Ladd Photos

The county preserve was much nicer than its name sounds. The hawk overhead didn’t think it was too bad either.

The hike up to the top of our local mountain was nice and the views were breathtaking. You could even see the ocean in the distance.

We all kicked off the New Year with a rugged hike along Lake Hodges. The boys have fun trying out their new (to them) camera. On the way back, we saw a beautiful coyote.

We had a shelter-at-home Christmas, so we missed hanging out with all the family. The boys still enjoyed opening their presents.

A few videos of them opening gifts:

There are not a whole lot of options regarding how to celebrate your birthday in a pandemic, so I went for a hike with my favorite people. We walked down the La Orilla trail which ran along the back part of the San Elijo lagoon.

On the way back up the trail, I surprised a bobcat, who dashed into the vegetation and then stared at us. It was dark so I had trouble getting a good photo, but you can barely make out his pointy ears and yellow eyes looking out from the bushes.

The trail itself wasn’t anything special. The boys had fun collection acorns fallen from the oak trees along the path.

On the way back, a coyote showed up to check out what we were doing. I didn’t have my zoom lens, so I couldn’t get close up pictures of our visitor.

With Covid cases getting under control, we decided to risk a trip to the Safari Park. It is hard to believe that it has been 10 months since we had visited, when we normally visit monthly, if not more often. There were more people there than I would have liked, but everyone was good at wearing their masks.

Baseball seasons were cancelled, but we still find time to grab an unused field and keep the boys’ skills sharp.

School is taking on our couch this year, due to the Covid pandemic. We still ran the kids by their schools so we could get a photo.

We started off our day of hiking at Montaña de Oro, walking along the cliffs. Then we headed further inland, to the Elfin Forest by the back end of the Morro Bay estuary. We had the mini oak tree forest all to ourselves for exploring.