have old cars like the one in the picture. Then we walked to the pier. It was a very longway out i
nto the ocean, maybe a block or more. There were many people surfing in the water. The temperature of the water was just 57 degrees, so they had to wear wet suits to stay warm. We were plenty warm - it was over 80 degrees in the air. It was a great day except for one thing. . . 
that almost everything in this city (Rancho Santa Margarita) is new. The houses and stores all seem to have been built in the last 10 or 20 years. That is so different from Minneapolis. Our home was built in 1935 - and it is a lot older than these houses. Can anyone figure out how old our house in Minneapolis is? 
es in the park, and suggested that we play some hide and seek there. Stanley was the winner - he could hide much better than we could.
Hello again, On Friday, February 26th we packed up the car, had a fa 
rewell brunch in Scottsdale, and left for California to visit Alex's Uncle Jason and Aunt Patty. We are only going to be there for the weekend, but we hope that there will be lots of adventures for Stanley. We crossed a time zone when we got the California. That means that the time here is 2 hours earlier than at home in Minnesota. It is very confusing, but Mr. Knaus will explain it to you. :) The entire trip to California was 386 miles and took about 6 1/2 hours. Most of the driving was through the desert. It was very dry and lonely looking. In some places you could drive for 30 minutes or more without seeing any people or houses. We stopped for gas in a little town near Palm Springs California, and 
Stanley found a super cool car parked next to us. It was bright yellow and had skulls painted all over the sides. Stanley decided he wanted to ride in that car instead of our Honda, but we talked him out of it. Besides, the people who owned the car did not like the way Stanley kept getting his fingerprints all over the shiny paint.
As we neared the larger cities in Southern California, we came to a place where there were windmills as far as you could see. They provide the people of California with clean energy to heat and cool their 
homes, and not o
nly that they are very exciting to look at. Some day we may have windmill farms in Minnesota too. We got to Rancho Santa Margarita at about 4:00. It was fun to see Uncle Jason and Aunt Patty, and Stanley was happy to meet the cats, Margaret 
and KC. KC is shy, but we will try to send a picture of her later. Uncle Jason gave Stanley a few le
ssons on the guitar, and made us a super duper pizza. It was delicious!
More to come later,HAPPY TRAILS Grandma Lynne and Grandpa John
the thorns got stuck all over his pants. OUCH
s of plants that we don't see at home, including lots of varieties of cactus. Some of them are two or three times as tall as a person, in fact they kind of look like a person with too many arms.
He also thought it was a great place to swing!
In most of the stores there are people who can speak Spanish. 
