The Perfect "Gita"

With the school year now complete for all of us, summer has officially begun. An annual rite of summer for us is the short trip (the Italian gita might be the best word) down to northern San Diego County. It's a short drive away--only 90 minutes to Carlsbad without traffic--yet very much feels like an escape to a distinctive and appealing section of the California coast. Most importantly, Carlsbad is home to two of our family's favorite attractions: Legoland and Pizza Port. We never have a bad time at either place, but everything just seemed to click. The weather was spectacular, the mid-week traffic was amazingly non-existent, the day at Legoland was perhaps the best one we've had there yet, the pizza and beer at Pizza Port was likewise as good as they've ever been, and the Comfort Inn even worked out perfectly, as we all got the surprisingly warm pool to ourselves. It was a pretty simple itinerary: drive down Tuesday morning, Legoland until closing, Pizza Port afterwards, morning swim on Wednesday, search for some letterboxes at local lagoons, and then drive home in time for the boys' afternoon Tae Kwon Do. Even the letterboxing worked out great, as the boys and I recorded our first three finds, ever, after going 0 for 2 last weekend in El Segundo. If only every family trip and activity could go so smoothly. (As always, the photos below are just a sample of many more that have been posted to my Flickr site.)

The Year in Pictures: July 2007

Summer! We started the month with our annual visit to the Manhattan Beach Grand Prix bicycle races. I'm indefinitely "retired" from the road racing scene, so only the two boys represented the Morris family in competition. And both did themselves proud. Here is a rather serious looking Tony awaiting the start of his heat:


Just a few days later was another landmark of summer, the Westchester Fourth of July parade.


Then it was time to travel. First it was a few days up in the Sierra Nevada visiting Pappy and otherwise frolicking in the woods while avoiding the poison oak. (Plus there was the annual waiting for the garbage truck.)



Upon returning to Southern California, we then headed further south to North County San Diego, where we mixed in visits to Legoland and the Wild Animal Park with visits to local brewing landmarks Pizza Port in Carlsbad and Stone in Escondido.



And if that was not enough, we took off at the end of the month for our main vacation, a two-week camping trip through central California, up to San Jose and back. We took the coast route up north, first camping for a night in Ventura at McGrath State Beach, followed by a night above the crashing waves of the Big Sur coastline at an old favorite of mine, Kirk Creek. We were fortunate to be treated to ideal weather, and also to snag a perfect campsite where the boys were able to scooter to their hearts' delight.