California is beautiful. This area is beyond words, really. Dad's apartment is literally steps from the beach. The Santa Ynez mountains dominate the skyline to the East. Carpinteria is a beautiful, charming little town that would be the perfect place to live, if it wasn't for the outrageous real estate prices. If I ever win the lottery, I'm moving here.

The flight out was fine. Lauren did very well, and slept almost the entire way from Dallas to L.A. Our flight got in around 4:00 PM and then we went to the pier in Santa Monica for dinner. We ate at Bubba Gump's (I don't know why, since there is one in New Orleans that we've been to zillions of times) and Lauren played on the beach for awhile. Then we drove the rest of the way to dad's place, which is about an hour and a half north of L.A.

Yesterday we went uptown and Dad and I both got manicures and pedicures at this cute little spa. Very nice. We walked around the town and then spent the afternoon at the beach. The beach here is wonderful, very clean and safe. We went shopping at Nordstrom and T.J. Maxx last night and of course Lauren got spoiled.

Dad had to sleep today because he had to work tonight, so Lauren and I spent the day out of the house. We walked the trails in the saltwater marsh this morning, then went uptown and visited the candy store. We spent the afternoon on the beach.

I didn't bring the base to my camera, so I can't transfer any of my pictures to the computer, but here are a few that my dad took.

Building sandcastles. Well, I built them, Lauren knocked them over.
Playing in the water, even though it was freezing cold!