Ramona Oaks RV Park

First impression of the campground was nice, quaint and relatively quiet. The gravel site was initially a challenge but John has mad leveling skills so he worked it out. The pool was large and the facilities were clean. However, the "free" wifi wasn't working. After multiple trips to the office and phone calls, I was finally told that I could pay the monthly rate for the "residents wifi" and would be able to stream TV shows for the boys. John flew back to Oahu two days later and I was.alone.with.the.boys.for.the.next.ten.days.

We fell into a routine of iPads in the morning while Mom cleaned up and made breakfast, doing some sort of activity or outing, pool in the afternoon and a belated bedtime because, well, it's summer and we are all on vacation. They enjoyed the 9 hole putt putt golf course. The boys didn't enjoy getting yelled at to vacate the hot tub from "Captain Cranky Pants" as they dubbed the women who worked in the office. #whatever  I am encouraging the boys to write a sentence or two every day in their journal to remember events from their trip. This idea is being met with some resistance.

We spent an afternoon at the Eagle Mining Company in Julian. A very informative tour guide told us all about the rock and how the mine was started. They enjoyed panning for gold and each got an "ame-fist" crystal and an arrowhead as a souveneir.

San Diego Safari Park was another fun adventure. Tigers, cheetahs, gorillas, lemurs, camels, rhinos and plenty of birds were among the cast of characters we saw. The boys did really well but Wyatt's legs were hurting towards the end so he needed a pick up/piggyback ride.

We spent another fun afternoon with their cousins, Hailey and Ashlynn, at the Oasis Camel Dairy for a private tour where they learned about all of the animals on the farm. They got to feed the sheep and camels. I think the sheep were the funniest because of the noise they made when they saw us. They literally RAN over to get the treats we had! Even the camels walked right over to the gate to see what we had for them. Feeding the camels carrots was a little scary at first. The baby camels were big and adorable! We went back to the RV park for a much needed dip in the pool then off to dinner.

Aunt Michelle, Hailey, Ashlynn, Aiden, Wyatt & I

Dos Picos County Park was a nice little outing. We hiked around the lake inadvertently scaring the ducks, swan and frogs as we went. Aiden thinks he saw a racoon but it was really a squirrel. There were no squirrels on Oahu so all of this is pretty exciting for them. The boys had fun on the playground then Aiden and I played kickball.

Aunt Michelle drove all of us in "The Beast" (my brother's massive diesel truck) to Coronado to the private military beach where the Navy SEALs train. Uncle Steve was super busy but was able to meet the kids briefly. Aiden found a bird skull and several sand dollars.

We met lots of friendly people at the campground and were invited to hang out with several families for a propane "campfire". Fires are strictly prohibited because it is fire season here. We went on several "night patrols" and saw a tarantula. Another family saw a rattle snake on their morning hike. No thank you!

We were all happy to get John back!! John was not happy that I got the date of his return wrong which resulted in a mad dash (hour long drive) from Ramona to the San Diego Airport. He forgave me which was good.

Legoland was an adventure for the boys. It was their first time at a theme park and they had a blast. Pretty impressive what can be built out of Legos.

Kai

Sensei Wu

Building their new Lego toys

After almost 3 weeks here, we finally left on August 5th and headed to Escondido RV Park. We enjoyed our time here and the new friends we made. We had fun visiting our McGuire family in Rancho Bernardo and our Boland family in La Jolla while we were in San Diego.