Road Trip...

Sunday morning we rose at the crack of dawn, loaded up our Pilot, cruised over to Starbucks and the Bagel Bar and thus began our ascent up the coast of California. Our destination: Los Osos, California (a tiny town just west of San Luis Obispo and south of Morro Bay). It was a chance to introduce Maddie to Daddy's hometown and create more memories for the older three kids.

Our destination up the coast used to be Gramma and Poppa's house... first in Los Osos and then later in Paso Robles (wine country, just north of San Luis Obispo and filmed beautifully in the movie "Sideways"). Gramma and Poppa moved to Kentucky right after our family moved to Indiana which made this visit a little strange and unfamiliar. However, we booked a room with our Marriott rewards points (the best advantage to Larry having a job with travel) and have spent the last couple days exploring Larry's childhood stomping grounds.

Yesterday, we went to downtown San Luis. Then we hopped in the car and drove over to Morro Bay just as the typical wall of fog started rolling in off the ocean. We drove by Larry's high school, his first job (Burger King, if you were wondering) and marveled at the changes that had taken place since our last visit. When we arrived at the Embarcadero, we were surprised to find a music festival taking place and were serenaded by Sean Kingston singing "Beautiful Girls". We grabbed some fish and chips with clam chowder and then drove past Larry's childhood home in Los Osos.

Today we headed out to Montana de Oro, a beautiful beach with rugged cliffs and hidden caves. Later we drove down to Avila Beach and visited with the pelicans and sea lions. The kids loved hearing stories of Larry's childhood and being reminded of places they had been before.