San Diego to Newport Beach

This morning, Mike cooked us a delicious quiche for breakfast. We had a great time talking to Fanny and Mike for a while before packing up and heading out, after Mike gave Josh some oranges from their yard.

We went back to Heather and Jeff's to take down the tent, make lunch, and repack the car. It was so nice of them to open up their beautiful home to us!

We left San Diego and headed straight to Newport Beach, leaving early enough so that we missed rush hour traffic!! We arrived at our host's house and were introducing ourselves to Diana just as her husband and two boys came home. Garrett and Jordan, ages 11 and 13, had been at the skate park before Diana's husband, Greg, picked them up after he finished surfing. Josh was immediately excited to be there when he saw them putting away surfboards and skateboards!

We spoke with Diana and Greg for a while in their backyard and Greg gave us a few suggestions for things to do outside while it was still light. We liked his idea of a bike ride so we quickly unloaded the bikes and rode down to Balboa Island.

The houses on the island were small but really gorgeous and we had a great time biking and walking around. The ride was just six miles but extremely hilly, especially the route we took back. It was dark by the time we arrived back at the house; the skyline looked really pretty after the sun had set!

Greg generously ordered Thai food for everyone for dinner and we ate with the family before watching the movie "Red," which was suggested by the boys. The Pad Thai was delicious and the movie was good too!

Josh and I shared the same high for today (again!): talking to Fanny and Mike in the morning was really great. I'm glad that we were on such a relaxed schedule because we got to spend a lot of time with them! My low was the enormous hill we encountered on our way back from Balboa Island... it was really steep and seemed infinite. Josh's low was the very unexpected $5 toll to get to Newport! Such an expensive toll! Josh's "ho" for the day was thinking he could teach the boys something about skateboarding... Diana told us that they had just started it a few weeks before, but it was obvious that they didn't need any help! My "ho" was feeling like a voyeur as we walked around Balboa Island because it is really easy to see inside of the houses, but I realized that they must like to show off their homes because every window was left open!