San Diego, California - Part 1

Dear Friends:

A couple of weeks ago, we held a little family reunion in San Diego, California.  The "family" consisted of all my kids, grandkids and my amazing wife.  We had an absolute blast, and I can't wait to share some of our experiences.

As you might have noticed in the last blog post, my wife and youngest children were already in Los Angeles.  We patiently waited for the rest of the clan to arrive.  We met at LAX Airport, and had to spend some time in the parking garage, while rental cars were being retrieved.  As usual, I took it upon myself to try and entertain the kids while we waited.  Fortunately, this wasn't a problem...at all!  We played some games and even watched some animal videos, to pass the time:

As any good Robison family gathering goes...we immediately sought out food.  We found a fun burger restaurant near the airport, and the kids started hanging out together.  I'm so lucky that my youngest children and my grandkids are relatively close in age.  This makes thing much more fun!

We drove straight to San Diego, and arrived at the rental house that we stayed at, for the week.  It was located in La Jolla, which is just north of San Diego proper.  The house had a great pool in the backyard, and a beautiful view of the ocean from the neighborhood location.

The kids all did a great job of exploring the property - and there was a second backyard area that allowed us to set and relax:

We headed down near the beach, and decided to have dinner.  It ended up being walking distance from the house, but we didn't know that.  The restaurant provided lots of games, to pass the time while you wait for the food:

After dinner, we walked down the beach, just a few yards away from the restaurant.  I was lucky enough to grab this picture of me and the kids...

The allure of the ocean was pretty strong.  Although we weren't really prepared, the kids ripped off their shoes and wanted to run along the beach:

I love this short video clip - the joy that the kids show in being able to run through the sand - is awesome.  We decided that we would spend the following day at the beach, as a result.

That night, the older kids accompanied me to the grocery store, to grab food for the week.  We were going to cook dinner at the house each night.  This next picture perfectly captures a moment.  When I was younger, I worked at a produce market.  I learned a lot during that time about fruits and vegetables.  The kids LOVE to make fun of me when I'm trying to pass this useful knowledge on to them.  My son wanted to capture of picture of this moment, so that he could continue to make fun of me.  Here I am, telling him "you'd better not!"

It was a great start to the week, as just spending time together is the most important.  It turned out to be a fantastic experience.  Join me for part 2 of the San Diego Robison Reunion in the next post.