Carlsbad and Mission Bay

Still playing catch up and I almost didn't both posting this since it dates back to May, but I looked through our pictures and couldn't resist.

Kent had a conference located right in Mission bay, CA. The lodgings were paid for and had plenty of space so I took the opportunity to pack us up. We stopped in Carlsbad for 2 days and spent Mother's Day seeing the flower fields and picking strawberries.

While there we used our Yelp app to find the best places to eat and found this treasure, it was rated 5 stars by almost every single person. Comments detailed it being a mom and pop shop with amazing authentic Japanese food that often ran out by 11 am. With all the fuss I had to stop in.

The fish was amazing! Kent is never that fond of sashimi but he couldn't get enough of this stuff. I bought 2 heaping bowls filled with giant chunk of avocado, sashimi (tuna) and some seaweed salad with some wonderful sauce, each price at just over $6. The two sushi rolls we bought were a nice addition. Apparently the elderly gentleman's wife was feeling ill that day and I was sad not to be able to meet her. I love that they are simple folks trying to make a living at their age and downtown Carlsbad has totally embraced them.

We then dropped kent off at his conference and I took the kids to get settled in our hotel, The Dana. Something was bothering Isaac because he turned down his hot dog at lunch and sure enough once we had parked outside of our room he stepped out of the van and threw up all over the pavement! Boy was I grateful that happened AFTER he got out! The evening was pretty rough but it was only 24 hrs thankfully. We spent the days quietly playing at the beach, flying kites, climbing trees.

Somewhere we have an old pictures of Isaac sitting just like this when he was just over a year old. He loved this panda and I would love to dig it up and compare the shots ... in my free time! (Ha! I guess that won't happent soon!)

On one of my runs in the morning I came across this amazing tree. This thing is huge! The roots snaked out like arms everywhere and I just had to take a few hours to play around with the camera to try and capture it. Some of the roots were as high as Keila's knees, some even taller. While I know the perspective is a little skewed since its from the ground, it still was really rather impressive. The kids had fun too.

Not a good shot but you can see the roots are as high up as Keila's thigh!

I have no idea how old this tree is but there something about it, the immensity of it and its age that makes it a beautiful backdrop for the children climbing it. We really are such tiny beings compared to life!

Since sea world was right next door we considered going but I was glad we didn't in the end. The quiet was refreshing and we stayed much more relaxed with simple activities. I really doesn't take much to be happy and have fun.