Just like a Motel 6 only it was much bigger and much nicer

We are back from our trip to Southern California and we had a great time. Brodi and I have been to Disneyland too many times to count since we have been married. Seriously, I am not even going to try and count the number of times. All of the trips have been wonderful and it has always been nice to get a hotel room just outside of the park so that we are within a 5 minute walk to the park. This year was different. Brodi's parents friends let us use their vacation home in Dana Point.

You know that you will be staying at an exclusive place simply by being in Dana Point. But as you go thru the gates of this gated community and then have to go through a second round of gates to get to the place, you know that this place is a bit different from the 'Del Sol Motel' outside of Disneyland. The 3000+ square foot house sat on a hill overlooking the Pacific Ocean and Catalina Island. It was basically a private beach for the community, but this house was one of about 20 homes with direct access down its stairs to the beach.


The house had wide open rooms. It had 5 bedrooms. It had 4 bathrooms. It was stocked with all necessary beach equipment (surf boards, body boards, beach toys, balls). Cable tv and cable internet (yes, it is a vacation but it is also NBA playoffs and the French Open). It had a terrific patio out back with a weber grill and a hot tub. There was a suburban we could use in the 2-car garage as well.




The hot tub on our back patio overlooking the Pacific Ocean. Yeah, that doesn't suck. Every day was spent walking down the stairs to the beach and playing and then coming back and spending some time warming up in the hot tub.






The beach was terrific and I was truly appreciated by all of the guests when I whipped out my appropriate speedo. Lets just say that I was a hit with all of the neighbors. At the beach, I quickly realized that if you volunteer to dig a hole for one of the kids, you are basically committing to dig a hole for all of the kids. So, the digging began. Beckham helped and though I love our little guy, he aint the best deep digger. After what seemed like hours, we finally got holes big enough to fit them all in...we then went to lunch and came back 3 hours later to dig them out. No, just a little joke.

I know you all can't wait for more pictures, so we will post them later this weekend. It was a great trip and it is good to get back.