Malibu and the side of the highway, CA

It was raining a lot when we were scheduled to leave Morro Bay for Malibu.  And since the RV park in Malibu was so expensive, we thought we would just stay in Morro Bay until the weather cleared.  But just a few minutes later the sun popped out and we decided to head south.  We were so glad we did.  The park was amazing!  It was on a bluff overlooking the ocean. 

We got there just before sundown and after hooking up and freaking out about how beautiful it all was for a minute, we walked down to the beach.

While Judah and I were playing in the waves, I kept seeing shapes out in the water.  At first we thought they were just birds, but as they came closer we realized they were dolphins!!!  They were so close.  It was amazing to watch them leaping and twisting out of the water.  We stood there in awe until it was too dark to see anymore. 

The next morning we had breakfast and then headed down to the beach again. 

Then I worked for a bit before we hit the auto show.  But with a home office as beautiful as this, it was hard to get any work done.

Mark was really excited about going to the LA auto show.  It was opening weekend, though, so it was really busy.  But there were some cool cars. 

And the kids got to learn about engines.

There were actually a lot of cool things for the kids to look at and do.

There was even a full on kid zone with bouncy castles and police cars. 

By the end of they day, Judah was really pooped...

they both were.

They crashed out in the car on the way home. 

The next morning, Judah made friends with a little German girl.  She couldn't speak any English, but they had a blast together.  They ran around outside and he even spent some time playing in her RV.  It was pretty cute.  

We headed down to the beach for one last time before we hit the road.

On the way back, the boys were distracted by some sticks and a gate. 

It wasn't long before Judah needed to upgrade.

We were pretty sad to say goodbye to the beauty of Malibu, but we were excited to get to San Diego and see Kathleen!

Unfortunately, that took a little longer than expected.  Driving down Interstate 405 right in the middle of downtown LA, the Bounder gave out.  The parking break went on, we lost power steering, and breaks, and the room started to fill with smoke.  Mark did an amazing job of pulling over onto the side of the 12 lane highway without losing control or crashing into anything.

After a quick inspection of the engine, it was pretty obvious that we would need a tow.  Thanks to Mark's mom, we had amazing AAA coverage that would allow us to get towed up to 100 miles for free.  We didn't have any clue where to go, so just asked them to take us as close to San Diego as they could.  It must have been a busy tow day, because it took a couple of hours before the driver got to us.  In the mean time, we watched traffic, packed overnight bags, and shook our heads. Luckily, we could stay at Kathleen's house, so we didn't have to worry about a hotel, but we wanted to make sure we had everything we needed.  While I packed, Mark unhooked the car and packed it with armfuls of blankets, pillows, diapers, clothes, toys, and dog food.  I also didn't want the food in the fridge to go bad, so we packed up all the produce and dairy to store at Kathleen's house, too. 

When the tow truck finally got there, we were amazed at how huge it was.

The dogs were just hungry...

Judah totally dug sitting on the dash and taking it all in.

The hook up process took forever. And the 95 mile drive to Oceanside during rush hour wasn't any faster.  But we got there way before the tow truck and waited and waited for him to arrive. 

At about 7:00, the Bounder finally showed up.  The owner of the repair shop was sweet enough to stay late, late, late, to accommodate us.  After going over everything with Mark, we didn't get out of there until almost 8:00.  The RV had broken down a little before 1:00  We were all tired and starving.   

Kathleen was at work, and when I stopped to get her keys, she had a huge bag of delicious food waiting for us.  We got to her house, ate, set up a bed in the sewing room, and crashed.  What a day...