I do believe I could stay here for weeks more, but such is not to be. Today we head north to Carlsbad today where more beach and Legoland await. T has been working a ton since we arrived but is now at a fantastic playground with the boys while I finish packing things up. As an aside, I am so proud of him (T). Like never before he is able to immerse in work but then put it aside when he can or needs to. The boys and I have been a happy, adventurous triumvirate, and then when T joins, we become an even jollier foursome. The power of a new context, if only for a short time, is remarkable.

I am happy to have a half hour of quiet right now and have spent most of it looking back over the pics we've snapped since Saturday. Also, it is snowing in DC as I type, and it would be difficult to adequately express how grateful I am to be here instead, short sleeves and a light skirt on, winter gear left thousands of miles away. Gratitude, gratitude is a'flowing!

Last night we grilled burgers for the boys and bacon-wrapped chicken for us. I needed to use up the mess of spicy mustard greens I'd bought at the farmers market on Saturday so sauteed them and then tossed with some roasted golden beets and fresh favas I picked up at a nearby Whole Foods (where I also purchased the 365 frozen shoestring potatoes which are actually really, really good. You should try some!). To go alongside our chicken and warm salad, I made a mint-pistachio yogurt sauce. Wonderful!

And we're off!

The boys and I spent the morning at the Birch Aquarium at Scripps and had a fabulous time. It's a great place, and we all learned a lot. Sardine scales are often used to infuse opalescence into nail polish; California sea hares are 90% water and look like giant, smooshy slug bags; some fish change color as they mature from baby to juvenile to adult, and the adult Garibaldi is an outstandingly beautiful example of that; sea horses are the cutest things ever and are related to the also-charming pipefish and shrimpfish, both of which look as if they're dancing on their noses; wolf eels look like grumpy old men; and sea dragons are works of art. We loved everything we saw, and this sequence of photos of the bell jellyfish continues to take my breath away. Go iPhone camera!

More Mexican for lunch, a quick respite of couch-and-drawing at homebase and then to Seal Rock to see, you guessed it, the giant sea slugs the seals really are. I love them. Their faces remind me of Percy (pug), their feethands are so odd, and their tuberous rotundity is perfectly magnificent.