We’re off again for 11 days… First stop is San Clemente State Beach, one of the best ocean front RV parks in California – large sites, full hook-ups, 30-45 minute walk to town and the pier, shops, restaurants. It’s a little further to the Rainbow Sandal Store, but we will walk there one day during this trip…
We packed up the truck and headed out at 11:00 am on Thursday. We picked up the Villa in Temecula where we had left it for service at Airstream IE. So far they have been OK, but I’m not overly impressed after two visits. We’ll see…
We arrived at the campground promptly at 2:00, found our site, and tried to set up. After several tries in various locations we were able to get decent satellite TV service. However: OOPS! the utility post prevented the slide from opening! So we had to un-stabilize, re-hitch, and re-position. Now that the slide opens we can’t put out the awning due to an unfortunately placed tree… We have such first world problems!
But we are set up and a quiet evening alone was had. Happy Hours occurred. The sun set, and all was well.
Friday morning dawned bright and cold! 42 degrees! (It had snowed the day before in many parts of LA…) So we walked to the pier a little later than usual. But it was delightful in the sun and the coffee at Bear Coast was wonderful.
We did see evidence if the recent heavy rains:
The rest of the day was spent reading and doing income taxes. Much fun…
At 2:00 pm or so three cousins arrived and set up. We had a little casual conversation with them, but we retreated back to the Villa as the sun set and it got really cold again. Happy Hours and dinner inside were had and all was well…
Saturday is the big day and the reason for this trip. We will meet up with many of my cousins, plus the various inlaws and outlaws. We’ve been doing this for about five years, mainly since so many of us have birthdays around this time…
We did walk to the pier for coffee, of course…
Around 1:00 we started to gather and by 2:00 we had a nice crowd, although it was smaller than some previous years… We counted six first cousins, plus about 12-15 others, including kids and grandkids, and the aforementioned inlaws and outlaws…
These are the six cousins, standing in age order. I have no idea what I was looking at…
Just some of our motley crew…
We spent the afternoon getting reacquainted, lying and bragging about our kids and grandkids, and, for some, great grandkids. (Note that the other five cousins are all a LOT order than I am…)
There was much food and wine and even a little bourbon…
Again it was quite cold, so we turned in relatively early… All was well…
Sunday was another big day. It is Lynda’s birthday! We are the same age for about two weeks… And we will be visited by our daughter and her thundering herd…
We walked to Bear Coast Coffee once again, then we returned to the Villa and 30 minutes of peace before the McAnoy clan arrived…
They soon decided they needed to walk down to the beach…
Evelyn enjoyed her first time crawling about in the sand…
After a walk to the pier and a brief snack and they all departed for home… We were exhausted…
We turned in early… And all was well…
Monday we decided it was time for an epic walk… First to the pier for coffee, then to the Outlet Mall in North San Clemente. Lynda found a few bargains for the kids, then we headed over to Rainbow Sandals to buy new flips for the kids. We walked back through town, stopped for used books, and then returned to the Villa – a total of 9 miles and about 20,000 steps. Then it was nap time! In the evening we joined the few remaining cousins for a light dinner and another day was in the books… And all was well…
Tuesday again found us at Bear Coast Coffee…
It was the first day we could walk to the pier without wearing jackets… As we were walking we received word that Evelyn has received her first birthday present:
The others have also received their own chair on each of their first birthdays…
Today we went through all the cupboards and storage areas in the Villa and removed anything not necessary for our upcoming three month trip to the east coast and back… We don’t need 16 wine glasses, six water hoses, etc. We feel much lighter now…
Since last Sunday was Lynda’s birthday, tonight we walked in to Ave. Del Mar and went out to dinner at Brussels Bistro…
It was OK – nice Old Fashioneds, pretty good frites, good meatballs, OK mussels… Good, friendly service… We took Uber back to the Villa and turned in early… All was well…
It’s Thursday morning and it’s time to go. We walked for coffee one last time… The coast was lovely as usual…
We packed up, hooked up, and left San Clemente about 10:30 am… We are off to Pechanga RV Resort in Temecula!
We’ll be back to camp in San Clemente in June…
And an enjoyable time was had by all…
Adventures in the Villa 