Harbortown Adventures

We had some wonderful adventures this summer!  We started off with a quick plane ride to California.  Rand and Ella loved wandering through the airport and we worked out a schedule about who got to sit by the window on what flight.  They were so good on the airplane and were really fabulous travelers. 

We always love going to Harbortown with Grandma McVittie.  We went swimming, played ping pong, and got a movie to watch every night.  You can look out the window and watch the boats sailing by. 

On our first day in Ventura we went to the little National Parks museum.  The kids really liked watching a movie about the Channel Islands and now they want to go there and spend the night on the island.  We went for lunch at a delicious hamburger place and Rand and Ella liked chasing the seagulls while we were waiting for our food.

Katie, Elijah, and Josiah came up for a visit.  The cousins all have so much fun together!

We went up to Santa Barbara to their Natural History Museum on Tuesday.  The museum was gorgeous and they had a fantastic butterfly exhibit.  Rand sat so very very still for a long, long time and was finally rewarded when two different butterflies landed on him!  They also had a dinosaur exhibit (Ella's favorite) and really interesting gem and bug collections.

Wandering around the Harbor -- Ella chose to ride the carousel and Rand bought a bag of saltwater taffy. 

We also went to the Ventura Mission.  It was so beautiful and the kids loved looking at the church -- the stations of the cross, and candles, and pews with the kneeling pads.  They explored everything and asked dozens of questions.

Grandma took us to a 50's Diner for lunch and we had one of the best milkshakes that I've ever had.  SO GOOD.

One great thing about Harbortown is that it is small enough that the kids can do things independently without me worrying.  Rand liked to go and get the luggage cart all on his own.  They would go and check out the ping pong paddles together and meet me at the table, or take back the videos on their own.  Ella was finally able to unlock the door by herself and that made her so happy!