We left Monterey and wondered leisurely down California towards San Diego, stopping overnight at a fancy resort hotel in Mandalay Bay. We regretted leaving our friends, but it ended it up being a good thing since it was really our only relaxed, unstructured, solo family time before everything got crazy with my Grandfather's death. We even got a suite so Joaquin was in a different room! This is such a luxury on a vacation nowadays, not something I realized before having kids. How did my parents not kill us? Anyway, we spent a 
late evening swimming in their heated pool. This is Joaquin in his new poncho, made and designed by Mommy. Or as I like to call this picture, "My son the emperor". It does have a very Star Wars vibe, doesn't it? After a lovely, child-free night of sleep, we spent an early morning playing on the beach. It was a rocky beach that came with a somewhat disturbing notice from the hotel. It asked all beach-wanderers to please clean the tar from their shoes before re-entering the hotel grounds. I had a brief second of thinking, "But we're on a completely different coast from the spill!" before realizing that these were natural tar 
balls. (And you thought the governor of Mississippi was full of crap, apparently there are such things!) Somewhat disconcerted by this, but undeterred, we headed out. Turns out the tar was in abeyance that morning so we only saw some chocolate-moussey looking patches in the water, but never had to deal with it directly. Joaquin (still in his fear
of waves mode) immediately set about to playing with the sand. This is his 'sunset' to quote the master himself. We also made a sand castle, a la Max and Ruby. What would do without that show - it makes Joaquin excited to try so many things. As we decorated with a feather flag and a stick drawbridge, Joaquin poked his finger in to make windows. He explained to me that the windows up high were for the "princess to see out", but that this one he made down 
low was for little kids to use. Isn't that adorable? Daddy and Mommy also had fun collecting pretty rocks and rumbled glass from the beach. We came home with a bunch of really gorgeous rocks (they're even pretty when not wet, although incredible when they are), some mussel shell pieces, and pieces of glass all tumbled to smoothness. Joaquin got in on this fun after awhile and picked up a cool flat rock that he used as a plate for awhile. Then he came up to me all excited about his mushroom-shaped rock (picture) but turns out it was just a piece of plastic. Oh well.
Notice Joaquin's shirt. Without realizing it, this was the perfect day to wear it, as Mexico was playing France. Mexico won, woo-hoo, but Joaquin hasn't really worn his shirt since (laundry reasons) so we're sorry for your losses Mexico. After all this fun scrambling around we decided to gather all our rocks and head on back to our room. Our plans were stymied by a bean-bag game set up on the hotel lawn. Like many small children, Joaquin can't resist a bean-bag, so we spent some time throwing and some just dropping the bean-bags into the designated holes. We even 
played with a father and his son Diego. (As you can imagine they loved that Joaquin's name was Joaquin.) Then Joaquin decided to play a new game where he tried to stick his head through the hole. After quite a while of this particular antic, Mommy got bored and we left for San Diego.
late evening swimming in their heated pool. This is Joaquin in his new poncho, made and designed by Mommy. Or as I like to call this picture, "My son the emperor". It does have a very Star Wars vibe, doesn't it? After a lovely, child-free night of sleep, we spent an early morning playing on the beach. It was a rocky beach that came with a somewhat disturbing notice from the hotel. It asked all beach-wanderers to please clean the tar from their shoes before re-entering the hotel grounds. I had a brief second of thinking, "But we're on a completely different coast from the spill!" before realizing that these were natural tar 
balls. (And you thought the governor of Mississippi was full of crap, apparently there are such things!) Somewhat disconcerted by this, but undeterred, we headed out. Turns out the tar was in abeyance that morning so we only saw some chocolate-moussey looking patches in the water, but never had to deal with it directly. Joaquin (still in his fear
of waves mode) immediately set about to playing with the sand. This is his 'sunset' to quote the master himself. We also made a sand castle, a la Max and Ruby. What would do without that show - it makes Joaquin excited to try so many things. As we decorated with a feather flag and a stick drawbridge, Joaquin poked his finger in to make windows. He explained to me that the windows up high were for the "princess to see out", but that this one he made down 
low was for little kids to use. Isn't that adorable? Daddy and Mommy also had fun collecting pretty rocks and rumbled glass from the beach. We came home with a bunch of really gorgeous rocks (they're even pretty when not wet, although incredible when they are), some mussel shell pieces, and pieces of glass all tumbled to smoothness. Joaquin got in on this fun after awhile and picked up a cool flat rock that he used as a plate for awhile. Then he came up to me all excited about his mushroom-shaped rock (picture) but turns out it was just a piece of plastic. Oh well.
Notice Joaquin's shirt. Without realizing it, this was the perfect day to wear it, as Mexico was playing France. Mexico won, woo-hoo, but Joaquin hasn't really worn his shirt since (laundry reasons) so we're sorry for your losses Mexico. After all this fun scrambling around we decided to gather all our rocks and head on back to our room. Our plans were stymied by a bean-bag game set up on the hotel lawn. Like many small children, Joaquin can't resist a bean-bag, so we spent some time throwing and some just dropping the bean-bags into the designated holes. We even 
played with a father and his son Diego. (As you can imagine they loved that Joaquin's name was Joaquin.) Then Joaquin decided to play a new game where he tried to stick his head through the hole. After quite a while of this particular antic, Mommy got bored and we left for San Diego.
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