Emma's Sweet 2016 California Adventure

California is still a wonderful place for a vacation, and as soon as our granddaughter Emma arrived, she was ready to visit the beach.

She and I played a little tag with the water and did a bit of sand excavation while her parents and Julie took a walk around the pier before our happy hour dinner at Barney's Beanery.

There were other friends for Gina, Laszlo and Emma to visit locally, including meeting some at Polliwog Park, where we stayed for the first set for the weekly concert.

Emma, Gina and I hit the dance floor to the constantly changing classic rock songs of The Pine Mountain Logs (no relation to what seemed like a lumberjack trainer that Emma enjoyed at Veterans Park).  Emma convinced Julie to join us by excitedly saying, "The music is awesome."

So it wasn't until a couple of days later that we had a full day at the beach.  Her daddy and I helped Emma build some major fortresses by the water, striving to stay a couple of steps ahead of the tide which wound eventually send waves that demolished our work.

We built such an insurmountable fortress (well, really more of a big hole surrounded by a couple of walls) that a couple of other little girls and their dad joined the project, giving Laszlo time to ride the wild surf.

It turned out the other family was from Pennsylvania, which is where Emma's family would be moving upon returning from California, and the girls hoped to get together to play on the east coast, not quite getting that Philadelphia is a long way from Pittsburg.



We also built more traditional castles safe from the perils of changing tides.  Of course, sand castles aren't meant to last, so every time we returned to the beach, we had the fun of building them anew.

After an hour or two in the sun, we always headed back to the cool confines of our condo.

Emma seemed to immediately feel at home, and she had no problem with her parents heading up north to Santa Barbara and then hiking in the Sequoias for a few days, despite the fact that we strictly enforced limiting cartoons to just before bedtime.  We all enjoyed watching Disney's "Pocanhontas" over the course of two evenings.  Okay, we also watched a few minutes of Olympics gymnastics and diving.  Emma even tried exotic new foods during her stay, including chicken tenders shaped like alphabet letters, to supplement her usual favorites sea weed, bell peppers and occasional lemonade, which she drank from the same cup her Great-Aunt Darlene used when she was a little girl watching Engineer Bill. Emma absolutely loved waffles and whole wheat toast with butter, cinnamon and Splenda.  No, we didn't exactly discover fire. 

Before Gina and Laszlo left for their adult escape, however, Julie and I also enjoyed a little special time with Gina, walking over to The Lighthouse in Hermosa Beach for a jazz lunch.

While her parents were off hiking the wilderness, Emma had fun playing with her Nana (Julie) and I.  Emma already reads better than some high school graduates, which made it possible for her to enjoy the Game of Life.  She could read and understand all of the cards and spaces.

She went straight into a Career as a Professional Athlete making $80,000 a year, while I got $40,000 in student loans to become a Doctor earning $70,000.  She won fair and square. 

Emma is so smart, it's hard to remember she hasn't even started first grade yet.  She told me to put dots on paper so we could play Pen the Pig, and after our long game concluded, she counted the E's and W's in the square "pens" to prove that she won.  We also played several games Go Fish, and I later found out she knows how to play chess.

Her favorite game while she stayed with us was Sweet Valley High, a board game based on a book series her mommy started reading in middle school.  We had played that game often with our kids, with their cousins Kendra, Kelsey and Jered joining in over at Gramma Eddy's house.  The boys never seemed to have a problem having a girl character for their tokens in Sweet Valley High.

At one point in the game, Emma exclaimed, "Winston Egbert looks like Uncle Jay!"

I sent out a message about that, and Jay responded, "I do.  This makes me re-examine all of my life choices."  His Aunt Jacque said, "Ha ha. Choose him."

Julie and Emma played Polly Pockets, which are small fashion dolls that Amy had when she was a little girl.  Knowing they were Aunt Amy's made them even more special for Emma.  We also bought a bedazzling art kit, which Emma used to decorate cell phone cases, headbands and the kit's plastic case.  She enjoyed her indoor time so much that it sometimes was hard to convince her to go back outside to have more fun in the sun.

  

We managed to spend a little time in the swimming pool in late afternoons, including with her parents after they returned.  Emma loved the opportunity to swim with Mommy.

Veterans Park is a short walk away from our condo, and we went there a few times.  We flew our Disney Princess kite there on Thursday.  Later that same afternoon, Julie stayed home with Emma while I attended a memorial service for my friend who recently passed away.  The outside of the program, which showed Bill flying a kite, once again gave me pause to think about how interconnected my world always seems to be.

When I returned from the service, Gina and Laszlo were back from their trip to the north, but their vacation was far from over.

The next morning, we extended the California adventure south to Point Loma to visit Darlene, Brooks and BG3 (and Emma would be quick to add dogs Teddy and Rizzo plus Katy Kitty).

Our niece Kelsey brought her sons Lucas and Henry over after she got off work, and her husband David came over for a big spaghetti dinner, one of two terrific meals the amazing hostess Darlene made for us (the other was Mexican food for lunch).

The kids enjoyed playing on a swing set a short walk from Darlene's house, and both Brooks and BG3 took small groups on boat rides on the bay.

Darlene so thoroughly enjoyed having all the children around, she didn't want to let Henry and Lucas go home.  Like my mother and grandmother, she's an extremely loving person.

Darlene and Brooks bought Emma a Disney Princess sleeping bag among a plethora of presents, so Gina, Laszlo and Emma could comforatbly spend the night in one room while Julie and I took our usual suite, but Julie and I headed home for the night.

However, we drove back down along with Jay to meet them for lunch in Laguna Hills at Snooty Fox.  Emma loves her Uncle Jay, who brought her a Yellow Submarine coloring book and then raced around the Laguna Hills Mall with her after lunch.

We think Emma had a pretty good time in California.  We certainly enjoyed spending so many special moments with her.

And, of course, with her parents.