Ladd Photos

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.

The boys enjoyed playing in the water and collecting sand dollars at a nice beach in Cayucos, off the beaten path. I used to play at this beach when I was their age.

After stopping off to say hello to the elephant seals, who were mostly out to sea, we went for a hike on a gorgeous San Simeon day.

We spent all afternoon on San Simeon Point, surrounded by the ocean, walking along the cliffs and through the trees. The boys enjoyed exploring the rock formations flowing into the ocean.

The boys wanted to walk around Cal Poly; they love to explore where they might be attending college. Because of Covid, we pretty much had the entire place to ourselves.

We started off with the idea of just hiking around the Lemon Grove trail at the base of Cerro San Luis Obispo, also known as Madonna Mountain. But, the hike was going well so we decided to take another trail to the “M”, placed on the mountain by Mission High School.

After we made it up that trail, we were halfway up the mountain, so we decided to challenge ourselves to make it to the top. The view from on top of the peak was amazing.

Spending a nice lazy afternoon walking around downtown San Luis Obispo.

We spent the afternoon in Moonstone Beach, walking along the boardwalk, climbing on the rocks, and looking for cool beach pebbles.

Unfortunately, I forgot my camera in the car. So, I had to settle with taking pictures of our delicious dinner at Main Street Grill, which is what Firestones calls their Cambria location.

Starting at a trailhead in Los Osos, we hiked over massive dunes and then along the beach on the strip of land that separates Morro Bay from the ocean.

My hope was to get to hike back across the dunes to the bay side, and take some photos across the bay of Morro Bay. But all the dunes, besides a small path we took to get to the beach, was closed off because the Snowy Plover just leaves it eggs laying around, and they are endangered.

We got some much needed outdoors time, rare in these times of pandemic. The boys had fun figuring out how to skip rocks into the lake.

There were quite a few animals out: pelicans diving for fish, lizards, rabbits, and birds of all sorts.

Aliciana and I went for an afternoon hike in the Black Mountain Open Space. It isn’t the prettiest land to hike in, but there were some nice views.

Another Covid-19 shelter-at-home birthday, this time for Connor. Aliciana made a cool Pokemon themed banner, and he received lots of Legos.

For his special birthday dinner, he requested Spaghetti Factory, his favorite. And for dessert, him and mom made homemade dairy-free ice cream sandwiches.

My “Bub” turned 12, and although we are stuck inside we tried to make it a special day. Aliciana made him a cool baseball themed banner, and his little brother made him a cool green bear out of clay. There were presents, pizza, and a cake for dessert.

We couldn’t have our traditional Easter gathering with family this year, due to the pandemic. But, we still managed to put baskets together for the boys and let them color Easter eggs. We also put together a scavenger Easter egg hunt, where they had to solve a clue to find the next egg.

The animals don’t seem to notice the human world melting down around them, due to Covid-19. I escaped from sheltering at home for a brief walk among them.