January 30, 2008  Pismo Beach Here We Come
This picture doesn't show the amazing green on these hills.  It looks fake in real-life.
A river on our way toward Pismo Beach.  Remember that Buggs Bunny episode where he's tunneling to Pismo Beach and ends up in Arabia?
We saw this McDonald's from the highway and just had to stop.  Okay, Christopher saw it and we remembered it as the way they used to look when we were small.
You'd think it was from the 60's, but it's a new building and really nice.
He couldn't contain his excitement ... dancing all the way to the front door.
I guess it's just the front of the store that is from that era.
I can spot one of these from many miles away.
Complete with a functioning jukebox.
Sophia and Daddy are smiling after getting their tummies full.
I'm a rockin' dude!
Sophie, did you eat Papa's French Fries?  

French Fries, what French Fries?

Papi snapped this picture of some kids riding their bikes as we are going 60 mph down the freeway.
Shots of the scenery from Watsonville to Pismo Beach.
more scenery
more scenery
more scenery
more scenery
the Madonna Inn
Sign said it all.
You will need to ask David (papi) why he took this picture.
Cool House.
This one as well is nice.
Finally back to the coast on our way to Pismo.
Greg's Artsy fartsy picture.
What a great trip coming down 1 it has been.
This park's entrance has a huge butterfly at the entrance.  I guess the Monarch's are a hit around here.
I asked Christopher to stand in front of this guy, but he got spooked and wouldn't go near him after this shot.
Tire tracks on the beach?
The orange fencing is the outline for the "road" where autos and RV's are allowed on the beach.
Daddy and Sophia are considering whether we should camp on the beach.
After an hour of deliberation, we decided that salt water and automotive mechanics do not mix.  Since camping on the beach required crossing a creek bed filled with saltwater, we opted for a very nice little campground about a block from the sand.
Peek-a-boo.  May I come out to play?
The Monarch Butterfly's are all over this place.
They come here every fall and winter by the thousands.
this is a must see if  you every com to the area.
More butterflies. 
Christopher was so excited to see all of them.
Now that she's walking, Sophia does not want to be picked up until the end of the day.
I didn't fall down and that is NOT dirt on my bottom.
Board give the information on the butterflies. Today they have 9500 but eight years ago they had over 180000.
Did you know they had dinosaurs around Pismo?  Christopher wanted Emiel to see them.
Railroad station.
These geese were sitting in the street until we drove past.  
This is one of the amazing trees in the campground we found.
Here's another on the way to the beach.
Christopher found the beach first.
Someone is headed out to the dunes to go camping.
One of the rangers told us that this guy does tours in his Hummer.  I don't think this is the Champagne type tour as much as the Rock-It-Dude kind of tour.
Christopher sneaking up on something.
Another amazing water shot as the sun begins to set taken by daddy.
Looking for shells.
I can do it!  Yea!  I can do it!
A sand dollar?  Is that like a cookie?  She was NOT pleased with the taste.
Monkey see.
Monkey do.
I found something to hold on to.
The wind feels great and I think I can fly.
I'm going to try to run now.
Horsies!  Horsies!
Digging like a doggie.
Everyone going their own way.
Let's all stay together.
And now the other way.
It's now Papa's turn to reign them in.
Height has its disadvantages with little ones.  My neck is still hurting from bending over to hold her hand.  I'm complaining, but will do it again tomorrow.
This little plane flew very close to the water.  It was so cool. 
The sun getting ready to go down.
And our boy watching the sun on its way down.
This is a sand dollar.  It's rare for them to wash up on shore these days and even more rare to find one in-tact.  
Cool artsy- fartsy shot by Daddy.  He's pretty good at this stuff.
And another shell.
Following the storms we get more of these whole remnants from the sea on shore.
I'm on my way to who knows where.
Pretty good family shot for sitting the camera up on the sand.
Hey, those horses are coming back.  Everyone wave.
Would you let us take a picture with you?
Christopher was so excited about the horses, but freaked out when they came close enough to touch.
Another family shot.
Daddy does another sunset.
Daddy goes artsy-fartsy again.
...and again.
Christopher kept asking where the horses went poop.  We found this just before he stepped in it.
In case the expression doesn't say it, he's saying "eeeeewwwwwwww".
Okay the story for this is as so.  We lost our way back to the campsite, we did not take note of our exit point from the dunes. So we found a dirt road and started walking down it hoping it  would lead us back Papi and Christopher  were just beboping down the road and I said quite I see a bear. Both Papi and Christopher froze Papi slowly turns with great concern and asked "do you really see one? Where is he?"  Daddy Reply "Yes"  with a little pause I slowly pointed over to the tree and said "The bear is in the tree" after spotting it Papi took a deep breath and said you Sh_t.  It took me a good five to ten minutes to regain from laughing so hard. 
This is a real Raccoon.
He was looking for dinner.