Yesterday started with a quick walk along the San Juan Creek, a route I have taken many times before. But it’s been more than 18 months since the last time, and it has changed quite a bit. The biggest change is the addition of a cute little park with a birdhouse theme that replaced a community landmark full of tiny birdhouses that were added on a regular basis. Due to liability issues, the city took it over and turned it into an actual city park. Both the old community-created park and the new “official park” provided me with a great place to take photos. Here are a few I got yesterday morning, along with other shots on my trek. Don’t forget, if you click them, you can see them a whole lot bigger. Really!

The rest of the day featured some rest time right up until we headed up the coast to Laguna Beach, where one of my favorite stores is Crazy Shirts. If you don’t know about Crazy Shirts, just know that I am addicted to them; I have owned at least 50, I have a brand new one on right now, and they last almost forever. Yes, they are spendy for tee shirts, but they are worth every penny to me. The only problem we had was that the traffic was horrid on the Pacific Coast Highway, but Steve and Jamie were wonderful about feeding my need for new shirts, and we made it up and back with less trouble than coming back from LA the day before.

After going “Crazy,” it was time for an early dinner before today’s main event. Steve and Jamie had found an amazing place for pizza—Truly Pizza. They are supposed to have some of the best pizzas in the world. I mentioned it in my post yesterday, and it really is a great place for pizza. Here are the two pies we had. They, along with some interesting salads and dessert, made for a “Truly” great dinner. Almost forgot—I need to mention that dessert. It was their own specially made soft-serve ice cream. We tried the flavor of the night—gingerbread with cherries on top and vanilla with (believe it or not) olive oil and sea salt. It was AWESOME! BTW: if you want to see the pies enlarged, just click them.

After dinner, it was time for the main event—the Dana Point Christmas Boat Light Parade. We boarded a boat to cruise the harbor and see some truly amazingly decorated boats. And, of course, I got pictures. It gave me a chance to take some photos I would not normally get. And before I got those I got some beautiful sunset shots. Sorry but here’s the old warning…Don’t forget; if you click the first shot, you can scroll through with your arrow keys or by swiping. And PLEASE…don’t look at my photography on a phone. Please…

That was it. Tonight is a special “Christmas at the Mission” at Mission San Juan Capistrano. Plus, dinner with our niece Cassie and her significant other Omar. Can’t wait. Come back tomorrow. I should have pics.

Christmas isn’t a season. It’s a feeling.  —Edna Ferber