July 1: Dennis the Menace park, Carmel beach, swim at pool
Once in Monterey we let the children play in Dennis the Menace park which is their favorite 'speeltuin' because of the real steam train that is standing there and the many European-like play structures.
With the kids a little bit tired, we met with our friends Jeff and MyLinh at Carmel beach, one of the most beautiful fine sand beaches on the west coast.
A couple of weeks ago during our Memorial weekend trip we ended up at a hotel that we liked to get back to and so we spend the night at Casa Munras where the kids swam in the 'heated' pool before we washed them and put them to bed.A link with some great Monterey Pictures in case you ever wonder of going there.
July 2: Visit to Big Sur, Morro Bay and stay in Safari tent in El Capitano
The next morning we headed out to go to Big Sur, this area is a very rugged area of the California coast known for its cliffs and forests. As you can see we had beautiful weather and the colors of blue were overwhelming!
Our first stop was the famous Bixby bridge, where we each took our stand in front of the bridge, the pilon that Luke is standing on is on quite a steep part of the hill and probably not the best parental decision we made. But it looked fine at the time.
We stopped at Big Sur forrest to take a hike to the waterfall in Julia Pfeiffer Burns SP. The kids hiked up with us which depleted their energy enough that afterwards we could push through to Morro Bay, a fishing town in the middle between SF and LA. Morro Bay is know for Morro Rock and the gas powered Power plant that dominates the scenery
After a short visit to the town, eating some candy, and letting the kids roam the docks we left for our final destination of the day El Capitan Canyon where we suprised the kids with a Safari tent. These tents are awesome with full beds/mosquito netting/etc.
That night Maureen pulled of a dinner with Tri-tip steak, chicken and sausages having the whole campground water-teeth.The lucky neigbours got the remaining tri-tip in return for smores for the children. Kids were playing till late in the evening having a blast climbing trees and just running around the campground with other kids. Nikki found some older firls and within minutes was absorbed in a group of girls brushing hair and being girls.
July 3: Arrive in Carlsbad, play at the hotel
The next morning we drove off to Carlsbad, this drive leads through Santa Barbara, Los Angeles and is about 1hr south of LA (MAP). We had chosen a hotel (Grand Pacific Palisades), next door to Legoland that had a great kids water park within the hotel. That night we put the kids to bed and they fell sound asleep for 11 hours straigth.July 4: Visit LEGOLAND and watch fireworks downtown San Diego
The next morning we opened the park at Legoland, and what was anticipated to be a very crowded day ended up being a very nice crowd. At most we had to wait 5-10 minutes at any of the rides. One fifth oof Legoland is like Mini-World, like 
Madurodam in the Netherlands except its is all build from Lego-blocks. There are some pretty impressive structures, like the Eiffel tower, New York Skyline, New Orleans French Quarter, Las Vegas Hotel Strip etc.
Three fifth of the park is similar to other amusement parks with lots of rides, although these rides specialize for sub-10 years old. We did lots of family stuff where we competed as a family in dousing a fire, Luke and I found ourselves in a water gun / pirateship fight and the whole famuly watched the 'fireman show'.
One fifth of the park is a water-adventure. The themse is that of pirates ... yeah ... just like we are used to at home!!!! Pirates unite and lets get wet!!!!! Well maybe NOT. You see the water in the picture that had us soakin' wet in a matter of seconds!
Fireworks in the San Diego bay.
From Legoland we departed for one of the nicest Marriott hotels (on points) in Southern California, the one at the Marina. We got an upgrade with a bay view so we can watch the fireworks although we strolled into the harbor to see that from close-up. Being a major marine base San Diego spends a lot of money on such a national holiday and they had fireworks all through the bay area that was synchronized with each other.
July 5: Play at San Diego hotel, pool, see Transformers
The next day we stayed in the hotel where Maureen could spend some time sun bathing and sitting around the pool. The Marriott has a great swimming pool as can be seen from our hotel room. During the day the hotel staff played with the kids (Luke) in the pool. 
Can you find Maureen and Luke in the smaller pool on the picture from the top???
Later on that day Luke finally had some time to build his new Lego 'hospital'. Later that evening we arranged for a 'hotel baby sitter' to attend to the children giving us some time to enjoy a viewing of The Transformers in the local cinema, and yes finally Maureen enjoyed this movie!!!!
July 6/7: Visit Hilmi/Vanessa/Kai in Redondo Beach
The final days of this trip we visited our friends in Redondo Beach where we spend the night catching up while our kids went nuttie with Kai and his Lightning McQueen car. The next morning before we embarked on the 6 hour trip home I wore the kids down in the adventure plex a major playstructure in Redondo Beach. They once again behaved very well and slept most of the ride or were watching television.
We arrived at 11pm on Saturday evening home from our weeks summer adventure.
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