched Fantasmic, and ended the night with fireworks.  Alexis was the quintessential Disney child, leaving the park as tired as could be hugging her stuffed Minnie Mouse wearing her own set of pink mouse ears!

The Haines family arrived home from NJ Sunday night, so we had one day to spend together, and what a great day it was.  Elizabeth and I lunched in Laguna Beach, while Daiv took Ryan, Alexis, Kyle, and Clayton for fish tacos again!  It was so nice to spend some time with E. and catch up on each others lives.  We met up with the gang at the beach after lunch for non-stop boogie boarding, skim boarding and wave jumping.  Once again, the waves were HUGE, knocking the kids off their feet again and again.  Daiv and I never tired of watching this, it was hysterical!  We had a fabulous dinner back at the house when David returned home from work and talked late into the evening.  We wished we could spend another day, but once again, the adventure must go on......