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| As soon as you mention taking a photo Eleanor wants to be in it and Thomas disappears, while Elliot shuts his eyes. |
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| The family at Campbell Farmers Market this morning. |
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| Free samples of Apple |
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| A Mothers Day Necklace for Gaye from Fraser & Leslie |
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| Eleanor on a roundabout with pigtails flying |
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| Elliot and his Mum |
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| We are now on the countdown and in our last week in California. Mostly these are just family as we have had a quiet week enjoying the sunshine and our grandchildren. Elliot is our Superbaby which is quite appropriate as he is just super and hardly ever cries except when he is very hungry. |
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| Story time with Elliot listening as well as Granny Gaye reads 3 stories most evenings. |
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| A neighbours garden which costs her $200 per month just for water. |
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| Elliot and Granny are almost inseparable. |
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| Crazy Hair day at Eleanor's school on Wednesday. |
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| Another neighbour even plants flowers on the pavement or sidewalk as they call it over here. |
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| Dining at Fraser's new office in the small Cafe Mac at Apple. |
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| Playing in the Cafe Mac Garden |
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| Tommy trying to go one better |
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| Bed time for Elliot having a great conversation with Granddad. |
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| We start the day with Elliot having some Tummy Time |
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| We drove for 30 minutes to Castle Rock State Park to do a 2.5 mile trail through the forest. The first mile was uphill and Gaye managed it well without even complaining. Her energy levels are getting much better. |
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| This was a spectacular trail with some great rocks for people to climb on. This was the smallest one but Eleanor and Thomas managed it fine. |
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| This was a small cave on one of the rock faces |
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| On the Trail |
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| Near the end |
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| In the evening Leslie's friend Emma came round for dinner with Elise and Maxine as her husband was in Japan for Apple. |
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| After our hectic travels last week we had a very quiet day with the family before Sidne & Carlo left at 2.00pm to go back to Salt Lake City. The weather has been perfect so most of the day was spent in the garden. Grandma Sidne enjoys some quality time with Elliot. |
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| Elliot with Leslie in the background. She does suit red. |
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| The Graham & Lemon families together. It was 10 years ago we were present at Fraser & Leslie's wedding at Red Butte Gardens in Salt Lake City. In that 10 years Carlo & Sidne have spent several holidays with us including Hawaii before the children came along and Northern California and Central California and they have been to Scotland twice. |
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| Carlo & Sidne with Eleanor and Elliot. Thomas refused to have his photograph taken. |
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| Granny Gaye and Elliot having long conversations in the garden |
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| Last night they were both in red and today they are in blue. |
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| What a smashing wee boy Elliot is and he hardly ever cries. He has grown quite a bit in the 5 weeks since we arrived but the biggest change is in the way he loves attention and is happy to be in company, especially with Granny Gaye. |
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| The Mission Chapel which was very simply furnished and had been damaged in the earthquake of 2003. There are still Franciscan Monks resident at the Mission. |
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| Despite the fact that this area is suffering from a drought the landscape was very green and the wild flowers were everywhere. We were told by locals that in a few months time everything will be brown. |
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| There are mountains to the west of this road and for 100 miles no roads cross from east to west so it is a real wilderness area with nobody living there. This valley is all cattle Ranches and Vineyards |
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| We stopped for a picnic and a walk at Pinnacles National Park where the small campsite has this lovely little swimming pool. |
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| At the head of the valley we walked a trail for a couple of miles following this dried up river bed. At this time of the year the river should have water in it after winter rains but it has been another very dry winter. |
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| This is the river to the north of the bridge in the photograph below and it shows where the river just stops running |
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| The bridge over a dry riverbed |
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| The trail leading into the mountain. This has been a fantastic week taking us through a lot of California and I have to say it is spectacular beyond belief. The Pacific Coast is so full of wildlife and spectacular scenery that you could stop at almost every lay-by and beach which of course would be impossible on a tight deadline. The journey back shows a totally different California and you could hardly believe how remote it is considering further south is the huge metropolis of Los Angeles. |
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| Today we visited the superb Monterey Aquarium where the star attraction is the Sea Otters. This one was feeding from a big ball with food inside and it had to work hard to get the food out through the holes in the ball. |
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| They were made to work for their food. |
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| This is a shoal of 10,000 Sardines |
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| The Aquarium is built virtually on the sea shore and this is low tide in the natural area. |
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| The harbour just half a mile along the shore from the Aquarium |
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| And it was next to the Pier where we had the best view of Sea Otters today as we caught a glimpse of this one with its cub just before it disappeared under the pier. |
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| The owner of this boat wont be too happy it was taken over by Sea Lions |
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| And yet another wild Sea Otter feeding on a Clam |
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| A Huge Cactus growing in the garden of the Old Customs House |
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| Loads of Boats |
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| The Pier with our Sea Otter and its Cub somewhere underneath it. |
