We drove up to Santa Cruz with our first stop being Dustin’s family’s old house: a log cabin up in the forested hills. Though the house was hard to see, Dustin snapped a shot of the very woods he used to play in when he was 4 (including some redwood trees):

Pretty amazing the woods were still there. We met the current owner who has lived there the past 13 years and learned how the house had changed.

Then we dropped 2,000 feet in elevation to enjoy the Santa Cruz boardwalk and beach. It was beautifully sunny with a refreshing ocean breeze.

This was the first beach we really got to sit down and enjoy on this road trip! The kids promptly got thoroughly down and dirty to really experience it Yay for sand on the scalp and in the ears!

We told Aven to go fly a kite while we soaked up some sun, then we departed the beach to drive Grandma Susie to the Oakland airport. See you back at home Grandma!

Next we visited our friends Jeremy, Kim and Kaia at their house in Oakland to catch up, enjoy an amazing home-cooked meal & play spies!

Then we drove a couple hours further North to Santa Rosa, CA for our latest check-in yet: 1am. Happy early Easter!