During the holidays, the park is transformed into a winter wonderland of festive decorations and classic holiday music. The celebratory mood of all the families, the the aroma of baking treats, mixed with the holiday-themed decorations, evokes a nostalgia of days of Christmas past.

When we would travel down to San Diego every couple of years, we would take our daughters to the San Diego Zoo, mostly to see the Pandas. My oldest is especially nuts about them. Show the girl a Panda TikTok and she immediately gets those Puss in Boots endearing eyes.

At one point, there was a subtle cacophony of squealing and we realized that we were hearing bats up in the darkened ceiling out of eyesight. Creepy. Where was Bruce Wayne when you needed him?

We took a trip to Santa Cruz over the Labor Day weekend. We usually go to Aptos when we come to the area but my youngest wanted to stay in the mountains for a change. We found a nice Airbnb in Boulder Creek, a small community in the Santa Cruz mountains. It was a nice change of pace to staying at the beach. I can’t say I like it more, but it is nice to change things up now and then.

We had been mulling over several options to get away for our 25th Anniversary week and we finally decided as a family to head down to San Diego. We were there in Mission Beach with my wife’s extended family in 2017 and had a great time, so we thought perhaps we could recapture some of that magic.

This past weekend my wife and I took our 17 year-old daughter down to San Francisco for the weekend to experience Pride weekend. She is a lesbian and has a hard time meeting others where we live so we wanted her to know what it felt like to be around lots of others like herself.

On a beautiful weekend at the end of March, my wife and oldest daughter went down to Napa for the weekend. The weather had been rainy and cold for most of the month but the sun and warmth came out for that weekend. Before our trip, I had recently received Lomography’s 800 speed color film in the mail and I was anxious to try it out.

We took the opportunity to celebrate our 25th Anniversary a little early in the year and booked a cruise around New Zealand.

With a few days left of vacation time, we decided to head down to our favorite part of California: the Monterey Bay. We usually stay a little north in Aptos but there was nothing available at the last minute so we booked a place as close to Carmel as possible in Pacific Grove.