The Sans Final Installment

On Saturday, Mrses. Atwood and Farley took me to a fabulous fabric store while our husbands generously stayed home with the kiddos. Oh what fun it was! I could have stayed all day of course, dreaming up projects and excuses for spending far too much money on incredible prints, but we had a lunch date to get to. We drove a bit and wound up in the middle of a beautiful garden surrounded by orchards and teeming with burly dogs (ok, so they were actually two very enthusiastic golden retrievers). There we met up with our Moscow transplants, the Davises. In the picture below you will see Josh and Kristen's, erm, house. Yes, it's a water tower. Yes, it's where they live. And I must say, they are very creative with negative space.
They treated us to a lovely lunch in the Garden of Eden, followed by a tour of the gardens and ending with a photo shoot of Charlie.

Once Josh got his camera out, it was all over for Charlie. He realized his super-model abilities and the snapping went on for... minutes.

I like how his dirty face makes this picture all the more a "don't mess with me" kinda pose.

Okay, I'll stop now.

After the photo shoot, we all drove to the beach. Aaaaah. I love the beach and mourned my neglectfullness in leaving my suit at home. Sigh.

Keith, however, remembered his and into the water he went, after much debate. The water wasn't exactly hot-tub temperature. While he was bravely swimming, we all watched with growing wonder as, first, we saw seals not too far off leaping in the water. And then... dolphins! Yes, my husband swam with the dolphins. He said he saw something out of the corner of his eye, about 30 or 40 yards off, and realized, with a little trepidation, that it was indeed, Flipper.

Look very closely at this picture and you will see a black dot in the distance. Seal, dolphin, JAWS? Who knows.

We spent one more night with the generous Atwoods, one more delicious breakfast and the best coffee Santa Cruz could offer (thanks to Christina!), worshipped and fellowshipped with the saints down there, and then zoomed off to the airport.

California is beautiful, but this sunset welcomed us back to the Northwest and we were glad to be home.