My sweet cousin Isaac came for a visit to celebrate his birthday. My mom gave him a taste of the beach life and the active life... and then she took us to get burgers the size of our heads. Someone tell me how she stays so tiny eating this way.
When it was my turn to show him around, I decided we'd go road tripping to the woods. First things first, though, I had to figure out which car he'd fit in. Unfortunately, my giant cousin didn't fit in the convertible, so he wasn't able to experience the real thrill of a road trip in Cali. Once we made it to the big trees. I don't think he minded one bit.
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| For scale, Isaac is like 6'4". |
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| We did a hike around Crescent Meadow that gave us beautiful views of giant trees. |
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| And this little creature showed its face in a ray of sunlight on the trail along the way. |
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| Guys, we went INSIDE a burned out Sequoia called Chimney Tree. It was pretty awesome. |
After our marathon day in the woods, Isaac revealed that he hadn't yet put his toe in the Pacific. We had to fix that so we headed to Ventura. Mack was there working there so he had a hotel room right on the beach. We got a good night's sleep, then Isaac got his Cali baptism.
In a happy coincidence, the Ventura County Fair was going on next door to our hotel. We walked over to eat fair food, drink beer, and people watch. When we got back to our hotel, they started setting off fireworks, and it was like our own private show! First the deer, then the fireworks. Isaac is a magnet for that Cali magic.
The last couple days of his visit were spent in Long Beach at my house. We went down to the beach and tried ice cream made with liquid nitrogen before our very eyes at Isaac's suggestion. Between that and the burger as big as my head, Zak's trip made my pants a little tighter for sure.
We fit in one last hurrah with a visit to the Aquarium of the Pacific. Laila and I had gone there earlier this summer and loved it. It's massive and you get to touch all kinds of things... sharks, sting rays, starfish, jellyfish, horseshoe crabs. There are otters and sea lions and countless aquariums. My favorite things are the jelly fish, and I can't get over how beautiful these Lorikeet birds are.
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| TOUCH IT. |
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| This guy. Just one of the beautiful fish in just one of the beautiful aquariums there. |
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| This guy is about 3 feet long. His lips cracked me up. There was also al little mini hammerhead looking shark that cruised through this aquarium every now and then. |
Isaac's trip was six days but it felt like 5 minutes. We crammed every waking minute with adventures and barely did anything. You know what that means? He's just gonna have to come back!
