Monday November 10, 2014 Carlsbad, CA

Even though I napped on the drive from Las Vegas yesterday, I slept until nearly 9:30am.  Neva slept in later than I did and Gerri had been up for awhile waiting for us to stir around.

Brother-in-law John called at about 10.  He got to the house earlier than planned.  He had checked out the problem with the garage door that trapped Judy yesterday.  The problem was where I had parked Neva's van.  I had pulled it into the garage and walked around to make sure it was far enough in for the door to close.  What I didn't do was look up.  The Toyota van is taller than Gerri's Lincoln and the emergency release drags on the roof.  It is no problem when the door closed.  When Judy opened the door the handle of the release caught on the rear spoiler at the back of the van and released the door causing it to slam shut.  Fortunately Judy wasn't in the way when the door closed as it comes down with considerable force.  I watched it several times on the recordings on the security camera.  I e-mailed Judy a picture of her looking perplexed on how to get out of the garage.

John shortened the cord so it would clear the spoiler by putting a knot in the cord. Nothing was broken so there should not be any further problems.

The sun was out most of the day but we pretty much stayed in during the afternoon.

Emma, Todd and Wyatt

We left the resort at 5 to drive to Dana Point to meet Todd and family at the El Torrito Mexican Restaurant.  Traffic was heavy in both directions.  We got to the restaurant before Todd and were already seated when they arrived.  Jeannette wasn't feeling well and didn't come  So it was just Todd, Emma and Wyatt,  We hadn't seen the kids since January. They seemed to have grown a lot.  Before hugging me Wyatt gave me a folded note.  It was a 3x5 card and he had written "I love You Grandpa" on it.

Emma, Wyatt, Todd and me

Emma is 9 and Wyatt is seven, they are both very articulate and even Emma has become quite conversant.  We had antimated conversations before during and after the meal. We enjoyed their company, I'm not sure what our fellow dinners thought. But, I don't think we disturbed them very much.

When we left the restaurant I checked the geocaching app on my iPhone, there was a cache 475' away.  The kids were enthusiastic about the hunt.  Gerri and Neva followed us in the car.  I never have done well finding caches at night, but with four of us looking I was confident of success.  Emma spotted the container but couldn't reach it.  Todd retrieved the container and I signed the log.

Night caching

Wyatt and Emma

We said our goodbyes and headed back to Carlsbad.  Todd and family went the other direction to their home in Long Beach.  We were back at the resort by 9.

Me, Wyatt, Emma, Gerri and Todd

Wyatt Todd, Emma and Neva

Emma and the Ruby slippers

We rounded out the evening with reading and computer activities.  I was reading and true to form stayed up to finish my book at 2 AM. Gerri and Neva were smarter and were asleep much earlier.